Constraints on neutrino lifetime from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Authors

B. Aharmim, Laurentian University
S. N. Ahmed, Queen’s University
A. E. Anthony, The University of Texas at Austin
N. Barros, Laboratório de Instrumentacao e Física Experimental de Partículas
E. W. Beier, University of Pennsylvania
A. Bellerive, Carleton University
B. Beltran, University of Alberta
M. Bergevin, University of Guelph
S. D. Biller, University of Oxford
R. Bonventre, University of California, Berkeley
K. Boudjemline, Carleton University
M. G. Boulay, Queen’s University
B. Cai, Queen’s University
E. J. Callaghan, University of California, Berkeley
J. Caravaca, University of California, Berkeley
Y. D. Chan, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
D. Chauhan, Laurentian University
M. Chen, Queen’s University
B. T. Cleveland, University of Oxford
G. A. Cox, University of Washington
X. Dai, Carleton University
H. Deng, University of Pennsylvania
F. B. Descamps, University of California, Berkeley
J. A. Detwiler, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
P. J. Doe, University of Washington
G. Doucas, University of Oxford
P. L. Drouin, Carleton University
M. Dunford, University of Pennsylvania

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2019

Abstract

The long baseline between Earth and the Sun makes solar neutrinos an excellent test beam for exploring possible neutrino decay. The signature of such decay would be an energy-dependent distortion of the traditional survival probability which can be fit for using well-developed and high-precision analysis methods. Here a model including neutrino decay is fit to all three phases of B8 solar neutrino data taken by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). This fit constrains the lifetime of neutrino mass state ν2 to be >8.08×10-5 s/eV at 90% confidence. An analysis combining this SNO result with those from other solar neutrino experiments results in a combined limit for the lifetime of mass state ν2 of >1.92×10-3 s/eV at 90% confidence.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physical Review D

Recommended Citation

Aharmim, B., Ahmed, S., Anthony, A., Barros, N., Beier, E., Bellerive, A., Beltran, B., Bergevin, M., Biller, S., Bonventre, R., Boudjemline, K., Boulay, M., Cai, B., Callaghan, E., Caravaca, J., Chan, Y., Chauhan, D., Chen, M., Cleveland, B., Cox, G., Dai, X., Deng, H., Descamps, F., Detwiler, J., Doe, P., Doucas, G., Drouin, P., & Dunford, M. (2019). Constraints on neutrino lifetime from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Physical Review D, 99 (3) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.032013