Leptoquarks signals in KM$^3$ neutrino telescopes

TL;DR

This paper explores how hypothetical leptoquarks could affect neutrino interactions in IceCube, providing a way to detect or constrain these particles through their impact on neutrino flux measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a method to evaluate leptoquark effects on neutrino flux in IceCube, including calculations of their contribution to neutrino-nucleon interactions and proposing an exclusion plot for leptoquark parameters.

Findings

Leptoquarks can significantly alter neutrino flux detectable by IceCube.

The study provides exclusion limits on leptoquark properties based on neutrino interaction data.

Results suggest potential for IceCube to constrain or discover leptoquarks.

Abstract

Leptoquarks are predicted in several extensions of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics attempting the unification of the quark and lepton sectors. Such particles could be produced in the interaction of high energy neutrinos with matter of the Earth. We investigate the effects of this particles on the neutrino flux to be detected in a kilometer cubic neutrino telescope such as IceCube. We calculate the contribution of leptoquarks to the neutrino-nucleon interaction and, then, to the angular observable $\alpha(E)$ recently proposed in order to evaluate detectable effects in IceCube. Our results are presented as an exclusion plot in the relevant parameters of the leptoquarks physics.