Heavy Neutral Lepton searches at an ICARUS-like detector using NuMI beam

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for detecting Heavy Neutral Leptons using an ICARUS-like detector with the NuMI beam, showing it could set competitive constraints on HNL properties.

Contribution

It presents a detailed feasibility study and demonstrates that such a detector setup can provide competitive limits on HNL mixing parameters.

Findings

Constraints on HNL mixing are highly competitive with current experiments.

The analysis confirms the technical feasibility of a dedicated HNL search at NuMI.

The study highlights the potential of ICARUS-like detectors for beyond Standard Model searches.

Abstract

The discovery of non-zero neutrino masses points to the likely existence of multiple SM neutral fermions. When such states are heavy enough that they cannot be produced in oscillations, they are referred to as Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs). In minimal models, the HNL production and decay are controlled by SM interactions and the mixing between HNLs and the active neutrino and typically result in relatively long lifetimes if the masses are in the MeV-GeV range. We have studied the physics case and technical feasibility for a dedicated HNL search using the NuMI beam at an ICARUS-like detector. Our analysis conclusively demonstrates that the constraints on the mixing of the HNL as a function of its mass for an ICARUS-like detector with NuMI beam are highly competitive with the limits obtained from present experiments.