Exotic neutrino interactions at the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays provides a laboratory for studying fundamental interactions at energies well beyond those available at colliders. In addition to hadrons or photons, Auger is sensitive to ultra-high energy neutrinos in the cosmic radiation and models for new physics can be explored by observing neutrino interactions at center-of-mass energies beyond the TeV scale. By comparing the rate for quasi-horizontal, deeply penetrating air showers triggered by all types of neutrinos with the rate for slightly upgoing showers generated by Earth-skimming tau neutrinos, any deviation of the neutrino-nucleon cross-section from the Standard Model expectation can be constrained. We show that this can test models of low-scale quantum gravity (including processes such as Kaluza-Klein graviton exchange, microscopic black hole production and string resonances), as well as non-perturbative electroweak instanton mediated processes. Moreover, the observed ratios of neutrino flavors would severely constrain the possibility of neutrino decay.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03000
- OSTI ID:
- 879063
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PUB-05-373-A; arXiv eprint number hep-ph/0508312; TRN: US0700262
- Journal Information:
- Astropart.Phys.25:14-32,2006, Journal Name: Astropart.Phys.25:14-32,2006
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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