English

$\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$ elastic scattering in Borexino

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2024-07-04 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

We perform a detailed study of neutrino-electron elastic scattering using the mono-energetic 7^{7}Be neutrinos in Borexino, with an emphasis on exploring the differences between the contributions of νe\nu_e, νμ\nu_\mu, and ντ\nu_\tau. We find that current data are capable of measuring these components such that the contributions from νμ\nu_\mu and ντ\nu_\tau cannot be zero, although distinguishing between them is challenging -- the differences stemming from Standard Model radiative corrections are insufficient without significantly more precise measurements. In studying these components, we compare predicted neutrino-electron scattering event rates within the Standard Model (accounting for neutrino oscillations), as well as going beyond the Standard Model in two ways. We allow for non-unitary evolution to modify neutrino oscillations, and find that with a larger exposure (30{\sim}30x), Borexino may provide relevant information for constraining non-unitarity, and that JUNO may be able to accomplish this with its data collection of 7^{7}Be neutrinos. We also consider novel νμ\nu_\mu- and ντ\nu_\tau-electron scattering from a gauged U(1)LμLτU(1)_{L_\mu - L_\tau} model, showing consistency with previous analyses of Borexino and this scenario, but also demonstrating the impact of uncertainties on Standard Model mixing parameters on these results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.03174,
  title  = {$\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$ elastic scattering in Borexino},
  author = {Kevin J. Kelly and Nityasa Mishra and Mudit Rai and Louis E. Strigari},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.03174},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

12 pages, 5 figures