Probing Neutrino Mass Models through Resonances at Neutrino Telescopes

TL;DR

This paper explores how light charged scalars in neutrino mass models can produce detectable resonance features and non-standard interactions in ultra-high energy neutrino observations at IceCube and IceCube-Gen2.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential of UHE neutrino telescopes to probe light scalar mediators and non-standard neutrino interactions in radiative Majorana neutrino mass models.

Findings

Scalar mediators can produce Glashow-like resonances in UHE neutrino spectra.

UHE neutrinos can reveal non-standard neutrino interactions.

Resonance production may occur via sterile neutrino components in pseudo-Dirac scenarios.

Abstract

We study the detection prospects of relatively light charged scalars in radiative Majorana neutrino mass models, such as the Zee model and its variants using scalar leptoquarks, at current and future neutrino telescopes. In particular, we show that these scalar mediators can give rise to Glashow-like resonance features in the ultra-high energy neutrino (UHE) event spectrum at the IceCube neutrino observatory and its high-energy upgrade IceCube-Gen2. The same scalars can also give rise to observable non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI), and we show that the UHE neutrinos provide a complementary probe of NSI. We also discuss an interesting possibility of producing such resonances by incoming sterile neutrino components in the case where neutrinos are pseudo-Dirac particles.