Constraining the invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT-ORCA

• Published in: Physics Letters B
• Main Authors: Fernández de Salas, Pablo, Pastor Carpi, Sergio, Ternes, C. A., Thakore, T., Tórtola Baixauli, María Amparo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Partícules (Física nuclear); Orca
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10550/70131; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.12.066

Several theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model consider that neutrinos can decay. In this work we assume that the standard mechanism of neutrino oscillations is altered by the decay of the heaviest neutrino mass state into a sterile neutrino and, depending on the model, a scalar or a Majoron. We study the sensitivity of the forthcoming KM3NeT-ORCA experiment to this scenario and find that it could improve the current bounds coming from oscillation experiments, where three-neutrino oscillations have been considered, by roughly two orders of magnitude. We also study how the presence of this neutrino decay can affect the determination of the atmospheric oscillation parameters sin^2(θ_23) and Δm^2_31, as well as the sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering.