Seeking leptoquarks in IceCube

TL;DR

This paper assesses IceCube(-Gen2)'s ability to detect scalar leptoquarks linked to B-meson decay anomalies, considering neutrino-gluon interactions and existing constraints, and finds it can only probe already disfavored light leptoquarks.

Contribution

It introduces the first analysis of neutrino-gluon cross sections induced by leptoquarks and systematically incorporates overlooked constraints in IceCube sensitivity studies.

Findings

IceCube(-Gen2) can only probe the light leptoquark regime.

Light leptoquarks are already disfavored by other constraints.

Neutrino-gluon interactions are significant in the analysis.

Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity of IceCube(-Gen2) to a scalar leptoquark scenario with couplings only to heavy quark flavors which may be connected to solving discrepancies in $B$-meson semileptonic decays. We take into account, for the first time, the non-negligible neutrino-gluon cross section induced by leptoquarks, and we systematically account for indirect and direct constraints which have been overlooked in previous studies. We conclude that IceCube(-Gen2) can only probe the light LQ regime, already disfavored by the combination of flavor physics constraints, electroweak precision data and the direct searches at the LHC.