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1. Prospects for beyond the Standard Model physics searches at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment: DUNE Collaboration

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09007-w  

   Abi, B.; Acciarri, R.; Acero, M. A.; Adamov, G.; Adams, D.; Adinolfi, M.; Ahmad, Z.; Ahmed, J.; Alion, T.; Monsalve, S. Alonso; et al (April 2021, The European Physical Journal C)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be a powerful tool for a variety of physics topics. The high-intensity proton beams provide a large neutrino flux, sampled by a near detector system consisting of a combination of capable precision detectors, and by the massive far detector system located deep underground. This configuration sets up DUNE as a machine for discovery, as it enables opportunities not only to perform precision neutrino measurements that may uncover deviations from the present three-flavor mixing paradigm, but also to discover new particles and unveil new interactions and symmetries beyond those predicted in the Standard Model (SM). Of the many potential beyond the Standard Model (BSM) topics DUNE will probe, this paper presents a selection of studies quantifying DUNE’s sensitivities to sterile neutrino mixing, heavy neutral leptons, non-standard interactions, CPT symmetry violation, Lorentz invariance violation, neutrino trident production, dark matter from both beam induced and cosmogenic sources, baryon number violation, and other new physics topics that complement those at high-energy colliders and significantly extend the present reach. 

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2. Composite dark matter and neutrino masses from a light hidden sector

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2024)260  

   Ahmed, Aqeel; Chacko, Zackaria; Desai, Niral; Doshi, Sanket; Kilic, Can; Najjari, Saereh (July 2024, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> We study a class of models in which the particle that constitutes dark matter arises as a composite state of a strongly coupled hidden sector. The hidden sector interacts with the Standard Model through the neutrino portal, allowing the relic abundance of dark matter to be set by annihilation into final states containing neutrinos. The coupling to the hidden sector also leads to the generation of neutrino masses through the inverse seesaw mechanism, with composite hidden sector states playing the role of the singlet neutrinos. We focus on the scenario in which the hidden sector is conformal in the ultraviolet, and the compositeness scale lies at or below the weak scale. We construct a holographic realization of this framework based on the Randall-Sundrum setup and explore the implications for experiments. We determine the current constraints on this scenario from direct and indirect detection, lepton flavor violation and collider experiments and explore the reach of future searches. We show that in the near future, direct detection experiments and searches forμ→econversion will be able to probe new parameter space. At colliders, dark matter can be produced in association with composite singlet neutrinos via Drell Yan processes or in weak decays of hadrons. We show that current searches at the Large Hadron Collider have only limited sensitivity to this new production channel and we comment on how the reconstruction of the singlet neutrinos can potentially expand the reach. 

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3. Squeezing the Parameter Space for Lorentz Violation in the Neutrino Sector with Additional Decay Channels

   https://doi.org/10.3390/particles3030041  

   Jentschura, Ulrich D. (September 2020, Particles)

   null (Ed.)

   The hypothesis of Lorentz violation in the neutrino sector has intrigued scientists for the last two to three decades. A number of theoretical arguments support the emergence of such violations, first and foremost for neutrinos, which constitute the “most elusive” and “least interacting” particles known to mankind. It is of obvious interest to place stringent bounds on the Lorentz-violating parameters in the neutrino sector. In the past, the most stringent bounds have been placed by calculating the probability of neutrino decay into a lepton pair, a process made kinematically feasible by Lorentz violation in the neutrino sector, above a certain threshold. However, even more stringent bounds can be placed on the Lorentz-violating parameters if one takes into account, additionally, the possibility of neutrino splitting, i.e., of neutrino decay into a neutrino of lower energy, accompanied by “neutrino-pair Čerenkov radiation.” This process has a negligible threshold and can be used to improve the bounds on Lorentz-violating parameters in the neutrino sector. Finally, we take the opportunity to discuss the relation of Lorentz and gauge symmetry breaking, with a special emphasis on the theoretical models employed in our calculations. 

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4. Probing earth-bound dark matter with nuclear reactors

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2024)094  

   Ema, Yohei; Pospelov, Maxim; Ray, Anupam (July 2024, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> Strongly-interacting dark matter can be accumulated in large quantities inside the Earth, and for dark matter particles in a few GeV mass range, it can exist in large quantities near the Earth’s surface. We investigate the constraints imposed on such dark matter properties by its upscattering by fast neutrons in nuclear reactors with subsequent scattering in nearby well-shielded dark matter detectors, schemes which are already used for searches of the coherent reactor neutrino scattering. We find that the existing experiments cover new parameter space on the spin-dependent interaction between dark matter and the nucleon. Similar experiments performed with research reactors, and lesser amount of shielding, may provide additional sensitivity to strongly-interacting dark matter. 

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5. Neutrino electromagnetic properties and the weak mixing angle at the LHC Forward Physics Facility

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.015029  

   Abraham, Roshan Mammen; Foroughi-Abari, Saeid; Kling, Felix; Tsai, Yu-Dai (January 2025, Physical Review D)

   The LHC produces an intense beam of highly energetic neutrinos of all three flavors in the forward direction, and the Forward Physics Facility (FPF) has been proposed to house a suite of experiments taking advantage of this opportunity. In this study, we investigate the FPF’s potential to probe the neutrino electromagnetic properties, including neutrino millicharge, magnetic moment, and charge radius. We find that, due to the large flux of tau neutrinos at the LHC, the FPF detectors will be able to provide more sensitive constraints on the tau neutrino magnetic moment and millicharge than previous measurements at DONUT, by searching for excess in low recoil energy electron scattering events. We also find that, by precisely measuring the rate of neutral current deep inelastic scattering events, the FPF detectors have the potential to obtain the strongest experimental bounds on the neutrino charge radius for the electron neutrino, and one of the leading bounds for the muon neutrino flavor. The same signature could also be used to measure the weak mixing angle, and we estimate that ${\sin }^2{\theta }_W$could be measured to about 3% precision at a scale $Q\sim 10\mathrm{GeV}$, shedding new light on the longstanding NuTeV anomaly. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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