Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider
Abstract We present a new calculation of the energy distribution of high-energy neutrinos from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the kinematical region of very forward rapidities, heavy-flavor production and decay is a source of tau neutrinos that...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP06(2020)032 |
| _version_ | 1818510761641639936 |
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| author | Weidong Bai Milind Diwan Maria Vittoria Garzelli Yu Seon Jeong Mary Hall Reno |
| author_facet | Weidong Bai Milind Diwan Maria Vittoria Garzelli Yu Seon Jeong Mary Hall Reno |
| author_sort | Weidong Bai |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract We present a new calculation of the energy distribution of high-energy neutrinos from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the kinematical region of very forward rapidities, heavy-flavor production and decay is a source of tau neutrinos that leads to thousands of charged-current tau neutrino events in a 1 m long, 1 m radius lead neutrino detector at a distance of 480 m from the interaction region. In our computation, next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections are accounted for in the production cross-sections. Non-perturbative intrinsic-k T effects are approximated by a simple phenomenological model introducing a Gaussian k T -smearing of the parton distribution functions, which might also mimic perturbative effects due to multiple initial-state soft-gluon emissions. The transition from partonic to hadronic states is described by phenomenological fragmentation functions. To study the effect of various input parameters, theoretical predictions for D s ± $$ {D}_s^{\pm } $$ production are compared with LHCb data on double-differential cross-sections in transverse momentum and rapidity. The uncertain- ties related to the choice of the input parameter values, ultimately affecting the predictions of the tau neutrino event distributions, are discussed. We consider a 3+1 neutrino mixing scenario to illustrate the potential for a neutrino experiment to constrain the 3+1 parameter space using tau neutrinos and antineutrinos. We find large theoretical uncertainties in the predictions of the neutrino fluxes in the far-forward region. Untangling the effects of tau neutrino oscillations into sterile neutrinos and distinguishing a 3+1 scenario from the standard scenario with three active neutrino flavours, will be challenging due to the large theoretical uncertainties from QCD. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T23:24:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d55a31010f1e428daeb4cc7af5efd28a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T23:24:30Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-d55a31010f1e428daeb4cc7af5efd28a2022-12-22T01:29:38ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792020-06-012020613810.1007/JHEP06(2020)032Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron ColliderWeidong Bai0Milind Diwan1Maria Vittoria Garzelli2Yu Seon Jeong3Mary Hall Reno4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of IowaBrookhaven National LaboratoryUniversit`a degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia & INFNTheoretical Physics Department, CERNDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of IowaAbstract We present a new calculation of the energy distribution of high-energy neutrinos from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the kinematical region of very forward rapidities, heavy-flavor production and decay is a source of tau neutrinos that leads to thousands of charged-current tau neutrino events in a 1 m long, 1 m radius lead neutrino detector at a distance of 480 m from the interaction region. In our computation, next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections are accounted for in the production cross-sections. Non-perturbative intrinsic-k T effects are approximated by a simple phenomenological model introducing a Gaussian k T -smearing of the parton distribution functions, which might also mimic perturbative effects due to multiple initial-state soft-gluon emissions. The transition from partonic to hadronic states is described by phenomenological fragmentation functions. To study the effect of various input parameters, theoretical predictions for D s ± $$ {D}_s^{\pm } $$ production are compared with LHCb data on double-differential cross-sections in transverse momentum and rapidity. The uncertain- ties related to the choice of the input parameter values, ultimately affecting the predictions of the tau neutrino event distributions, are discussed. We consider a 3+1 neutrino mixing scenario to illustrate the potential for a neutrino experiment to constrain the 3+1 parameter space using tau neutrinos and antineutrinos. We find large theoretical uncertainties in the predictions of the neutrino fluxes in the far-forward region. Untangling the effects of tau neutrino oscillations into sterile neutrinos and distinguishing a 3+1 scenario from the standard scenario with three active neutrino flavours, will be challenging due to the large theoretical uncertainties from QCD.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP06(2020)032Beyond Standard ModelHeavy Quark PhysicsNeutrino Physics |
| spellingShingle | Weidong Bai Milind Diwan Maria Vittoria Garzelli Yu Seon Jeong Mary Hall Reno Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider Journal of High Energy Physics Beyond Standard Model Heavy Quark Physics Neutrino Physics |
| title | Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider |
| title_full | Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider |
| title_fullStr | Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider |
| title_full_unstemmed | Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider |
| title_short | Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider |
| title_sort | far forward neutrinos at the large hadron collider |
| topic | Beyond Standard Model Heavy Quark Physics Neutrino Physics |
| url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP06(2020)032 |
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