Testing neutrino decay scenarios with IceCube data

TL;DR

This paper uses IceCube data to test neutrino decay hypotheses, finding that high-energy neutrino observations exclude decay scenarios at 1 sigma significance for both mass hierarchies.

Contribution

It provides the first analysis of neutrino decay constraints using IceCube data, considering both mass hierarchies and oscillation uncertainties.

Findings

High-energy IceCube data excludes neutrino decay at 1 sigma.

The analysis accounts for oscillation parameter uncertainties.

Results are consistent across both normal and inverted hierarchies.

Abstract

We test the hypothesis of non-radiative neutrinos decay using the latest IceCube data. Namely, we calculate the track-to-shower ratio expected in IceCube for the normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchy taking into account the uncertainties in neutrino oscillation parameters. We show that the subset of data with energy above 60 TeV actually excludes the possibility of a neutrinos decay at the 1 sigma level of significance for both neutrino mass hierarchies.