Stringent constraints on non-standard neutrino interactions using high-purity $\nu_{\mu}$ CC events in IceCube DeepCore

TL;DR

This study uses 7.5 years of IceCube DeepCore data to set the most stringent constraints to date on certain non-standard neutrino interactions affecting atmospheric neutrino oscillations.

Contribution

First to provide tight constraints on NC-NSI parameters using high-purity $ u_{}$ CC events in IceCube DeepCore.

Findings

No evidence of non-standard neutrino interactions was found.

Constraints on $_{}$ and $_{}-_{}$ parameters are the most stringent to date.

Results are consistent with the standard neutrino oscillation model.

Abstract

The neutral-current (NC) non-standard interactions (NSI) of neutrinos with fermions can modify the flavor oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos as they propagate through the Earth. We present constraints on the NC-NSI parameters $\varepsilon_{\mu\tau}$ and $\varepsilon_{\tau\tau}-\varepsilon_{\mu\mu}$ (one at a time) using a high-purity sample of $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current (CC) atmospheric neutrino events collected by IceCube DeepCore over 7.5 years of livetime. These two parameters significantly affect the $\nu_\mu$ disappearance channel for which this golden event sample is optimized by the IceCube Collaboration. The best fit to this dataset is consistent with no NSI hypothesis, and we place the most stringent constraints to date: $-\,0.0094 < \varepsilon_{\mu\tau} < 0.0079$ and $-\,0.030 < \varepsilon_{\tau\tau}-\varepsilon_{\mu\mu} < 0.029$ at 90% confidence level.