Characterizing heavy neutral leptons: Measuring parameters, discriminating Majorana versus Dirac, and using FASER2 as a trigger for ATLAS

This work explores the potential of the proposed FASER2 experiment at the LHC to determine the properties of a discovered heavy neutral lepton (HNL), including its mass, couplings, and whether it is a Majorana or Dirac fermion. We first consider a Majorana HNL with mass <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <a:msub> <a:mi>m</a:mi> <a:mi>N</a:mi> </a:msub> <a:mo>=</a:mo> <a:mn>1.84</a:mn> <a:mtext> </a:mtext> <a:mtext> </a:mtext> <a:mi>GeV</a:mi> </a:math> that is primarily produced through decays <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <c:mi>D</c:mi> <c:mo stretchy="false">→</c:mo> <c:mi>μ</c:mi> <c:mi>N</c:mi> </c:math> at the ATLAS interaction point. Such HNLs may travel macroscopic distances in the far-forward direction and then decay, yielding approximately <f:math xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <f:mrow> <f:mn>8600</f:mn> <f:mtext> </f:mtext> <f:mi>N</f:mi> <f:mo stretchy="false">→</f:mo> <f:mi>μ</f:mi> <f:mi>π</f:mi> </f:mrow> </f:math> decays in FASER2 at the High-Luminosity LHC. With FASER2 measurements alone, the HNL’s mass and couplings can be measured to fractional uncertainties of approximately 0.1% and 3% at 95% confidence level (CL), respectively, and the Dirac fermion hypothesis can be rejected at 99.8% CL. We then consider a second, more difficult, case of a Majorana HNL with mass <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <i:msub> <i:mi>m</i:mi> <i:mi>N</i:mi> </i:msub> <i:mo>=</i:mo> <i:mn>2.00</i:mn> <i:mtext> </i:mtext> <i:mtext> </i:mtext> <i:mi>GeV</i:mi> </i:math> , yielding only <k:math xmlns:k="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <k:mrow> <k:mn>80</k:mn> <k:mtext> </k:mtext> <k:mi>N</k:mi> <k:mo stretchy="false">→</k:mo> <k:mi>μ</k:mi> <k:mi>π</k:mi> </k:mrow> </k:math> decays in FASER2. With FASER2 alone, measurements of HNL properties are still possible, but somewhat less precise. However, by using FASER2 as a trigger for ATLAS and measuring the charge of the muon produced in association with the HNL at ATLAS to search for lepton number violation, one can precisely measure the HNL’s properties and reject the Dirac fermion hypothesis at 99.7% CL. These results show that FASER2, sometimes in coordination with ATLAS, can precisely determine HNL properties, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of neutrino masses, baryogenesis, and the fundamental symmetries of nature.