Neutrino Trident Production: A Powerful Probe of New Physics with Neutrino Beams

Wolfgang Altmannshofer, Stefania Gori, Maxim Pospelov, and Itay Yavin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 091801 – Published 28 August 2014

Abstract

The production of a μ+μ pair from the scattering of a muon neutrino off the Coulomb field of a nucleus, known as neutrino trident production, is a subweak process that has been observed in only a couple of experiments. As such, we show that it constitutes an exquisitely sensitive probe in the search for new neutral currents among leptons, putting the strongest constraints on well-motivated and well-hidden extensions of the standard model gauge group, including the one coupled to the difference of the lepton number between the muon and tau flavor, LμLτ. The new gauge boson Z, increases the rate of neutrino trident production by inducing additional (μ¯γαμ)(ν¯γαν) interactions, which interfere constructively with the standard model contribution. Existing experimental results put significant restrictions on the parameter space of any model coupled to muon number Lμ, and disfavor a putative resolution to the muon g2 discrepancy via the loop of Z for any mass mZ400MeV. The reach to the models’ parameter space can be widened with future searches of the trident production at high-intensity neutrino facilities such as the LBNE.

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  • Received 20 June 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.091801

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Wolfgang Altmannshofer1, Stefania Gori1, Maxim Pospelov1,2, and Itay Yavin1,3

  • 1Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street N, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 2Y5
  • 2Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8P 5C2
  • 3Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street W. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L8

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Vol. 113, Iss. 9 — 29 August 2014

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