Probing invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT/ORCA

• Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Main Authors: Aiello, S., Bouwhuis, M., Bruijn, R., Buis, E., Domi, A., van Eeden, T., van Eijk, D., de Jong, P., Kooijman, P., Ó Fearraigh, B., Gatius Oliver, C., Heijboer, A., de Jong, M., Jung, B.J., Melis, K.W., Muller, R., Pestel, V., Samtleben, D.F.E., Seneca, J., de Wolf, E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Orca
• Online Access: https://dare.uva.nl/personal/pure/en/publications/probing-invisible-neutrino-decay-with-km3netorca(c1e632f8-7e08-49b0-9420-a87dd7bfa45b).html; https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2023)090; https://hdl.handle.net/11245.1/c1e632f8-7e08-49b0-9420-a87dd7bfa45b; https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/181583407/JHEP04_2023_090.pdf

In the era of precision measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters, upcoming neutrino experiments will also be sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. KM3NeT/ORCA is a neutrino detector optimised for measuring atmospheric neutrinos from a few GeV to around 100 GeV. In this paper, the sensitivity of the KM3NeT/ORCA detector to neutrino decay has been explored. A three-flavour neutrino oscillation scenario, where the third neutrino mass state ν 3 decays into an invisible state, e.g. a sterile neutrino, is considered. We find that KM3NeT/ORCA would be sensitive to invisible neutrino decays with 1/ α 3 = τ 3 /m 3 < 180 ps/eV at 90% confidence level, assuming true normal ordering. Finally, the impact of neutrino decay on the precision of KM3NeT/ORCA measurements for θ 23 , ∧ m 2 31 and mass ordering have been studied. No significant effect of neutrino decay on the sensitivity to these measurements has been found.