Bound on the tau neutrino magnetic moment from the Super-Kamiokande data

TL;DR

This paper uses Super-Kamiokande data to set an upper limit on the tau neutrino's magnetic moment, which impacts theories explaining the atmospheric neutrino anomaly.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental constraint on the tau neutrino magnetic moment based on recent Super-Kamiokande observations.

Findings

Tau neutrino magnetic moment constrained to < 1.3×10^{-7} μ_B.

Large magnetic moments could influence the understanding of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly.

Results limit possible new physics related to neutrino properties.

Abstract

It is shown that recent results from the Super-Kamiokande detector constrain the tau neutrino diagonal magnetic moment to $\mu_{\nu_{\tau}} < 1.3\times 10^{-7} \mu_{B}$ for the case of $\nu_{\mu}\to \nu_{\tau}$ interpretation of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. It is pointed out that the large magnetic moment of the tau neutrino could affect further understanding of the origin of the anomaly.