Test of tau neutrino interactions with atmospheric neutrinos and K2K data
- Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, T-8, MS B285, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- Institute for Nuclear Theory and University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 (United States)
The presence of a tau component in the flux of atmospheric neutrinos inside the Earth, due to flavor oscillations, makes these neutrinos a valuable probe of interactions of the tau neutrino with matter. We study--analytically and numerically--the effects of nonstandard interactions in the {nu}{sub e}-{nu}{sub {tau}} sector on atmospheric neutrino oscillations, and calculate the bounds on the exotic couplings that follow from combining the atmospheric neutrino and K2K data. We find very good agreement between numerical results and analytical predictions derived from the underlying oscillation physics. While improving on existing accelerator bounds, our bounds still allow couplings of the size comparable to the standard weak interaction. The inclusion of new interactions expands the allowed region of the vacuum oscillation parameters towards smaller mixing angles, 0.2 < or approx. sin{sup 2}{theta}{sub 23} < or approx. 0.7, and slightly larger mass squared splitting, 1.5x10{sup -3} eV{sup 2} < or approx. vertical bar {delta}m{sub 23}{sup 2} vertical bar < or approx. 4.0x10{sup -3} eV{sup 2}, compared to the standard case. The impact of the K2K data on all these results is significant; further important tests of the {nu}{sub e}-{nu}{sub {tau}} exotic couplings will come from neutrino beam experiments such as MINOS and long baseline projects.
- OSTI ID:
- 20711423
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 72, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.72.053009; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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