Search for a Lorentz-violating sidereal signal with atmospheric neutrinos in IceCube

A search for sidereal modulation in the flux of atmospheric muon neutrinos in IceCube was performed. Such a signal could be an indication of Lorentz-violating physics. Neutrino oscillation models, derivable from extensions to the Standard Model, allow for neutrino oscillations that depend on the neu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Collaboration, I, Abbasi, R, Abdou, Y, Abu-Zayyad, T, Adams, J, Aguilar, J, Ahlers, M, Andeen, K, Auffenberg, J, Bai, X, Baker, M, Barwick, S, Bay, R, Alba, J, Beattie, K, Beatty, J, Bechet, S, Becker, J, Becker, K, Benabderrahmane, M, BenZvi, S, Berdermann, J, Berghaus, P, Berley, D, Bernardini, E
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2010
Description
Summary:A search for sidereal modulation in the flux of atmospheric muon neutrinos in IceCube was performed. Such a signal could be an indication of Lorentz-violating physics. Neutrino oscillation models, derivable from extensions to the Standard Model, allow for neutrino oscillations that depend on the neutrino's direction of propagation. No such direction-dependent variation was found. A discrete Fourier transform method was used to constrain the Lorentz and CPT-violating coefficients in one of these models. Due to the unique high energy reach of IceCube, it was possible to improve constraints on certain Lorentz-violating oscillations by three orders of magnitude with respect to limits set by other experiments.