Closing the Neutrino "BSM Gap": Physics Potential of Atmospheric Through-Going Muons at DUNE

TL;DR

This paper discusses how early data from DUNE's atmospheric neutrino measurements could reveal new physics signatures in the 50 GeV to 1 TeV energy range, filling a gap in current neutrino detection capabilities.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of DUNE's atmospheric neutrino data to explore BSM physics in an energy range that is currently underexplored by existing detectors.

Findings

DUNE can access the 50 GeV to 1 TeV energy window for atmospheric neutrinos.

This energy range may contain signatures of new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Early DUNE data could provide unique insights into BSM phenomena.

Abstract

Many Beyond-Standard Model physics signatures are enhanced in high-energy neutrino interactions. To explore these signatures, ultra-large Cherenkov detectors such as IceCube exploit event samples with charged current muon neutrino interactions > 1 TeV. Most of these interactions occur below the detector volume, and produce muons that enter the detector. However, the large spacing between detectors leads to inefficiency for measuring muons with energies below or near the critical energy of 400 GeV. In response, IceCube has built a densely instrumented region within the larger detector. This provides large samples of well-reconstructed interactions that are contained within the densely instrumented region, extending up to energies of ~50 GeV. This leaves a gap of relatively unexplored atmospheric-neutrino events with energies between 50 GeV and 1 TeV in the ultra-large detectors. In this paper we point out that interesting Beyond Standard Model signatures may appear in this energy window, and that early running of the DUNE far detectors can give insight into new physics that may appear in this range.