Discovery potential of FASER$\nu$ with contained vertex and through-going events

TL;DR

FASERν, a detector at the LHC, can detect neutrino flux and test beyond standard model physics, especially scenarios involving multi-muon production from neutrino interactions, with increased sensitivity when including through-going muon pairs.

Contribution

This paper demonstrates the potential of FASERν to probe new physics involving multi-muon signals from neutrino interactions, highlighting the importance of accounting for through-going muons.

Findings

Including through-going muon pairs enhances detector sensitivity.

FASERν can test models related to the MiniBooNE anomaly.

A concrete model for multi-muon production is proposed.

Abstract

FASER$\nu$ is a newly proposed detector whose main mission is to detect the neutrino flux from the collision of the proton beams at the ATLAS Interaction Point (IP) during the run III of the LHC in 2022-2024. We show that this detector can also test certain beyond standard model scenarios, especially the ones in which the neutrino interaction with matter fields can produce new unstable particles decaying back into charged leptons. Models of this kind are motivated by the MiniBooNE anomaly. We show that, if the new physics involves multi-muon production by neutrinos scattering off matter fields, including the neutrino flux interactions in the rock before the detector in the analysis ({\it i.e.,} accounting for the through-going muon pairs) can significantly increase the effective detector mass and its sensitivity to new physics. We propose a concrete model that can give rise to such a multi-muon signal.