Can lepton flavor violating interactions explain the atmospheric neutrino problem?

We investigate whether flavor changing neutrino interactions (FCNIs) can be sufficiently large to provide a viable solution to the atmospheric neutrino problem. Effective operators induced by heavy boson exchange that allow for flavor changing neutrino scattering off quarks or electrons are related...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. D, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2000-03, Vol.61 (5), Article 053005
Main Authors: Bergmann, Sven, Grossman, Yuval, Pierce, Damien M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COSMIC NEUTRINOS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRON NEUTRINOS
MUON NEUTRINOS
NEUTRINO-ELECTRON INTERACTIONS
PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
SU-2 GROUPS
TAU NEUTRINOS
TAU PARTICLES
THEORETICAL DATA
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigate whether flavor changing neutrino interactions (FCNIs) can be sufficiently large to provide a viable solution to the atmospheric neutrino problem. Effective operators induced by heavy boson exchange that allow for flavor changing neutrino scattering off quarks or electrons are related by an SU(2){sub L} rotation to operators that induce anomalous tau decays. Since SU(2){sub L} violation is small for new physics at or above the weak scale, one can use the upper bounds on lepton flavor violating tau decays or on lepton universality violation to put severe, model-independent bounds on the relevant non-standard neutrino interactions. Also Z-induced flavor changing neutral currents, due to heavy singlet neutrinos, are too small to be relevant for the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. We conclude that the FCNI solution to the atmospheric neutrino problem is ruled out. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.
ISSN:0556-2821
1089-4918
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.61.053005