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A bstract The Standard Model predicts a long-range force, proportional to $$ {G}_F^2/{r}^5 $$ G F 2 / r 5 , between fermions due to the exchange of a pair of neutrinos. This quantum force is feeble and has not been observed yet. In this paper, we compute this force in the presence of neutrino backgrounds, both for isotropic and directional background neutrinos. We find that for the case of directional background the force can have a 1 /r dependence and it can be significantly enhanced compared to the vacuum case. In particular, background effects caused by reactor, solar, and supernova neutrinos enhance the force by many orders of magnitude. The enhancement, however, occurs only in the direction parallel to the direction of the background neutrinos. We discuss the experimental prospects of detecting the neutrino force in neutrino backgrounds and find that the effect is close to the available sensitivity of the current fifth force experiments. Yet, the angular spread of the neutrino flux and that of the test masses reduce the strength of this force. The results are encouraging and a detailed experimental study is called for to check if the effect can be probed.
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Search for GeV neutrino emission during intense gamma-ray solar flares with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
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Abstract New neutrino interactions beyond the Standard Model (BSM) have been of much interest in not only particle physics but also cosmology and astroparticle physics. We numerically investigate the time delay distribution of astrophysical neutrinos that interact with the cosmic neutrino background. Using the Monte Carlo method, we develop a framework that enables us to simulate the time-dependent energy spectra of high-energy neutrinos that experience even multiple scatterings en route and to handle the sharp increase in the cross section at the resonance energy. As an example, we focus on the case of secret neutrino interactions with a scalar mediator. While we find the excellent agreement between analytical and simulation results for small optical depths, our simulations enable us to study optically thick cases that are not described by the simplest analytic estimates. Our simulations are used to understand effects of cosmological redshifts, neutrino spectra and flavors. The developments will be useful for probing BSM neutrino interactions with not only current neutrino detectors such as IceCube and Super-Kamiokande but also future neutrino detectors such as IceCube-Gen2 and Hyper-Kamiokande.more » « less
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A bstract The exchange of a pair of neutrinos with Standard Model weak interactions generates a long-range force between fermions. The associated potential is extremely feeble, ∝ $$ {G}_F^2/{r}^5 $$ G F 2 / r 5 for massless neutrinos, which renders it far from observable even in the most sensitive experiments testing fifth forces. The presence of a neutrino background has been argued to induce a correction to the neutrino propagator that enhances the potential by orders of magnitude. In this brief note, we point out that such modified propagators are invalid if the background neutrino wavepackets have a finite width. By reevaluating the 2- ν exchange potential in the presence of a neutrino background including finite width effects, we find that the background-induced enhancement is reduced by several orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, this pushes the resulting 2- ν exchange potential away from present and near-future sensitivity of tests of new long-range forces.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.102001
