Speaker:
Mauricio Bustamante
Institution:
Ohio State Univ.
Speaker Link:
Date:
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Time:
3:00 pm
Location:
FRH 4135
ABSTRACT:
High-energy astrophysical neutrinos, recently discovered by IceCube, are fertile ground to look for new physics. Due to the high neutrino energies --- tens of TeV to a few PeV --- we can look for new physics at unexplored energies. Due to their cosmological-scale baselines --- Mpc to Gpc --- tiny new-physics effects, otherwise unobservable, could accumulate and become detectable. Possibilities include neutrino decay, violation of fundamental symmetries, and novel neutrino-neutrino interactions. I will show that the spectral features and flavor composition of neutrinos can reveal the presence and type of new physics. I will pay special attention to neutrino decay and show that IceCube can, with present-day data, improve limits on neutrino lifetime by several orders of magnitude. In the future, more statistics, advances in detection techniques, and detector upgrades will enhance the sensitivity.
*Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP), The Ohio State University
Host:
Sheldon Campbell
Iftah Galon
Felix Kling
Sebastian Trojanowski