Testing decay of astrophysical neutrinos with incomplete information

2; 2); (2) Ohio State U.; 3); (3) Ohio State U.; (4) Penn State U.; 5; (5) Penn State U.; 6) ((1) Ohio State U.; (6) Penn State U.

Testing decay of astrophysical neutrinos with incomplete information

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arxiv 1610.02096 v2 pith:NH3B6RSR submitted 2016-10-06 astro-ph.HE

Testing decay of astrophysical neutrinos with incomplete information

Mauricio Bustamante (1 , 2) , John F. Beacom (1 , 2 , 3) , Kohta Murase (4 , 5 , 6) ((1) Ohio State U.

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CCAPP (2) Ohio State U. (3) Ohio State U. Dept. Astron. (4) Penn State U. University Park IGC (5) Penn State U. (6) Penn State U. Astron. Astrophys.)

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Neutrinos mix and have mass differences, so decays from one to another must occur. But how fast? The best direct limits on non-radiative decays, based on solar and atmospheric neutrinos, are weak, $\tau \gtrsim 10^{-3}$ s ($m$/eV) or much worse. Greatly improved sensitivity, $\tau \sim 10^3$ s ($m$/eV), will eventually be obtained using neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources, but large uncertainties --- in neutrino properties, source properties, and detection aspects --- do not allow this yet. However, there is a way forward now. We show that IceCube diffuse neutrino measurements, supplemented by improvements expected in the near term, can increase sensitivity to $\tau \sim 10$ s ($m$/eV) for all neutrino mass eigenstates. We provide a roadmap for the necessary analyses and show how to manage the many uncertainties. If limits are set, this would definitively rule out the long-considered possibility that neutrino decay affects solar, atmospheric, or terrestrial neutrino experiments.

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