Probing Non-Standard Interaction of Neutrinos with IceCube and DeepCore

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-standard neutrino interactions affect atmospheric neutrino oscillations and uses IceCube and DeepCore data to set new constraints on these interactions, with prospects for improved future bounds.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of NSI effects on high-energy atmospheric neutrino oscillations and derives experimental bounds using IceCube and DeepCore data.

Findings

Constraints on NSI parameters |_{ au}| < 6^{-3} and |_{ }-_{ }| < 3^{-2} (90% C.L.)

Future DeepCore measurements can improve bounds by a factor of 2-3

NSI signatures can be distinguished from sterile neutrino effects in zenith angle and energy distributions

Abstract

We consider effects of the Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) on oscillations of the high energy atmospheric neutrinos. The \nu_\mu-oscillograms are constructed and their dependence on the NSI strength parameters \epsilon_{\alpha \beta} studied. We computed zenith angle distributions of the \nu_\mu-events in the presence of NSI in different energy regions. The distributions are confronted with the IceCube-79 (high energy sample) and the DeepCore (low energy sample) data and constraints on the strength parameters |\epsilon_{\mu \tau}| < 6x10^-3 and |\epsilon_{\mu\mu}-\epsilon_{\tau\tau}| < 3x10^-2 (90% C.L.) have been obtained. Future measurements of the zenith angle distributions by DeepCore in smaller energy bins will allow to improve the bounds by factor 2 - 3. We discuss the signatures of NSI in zenith angle and energy distributions of events which allow to discriminate them from the effects of sterile neutrinos.