Secret interactions of neutrinos with light gauge boson at the DUNE near detector

TL;DR

This paper explores how the DUNE near detector can detect secret neutrino interactions with a light gauge boson, revealing new decay modes and flavor structures, with implications for supernovae and the early Universe.

Contribution

It demonstrates the viability of electroweak models with light gauge bosons and analyzes DUNE ND's potential to probe and reconstruct neutrino-$Z'$ interactions.

Findings

DUNE ND can detect signatures of neutrino-$Z'$ interactions.

New decay modes for charged mesons involving $Z'$ are possible.

The flavor structure of $Z'$ couplings can be reconstructed at DUNE.

Abstract

Secret interactions of neutrinos with light new gauge bosons, $Z^\prime$, can lead to a rich phenomenology in supernova explosion as well as in the early Universe. This interaction can also lead to new decay modes for charged mesons, $\pi^+ (K^+) \to e^+ \nu Z'$, and subsequently to $Z'\to \nu \bar{\nu}$. After demonstrating that such an interaction can be accommodated within viable electroweak symmetric models, we study how the near detector (ND) of DUNE can probe this scenario. We also discuss how the DUNE ND can make it possible to reconstruct the flavor structure of the $Z^\prime$ coupling to neutrinos.