Probing invisible neutrino decay with the first six detection units of KM3NeT/ORCA
A bstract In the era of precision measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters, it is necessary for experiments to disentangle discrepancies that may indicate physics beyond the Standard Model in the neutrino sector. KM3NeT/ORCA is a water Cherenkov neutrino detector under construction and anchored at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The detector is designed to study the oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos and determine the neutrino mass ordering. This paper focuses on the initial configuration of ORCA, referred to as ORCA6, which comprises six out of the foreseen 115 detection units of photosensors. A high-purity neutrino sample was extracted during 2020 and 2021, corresponding to an exposure of 433 kton-years. This sample is analysed following a binned log-likelihood approach to search for invisible neutrino decay, in a three-flavour neutrino oscillation scenario, where the third neutrino mass state ν 3 decays into an invisible state, e.g. a sterile neutrino. The resulting best fit of the invisible neutrino decay parameter is $$ {\alpha}_3={0.92}_{-0.57}^{+1.08}\times {10}^{-4} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mn>0.92</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.57</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.08</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> eV 2 , corresponding to a scenario with θ 23 in the second octant and normal neutrino mass ordering. The results are consistent with the Standard Model, within a 2.1 σ interval.
Authors
- J Schumann
- J. Boumaaza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2943-637X)
- R Cocimano
- S. Navas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1688-5758)
- N Randazzo
- Riccardo Bruno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3517-6597)
- M. Lamoureux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8860-5826)
- S. Alves Garre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1893-0858)
- A. V. Plavin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2914-8554)
- Natalia Żywucka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2644-6441)
- M. Spurio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8698-3655)
- M. Chabab (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2772-4290)
- Jonathan Mauro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9324-7970)
- C.M. Mollo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2766-8003)
- Francesca Magnani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0812-9397)
- Miroslav D Filipović (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4990-9288)
- A Heijboer
- Y. Becherini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-2930)
- D Franciotti
- D. Paesani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7015-533X)
- L. Morales-Gallegos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2241-4365)
- G. de Wasseige (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1010-5100)
- R. Dvornický
- E Eckerová
- J. D. Zornoza
- C. Bozza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1797-6451)
- F. Mamedov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0687-7164)
- Salva Ardid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4821-6655)
- Julia A. Schnabel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6107-3009)
- G. Lévi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1714-6359)
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- C. Lastoria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3069-8713)
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- A. van Vliet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2827-3361)
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- Damien Dornic
- Y. Y. Kovalev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9303-3263)
- C. Distefano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8632-1136)
- Z Bardačová
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- F. Longhitano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5519-0786)
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- Francesca Gualandi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-7211)
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- Sarah Sanfilippo
- Sharif El Mentawi
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- Alba Domi
- J Majumdar
- Antonio Condorelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5681-0086)
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Institutions
- Tbilisi State University (GE)
- Cadi Ayyad University (MA)
- Leiden University (NL)
- Mohammed V University (MA)
- Jagiellonian University (PL)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Salerno (IT)
- Universitat de València (ES)
- University of Georgia (US)
- Universidad de Granada (ES)
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology (AE)
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
- Institut Universitaire de France (FR)
- University of Hull (GB)
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Caen (FR)
- University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (IT)
- National Centre of Scientific Research "Demokritos" (GR)
- Université Paris Cité (FR)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- University of Johannesburg (ZA)
- North-West University (ZA)
- Université de Haute-Alsace (FR)
- Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie (FR)
- University of Sharjah (AE)
- Osservatorio astronomico di Bologna (IT)
- National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NL)
- Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier (FR)
- National Centre for Nuclear Research (PL)
- Laboratori Guglielmo Marconi (Italy) (IT)
- Instituto de Física Corpuscular (ES)
- Normandie Université (FR)
- Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NL)
- Mohamed I University (MA)
- Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Caen (FR)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (IT)
- The Polytechnic University of Japan (JP)
- FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova (IT)
- IMT Atlantique (FR)
- Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (MA)
- Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (FR)
- Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (GR)
- Cidete (Spain) (ES)
- Cyclotron (Netherlands) (NL)
- Laboratoire Plasticité du Cerveau (FR)
- Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (PL)
- Institute of Space Science - INFLPR Subsidiary (RO)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma I (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Gruppo Collegato di Salerno
- Czech Technical University in Prague (CZ)
- Universitat Politècnica de València (ES)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- AGH University of Krakow (PL)
- Université de Strasbourg (FR)
- Comenius University Bratislava (SK)
- University of Genoa (IT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Bologna (IT)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
- Nantes Université (FR)
- Université de Caen Normandie (FR)
- Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Published
- 2025-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep04(2025)105
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Neutrino Physics Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.87
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Belgian American Educational Foundation
- Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development
- European Commission
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Grantová Agentura České Republiky
- Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Generalitat Valenciana
- Conseil Régional, Île-de-France
- Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation
- Agentúra na Podporu Výskumu a Vývoja
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
- Région Normandie
- ESI Group
- Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- European Regional Development Fund
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- Labex UnivEarthS
- Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules