Double Bangs from New Physics in IceCube

Abstract

A variety of new physics models allows for neutrinos to up-scatter into heavier states. If the incident neutrino is energetic enough, the heavy neutrino may travel some distance before decaying. In this work, we consider the atmospheric neutrino flux as a source of such events. At IceCube, this would lead to a "double-bang" (DB) event topology, similar to what is predicted to occur for tau neutrinos at ultra-high energies. The DB event topology has an extremely low background rate from coincident atmospheric cascades, making this a distinctive signature of new physics. Our results indicate that IceCube should already be able to derive new competitive constraints on models with GeV-scale sterile neutrinos using existing data.

4 + 2 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• How to find neutral leptons of the nuMSM?
• Non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix: Present bounds and future sensitivities
• Resolution of puzzles from the LSND, KARMEN, and MiniBooNE experiments

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Neutrino-nucleus cross sections for W-boson and trident production
• W-boson and trident production in TeV--PeV neutrino observatories
• A Dark Matter Interpretation of the ANITA Anomalous Events
• Search for sterile neutrino with light gauge interactions: recasting collider, beam-dump, and neutrino telescope searches