Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons with IceCube DeepCore

R. Abbasi; M. Ackermann; J. Adams; S. K. Agarwalla; J. A. Aguilar; M. Ahlers; J M Alameddine; N. M. Amin; M Hostert; IceCube Collaboration

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.09454

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Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons with IceCube DeepCore

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Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons with IceCube DeepCore

R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, S. K. Agarwalla, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, J M Alameddine, N. M. Amin, M Hostert and IceCube Collaboration

ArXiv.org

Cornell University

02/13/2025

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.09454

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Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

The observation of neutrino oscillations has established that neutrinos have non-zero masses. This phenomenon is not explained by the Standard Model of particle physics, but one viable explanation to this dilemma involves the existence of heavy neutral leptons in the form of right-handed neutrinos. This work presents the first search for heavy neutral leptons with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The standard three flavor neutrino model is extended by adding a fourth GeV-scale mass state allowing mixing with the τ sector through the parameter |Uτ 4|2. The analysis is performed by searching for signatures of heavy neutral leptons that are directly produced via up-scattering of atmospheric ντ ’s inside the IceCube detection volume. Three heavy neutral lepton mass values, m4, of 0.3 GeV, 0.6 GeV, and 1.0 GeV are tested using ten years of data, collected between 2011 and 2021. No significant signal of heavy neutral leptons is observed for any of the tested masses. The resulting constraints for the mixing parameter are |Uτ 4|2 < 0.19 (m4 = 0.3 GeV), |Uτ 4|2 < 0.36 (m4 = 0.6 GeV), and |Uτ 4|2 < 0.40 (m4 = 1.0 GeV) at the 90 % confidence level. This analysis serves as proof-of-concept for heavy neutral lepton searches in IceCube. The heavy neutral lepton event generator, developed in this work, and the analysis of the expected signatures lay the fundamental groundwork for future searches thereof.

Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment

Details

Title: Subtitle: Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons with IceCube DeepCore
Creators: R. Abbasi - Loyola University Chicago
M. Ackermann - Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
J. Adams - University of Canterbury
S. K. Agarwalla - University of Wisconsin–Madison
J. A. Aguilar - Université Libre de Bruxelles
M. Ahlers - University of Copenhagen
J M Alameddine - TU Dortmund University
N. M. Amin - University of Delaware
M Hostert (Contributor)
IceCube Collaboration
Resource Type: Preprint
Publication Details: ArXiv.org
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.09454
ISSN: 2331-8422
Publisher: Cornell University; Ithaca, New York
Language: English
Date posted: 02/13/2025
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984946616002771

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