The Neutrino Kaleidoscope: Searches for Non-Standard Neutrino Oscillations at Neutrino Telescopes with a TeV Muon Accelerator Source

TL;DR

This paper proposes combining a TeV muon accelerator with large neutrino telescopes to search for non-standard neutrino oscillations, potentially probing quantum gravity effects and sterile neutrinos beyond current limits.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of the 'Neutrino Kaleidoscope', pairing muon accelerators with neutrino telescopes to explore new physics in neutrino oscillations.

Findings

Potential to probe Lorentz invariance violation up to the Planck scale.

Enhanced sensitivity to sterile neutrinos beyond current terrestrial limits.

Feasibility of using TeV neutrino beams with existing detectors.

Abstract

Muon accelerators, a potential technology for enabling $\mathcal{O}$(10 TeV) parton center of mass energy collisions, would also source an intense, collimated beam of neutrinos at TeV energies. The energy and size of this beam would be excellently matched as a source for existing and planned neutrino telescopes: gigaton-sized detectors of astrophysical neutrinos at and above TeV energies. In this paper, we introduce the technical considerations and scientific reach of pairing a muon accelerator source of neutrinos with a neutrino telescope detector, a combination we dub the ''Neutrino Kaleidoscope''. In particular, such a pairing would enable searches for non-standard oscillations of the beam neutrinos as they traverse the earth between source and detector. These non-standard neutrino oscillations could be sourced by Lorentz invariance violation, which a neutrino kaleidoscope could probe up to the quantum gravity-motivated Planck scale. Such a search would also have a reach on sterile neutrinos orders of magnitude beyond existing terrestrial limits. Finally, we touch on some of the non-oscillation potential of a neutrino kaleidoscope.