Universe's Worth of Electrons to Probe Long-Range Interactions of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper uses high-energy astrophysical neutrinos detected by IceCube to set new bounds on hypothetical long-range neutrino-electron interactions, leveraging the vast number of electrons in the universe for unprecedented sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces the first analysis of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos to constrain long-range neutrino-electron interactions, considering all electron sources in the universe.

Findings

Established the most stringent bounds on long-range neutrino-electron interactions.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of astrophysical neutrinos in probing feeble new physics.

Utilized IceCube flavor composition data to enhance sensitivity.

Abstract

Astrophysical searches for new long-range interactions complement collider searches for new short-range interactions. Conveniently, neutrino flavor oscillations are keenly sensitive to the existence of long-ranged flavored interactions between neutrinos and electrons, motivated by lepton-number symmetries of the Standard Model. For the first time, we probe them using TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos and accounting for all large electron repositories in the local and distant Universe. The high energies and colossal number of electrons grant us unprecedented sensitivity to the new interaction, even if it is extraordinarily feeble. Based on IceCube results for the flavor composition of astrophysical neutrinos, we set the ultimate bounds on long-range neutrino flavored interactions.