"High-energy astrophysical neutrinos: testing ground for new physics"

Speaker: 
Mauricio Bustamante
Institution: 
Ohio State Univ.
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