Three-neutrino decay of a 17-keV Dirac neutrino

Journal Article · Mon Jul 29 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · Physical Review Letters; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.67.545· OSTI ID:5374616

Babu, K S; Mohapatra, R N; Rothstein, I Z ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland (USA)

We construct a particle physics scenario which avoids the cosmological mass-density constraint on a Dirac-type neutrino in the mass range 100 eV--1 MeV by letting it decay primarily to three light Dirac neutrino final states. The nucleosynthesis constraints on the extra number of neutrinos (i.e., {delta}{ital N}{sub {nu}}{le}0.3) is saturated in this case. Identifying the recently reported 17-keV neutrino with {nu}{sub {tau}}, we predict its lifetime to be 10{sup 8}{le}{tau}{sub {nu}{tau}}{le}10{sup 13} sec. A hierarchy in the Dirac neutrino masses where {ital m}{sub {nu}{tau}}{congruent}17 keV and {ital m}{sub {nu}{ital e}}{much lt}{ital m}{sub {nu}{mu}}{congruent}10{sup {minus}3} eV (so that the solar neutrino puzzle is resolved by the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein mechanism) can naturally be realized in an extension of the standard model.

• OSTI ID: 5374616
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 67:5; ISSN PRLTA; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645203* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Theoretical-- Weak Interactions & Properties
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
LEPTONS
LIMITING VALUES
MASS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE MODELS
STANDARD MODEL
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS