Search for sterile neutrinos decaying into pions at the LHC

Abstract

We study the possibility to observe sterile neutrinos with masses in the range between 5 GeV and 20 GeV at the LHC, using the exclusive semileptonic modes involving pions, namely W to lepton + N to n pions + lepton+lepton (n = 1, 2, 3). The two pion and three pion modes require extrapolations of form factors to large time-like $q^2$, which we do using vector dominance models as well as light front holographic QCD, with remarkable agreement. This mass region is difficult to explore with inclusive dilepton+dijet modes or trilepton modes and impossible to explore in rare meson decays. While particle identification is a real challenge in these modes, vertex displacement due to the long living neutrino in the above mass range can greatly help reduce backgrounds. Assuming a sample of $10^9$ W bosons at the end of the LHC Run 2, these modes could discover a sterile neutrino in the above mass range or improve the current bounds on the heavy-to-light lepton mixings by an order of magnitude, $U_{lN}^2\sim 2\times 10^{-6}$. Moreover, by studying the equal sign and opposite sign dileptons, the Majorana or Dirac character of the sterile neutrino may be revealed.

arXiv comment18 pages, 4 double figures

References in corpus (46)

• Evidence for oscillation of atmospheric neutrinos
• Direct Evidence for Neutrino Flavor Transformation from Neutral-Current Interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• First Results from KamLAND: Evidence for Reactor Anti-Neutrino Disappearance
• The Search for Heavy Majorana Neutrinos
• Phenomenology with Massive Neutrinos
• Light-Front Holographic QCD and Emerging Confinement
• Neutrinos and Collider Physics
• Flavor models for $\bar{B}\to D^{(\ast )}\tau \bar{\nu }$
• Neutrino masses and mixings and...
• Precise Measurement of the e+ e- --> pi+ pi- (gamma) Cross Section with the Initial-State Radiation Method at BABAR
• Rho-omega mixing, vector meson dominance and the pion form-factor
• Heavy neutrino signals at large hadron colliders
• High-Statistics Study of the tau^- -> pi^- pi^0 nu_tau Decay
• Effective Field Theory Description of the Pion Form Factor
• Search for heavy Majorana neutrinos with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV
• Heavy neutrino searches at the LHC with displaced vertices
• Measurement of $W^{\pm }$ and $Z$-boson production cross sections in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Progress in the physics of massive neutrinos
• B_l4 decays and the extraction of |V_ub|
• Multilepton and Lepton Jet Probes of Sub-Weak-Scale Right-Handed Neutrinos
• Hadronic Structure in the Decay ${\tau }^{-}\to {\nu }_{\tau }{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^0{\pi }^0$ and the Sign of the Tau Neutrino Helicity
• Isospin Violation and the Magnetic Moment of the Muon
• Radiative tau decay and the magnetic moment of the muon
• tau -> pi pi pi nu_tau decays and the a_1(1260) off-shell width revisited
• Probing Majorana neutrinos in rare K and D, D_s, B, B_c meson decays
• Resonance Chiral Lagrangian Currents and Experimental Data for ${\tau }^{-}\to {\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\nu }_{\tau }$
• tau -> (3 pions) nu_tau decays in the Resonance Effective Theory
• K-meson neutrinoless double muon decay as a probe of neutrino masses and mixings
• Searches for light sterile neutrinos with multitrack displaced vertices
• Hadron structure in tau -> KKpi nu_tau decays
• Searches for Majorana neutrinos in B- decays
• Search for heavy Majorana neutrinos in mu+mu+[mu-mu-]+jets and e+e+[e-e-]+jets events in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Neutrino Mass and New Physics
• Distinguishing Dirac/Majorana Sterile Neutrinos at the LHC
• Probing Majorana neutrinos in rare pi+ to e+ e+ mu- nu decays
• Discovering sterile Neutrinos ligther than $M_W$ at the LHC
• Remarks on the lifetime of sterile neutrinos and the effect on detection of rare meson decays M+ -> M'- lepton+ lepton+
• Lepton-Jets and Low-Mass Sterile Neutrinos at Hadron Colliders
• Probing the Dirac or Majorana nature of the Heavy Neutrinos in pure leptonic decays at the LHC
• Signatures of Dirac and Majorana Sterile Neutrinos in Trilepton Events at the LHC
• Sensitivity limits on heavy-light mixing $|U_{\mu N}{|}^2$ from lepton number violating $B$ meson decays
• Discovering intermediate mass sterile neutrinos through ${\tau }^{-}\to {\pi }^{-}{\mu }^{-}{e}^{+}\nu$ (or $\bar{\nu }$) decay
• Pseudoscalar Mass Effects in Decays of Taus with Three Pseudoscalar Mesons
• Search for Heavy Sterile Neutrinos in Trileptons at the LHC
• Reconstructing particle masses in events with displaced vertices
• Study of variants for Monte Carlo generators of $\tau \to 3\pi \nu$ decays

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Heavy Neutral Leptons at FASER
• Searches for light sterile neutrinos with multitrack displaced vertices
• Searching for a Sterile Neutrino in Tau Decays at B-factories
• Boosted Neutrinos and Relativistic Dark Particles as Messengers from Reheating
• Sensitivity bounds on heavy neutrino mixing $|U_{\mu N}{|}^2$ and $|U_{\tau N}{|}^2$ from LHCb upgrade
• Heavy Neutrinos at the FCC-hh in the $U(1{)}_{B-L}$ Model
• New Long Lived Particles Searches in Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC
• Z-Boson Decays into Majorana or Dirac (Heavy) Neutrinos
• Sterile neutrino and leptonic decays of the pseudoscalar mesons
• Search for light sterile neutrinos from $W^{\pm }$ decays at the LHC
• Effects of an Intermediate Mass Sterile Neutrino Population on the Early Universe
• Probing baryon asymmetry of the Universe at LHC and SHiP
• Quasi-Dirac neutrinos in the linear seesaw model
• Charged Lepton Flavor Violation at the High-Energy Colliders: Neutrino Mass Relevant Particles
• LHC signatures of sterile neutrinos in a minimal radiative extended seesaw framework