English

Neutrino decay as a possible interpretation to the MiniBooNE observation with unparticle scenario

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2008-11-26 v3

Abstract

In a new measurement on neutrino oscillation νμνe\nu_{\mu}\to\nu_e, the MiniBooNE Collaboration observes an excess of electron-like events at low energy and the phenomenon may demand an explanation which obviously is beyond the oscillation picuture. We propose that heavier neutrino ν2\nu_2 decaying into a lighter one ν1\nu_1 via the transition process νμνe+X\nu_{\mu}\to \nu_e+X where XX denotes any light products, could be a natural mechanism. The theoretical model we employ here is the unparticle scenario established by Georgi. We have studied two particular modes νμνe+\Un\nu_\mu\to \nu_e+\Un and νμνe+νˉe+νe\nu_\mu\to \nu_e+\bar\nu_e+\nu_e. Unfortunately, the number coming out from the computation is too small to explain the observation. Moreover, our results are consistent with the cosmology constraint on the neutrino lifetime and the theoretical estimation made by other groups, therefore we can conclude that even though neutrino decay seems plausible in this case, it indeed cannot be the source of the peak at lower energy observed by the MiniBooNE collaboration and there should be other mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0707.2285,
  title  = {Neutrino decay as a possible interpretation to the MiniBooNE observation with unparticle scenario},
  author = {Xue-Qian Li and Yong Liu and Zheng-Tao Wei and Liang Tang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0707.2285},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

14 pages, conclusions are changed; published version for EPJC