Particle astrophysics with high energy neutrinos

The topic of this review is the particle astrophysics of high energy neutrinos. High energy is defined as $E_{\nu} > 100$~MeV. Main topics include: -- atmospheric neutrinos and muons from $\pi$, $K$ and charm decay. They probe uncharted territory in neutrino oscillations and constitute both the background and calibration of high energy neutrino telescopes, -- sources of high energy neutrino beams: the galactic plane, the sun, X-ray binaries, supernova remnants and interactions of extra-galactic cosmic rays with background photons, -- an extensive review of the mechanisms by which active galaxies may produce high energy particle beams, -- high energy neutrino signatures of cold dark matter and, -- a brief review of detection techniques (water and ice Cherenkov detectors, surface detectors, radio- and acoustic detectors, horizontal airshower arrays) and the instruments under construction.

Particle Physics with High Energy Neutrinos

An extension of the Standard Model by three singlet fermions with masses smaller than the electroweak scale allows to explain simultaneously neutrino oscillations, dark matter and baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We discuss the properties of neutral leptons in this model and the ways they can be searched for in particle physics experiments. We establish, in particular, a lower and an upper bound on the strength of interaction of neutral leptons coming from cosmological considerations and from the data on neutrino oscillations. We analyse the production of neutral leptons in the decays of different mesons and in $pp$ collisions. We study in detail decays of neutral leptons and establish a lower bound on their mass coming from existing experimental data and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We argue that the search for a specific missing energy signal in kaon decays would allow to strengthen considerably the bounds on neutral fermion couplings and to find or definitely exclude them below the kaon threshold. To enter into cosmologically interesting parameter range for masses above kaon mass the dedicated searches similar to CERN PS191 experiment would be needed with the use of intensive proton beams. We argue that the use of CNGS, NuMI, T2K or NuTeV beams could allow to search for singlet leptons below charm in a large portion of the parameter space of the nuMSM. The search of singlet fermions in the mass interval 2-5 GeV would require a considerable increase of the intensity of proton accelerators or the detailed analysis of kinematics of more than 10^{10} B-meson decays.

How to find neutral leptons of the nuMSM

An extension of the Standard Model by three singlet fermions with masses smaller than the electroweak scale allows to explain simultaneously neutrino oscillations, dark matter and baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We discuss the properties of neutral leptons in this model and the ways they can be searched for in particle physics experiments. We establish, in particular, a lower and an upper bound on the strength of interaction of neutral leptons coming from cosmological considerations and from the data on neutrino oscillations. We analyse the production of neutral leptons in the decays of different mesons and in pp collisions. We study in detail decays of neutral leptons and establish a lower bound on their mass coming from existing experimental data and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We argue that the search for a specific missing energy signal in kaon decays would allow to strengthen considerably the bounds on neutral fermion couplings and to find or definitely exclude them below the kaon threshold. To enter into cosmologically interesting parameter range for masses above kaon mass the dedicated searches similar to CERN PS191 experiment would be needed with the use of intensive proton beams. We argue that the use of CNGS, NuMI, T2K or NuTeV beams could allow to search for singlet leptons below charm in a large portion of the parameter space of the νMSM. The search of singlet fermions in the mass interval 2-5 GeV would require a considerable increase of the intensity of proton accelerators or the detailed analysis of kinematics of more than 1010 B-meson decays. © SISSA 2007.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1126-6708/2007/10/015/pdf

How to find neutral leptons of the νMSM

Charm Production and High Energy Atmospheric Muon and Neutrino Fluxes

We report on a study of the inclusive production properties of D/D-bar mesons in pp collisions at 800 GeV/c and compare our results to measurements made at lower energies and to the expectations of the QCD fusion model.

/pdf/d-meson-production-in-800-gev-c-pp-interactions-lar2ho94dj.pdf

P. C. Bhat

Papers

D-meson production in 800-GeV/c pp interactions.

Inclusive charm cross sections in 800 GeV/c p-p interactions