Search

Acknowledgments We thank the participants of the FPF meetings and the Snowmass working groups for discussions that have contributed both directly and indirectly to this study. We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable support of the CERN Physics Beyond Colliders study group and the work of CERN technical teams related to civil engineering studies (SCE-DOD), safety discussions (HSE-OHS, HSE-RP, EP-DI-SO), integration (EN-ACE), and discussions on services (EN-CV, EN-EL, EN-AA) and simulations (SY-STI). L. A. Anchordoqui is supported by U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant PHY-2112527. A. Ariga is supported by JSPS, Japan KAKENHI Grant JP20K23373 and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant 101002690). T. Ariga acknowledges support from JSPS, Japan KAKENHI Grant JP19H01909. B. Batell is supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Grant DE–SC0007914 and by PITT PACC, USA. The work of J. Bramante is supported by NSERC, Canada. F. G. Celiberto acknowledges support from the INFN/NINPHA project, USA and thanks the Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy for the warm hospitality. G. Chachamis is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal) under project CERN/FIS-PAR/0024/2019 and contract ‘‘Investigador auxiliar FCT - individual Call, Portugal CEECIND/03216/2017 and acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant 824093). P. B. Denton is supported by DOE, USA Grant DE-SC0012704. Y. Du was supported by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Grants 12022514 and 11875003. The work of J. L. Feng is supported in part by NSF, USA Grants PHY- 1915005 and PHY-2111427, Simons Investigator Award, USA #376204, Simons Foundation, USA Grant 623683, and Heising-Simons Foundation, USA Grants 2019-1179 and 2020-1840. The work of M. Fieg, T. B. Smith, and Y.-D. Tsai is supported in part by NSF Grant PHY-1915005. M. Fucilla, M. M. A. Mohammed, and A. Papa acknowledge support from the INFN/QFT@COLLIDERS, Italy project. The work of M. V. Garzelli was supported in part by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany. V. P. Goncalves was partially financed by the Brazilian funding agencies CNPq, FAPERGS, and INCT-FNA (process number 464898/2014-5). M. Guzzi is supported in part by NSF, USA Grants PHY- 1820818 and PHY-2112025. J. C. Helo acknowledges support from ANID FONDECYT-Chile Grant 1201673 and from ANID Millennium Science Initiative Program ICN2019 044. K. Jodłowski is supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, Grant 2015/18/A/ST2/00748. Ahmed Ismail and R. Mammen Abraham are supported by DOE, USA Grant DE-SC0016013. Ameen Ismail is supported by NSERC, Canada (reference number 557763) and by NSF, USA Grant PHY-2014071. Y. S. Jeong is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT: Ministry of Science and ICT) (2021R1A2C1009296). The work of F. Kling is supported by DOE, USA Grant DE-AC02-76SF00515 and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2121 Quantum Universe – 390833306. P. Nadolsky is supported by DOE, USA Grant DE-SC0010129. H. Otono acknowledges support from JSPS, Japan KAKENHI Grant JP20H01919. V. Pandey is supported by DOE, USA Grant DE-SC-0009824. M. H. Reno is supported in part by DOE, USA Grant DE-SC-0010113. The work of A. Ritz is supported by NSERC, Canada, Canada. The work of D. Sengupta is supported by NSF, USA Grant PHY-1915147. T. Sjöstrand is supported by Swedish Research Council Grant 2016-05996. D. Soldin acknowledges support from the NSF, USA Grant PHY-1913607. S. Trojanowski is supported by the grant ‘‘AstroCeNT: Particle Astrophysics Science and Technology Centre’’ carried out within the International Research Agendas programme of the Foundation for Polish Science financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund, and by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through its scholarship for young and outstanding scientists (decision 1190/E-78/STYP/14/2019). K. Xie is supported by DOE, USA Grant DE-FG02-95ER40896, NSF, USA Grant PHY- 1820760, and in part by PITT PACC. Parts of this work have been supported by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC, USA under Contract DE-AC02-07CH11359 with the DOE., The Forward Physics Facility (FPF) is a proposal to create a cavern with the space and infrastructure to support a suite of far-forward experiments at the Large Hadron Collider during the High Luminosity era. Located along the beam collision axis and shielded from the interaction point by at least 100 m of concrete and rock, the FPF will house experiments that will detect particles outside the acceptance of the existing large LHC experiments and will observe rare and exotic processes in an extremely low-background environment. In this work, we summarize the current status of plans for the FPF, including recent progress in civil engineering in identifying promising sites for the FPF and the experiments currently envisioned to realize the FPF's physics potential. We then review the many Standard Model and new physics topics that will be advanced by the FPF, including searches for long-lived particles, probes of dark matter and dark sectors, high-statistics studies of TeV neutrinos of all three flavors, aspects of perturbative and non-perturbative QCD, and high-energy astroparticle physics., ANID FONDECYT-Chile 1201673, Fermi Research Alliance DE-AC02-07CH11359, HSE-OHS, HSE-RP, NINPHA, PITT PACC, SY-STI, National Science Foundation PHY-2112527, U.S. Department of Energy DE–SC0007914, Simons Foundation 376204, 623683, Fuel Cell Technologies Program 824093, DE-SC0012704, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, First Peoples Fund, Heising-Simons Foundation 2019-1179, 2020-1840, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, European Commission, European Research Council, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 390833306, DE-SC-0009824, DE-SC-0010113, DE-SC0010129, JP20H01919, PHY-1915147, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP20K23373, National Natural Science Foundation of China 11875003, 12022514, PHY-1915005, PHY-2111427, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia CERN/FIS-PAR/0024/2019, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning 2021R1A2C1009296, DE-AC02-76SF00515, National Research Foundation of Korea, Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Narodowe Centrum Nauki 2015/18/A/ST2/00748, 557763, DE-SC0016013, PHY-2014071, Vetenskapsrådet 2016-05996, PHY-1913607, Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki 1190/E-78/STYP/14/2019, DE-FG02-95ER40896, PHY-1820760, Università degli Studi di Pavia, Horizon 2020 101002690, JP19H01909, European Regional Development Fund, Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia: Física Nuclear e Aplicações 464898/2014-5, PHY-1820818, PHY-2112025, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo ICN2019 044

Electroweak scattering of neutrinos with hadronic targets reveal the underlying structure of protons and neutrons. Electroweak structure functions for nucleon targets are reviewed in the context of muon and tau neutrino and antineutrino scattering. Quantum chromodynamic, target mass and quark mass corrections and the regimes where they are relevant are discussed. In future experiments in the Large Hadron Collider forward region at CERN, there are prospects for future measurements for neutrino and antineutrino energies in the 100’s of GeV to TeV energy regime with a large flux of $$\nu _\tau +\overline{\nu }_\tau $$ as well as the electron and muon flavors. At lower energies, DUNE will probe structure functions at the boundary of perturbative and nonperturbative regimes.

Astrophysical neutrinos are excellent probes of astroparticle physics and high-energy physics. With energies far beyond solar, supernovae, atmospheric, and accelerator neutrinos, high-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos probe fundamental physics from the TeV scale to the EeV scale and beyond. They are sensitive to physics both within and beyond the Standard Model through their production mechanisms and in their propagation over cosmological distances. They carry unique information about their extreme non-thermal sources by giving insight into regions that are opaque to electromagnetic radiation. This white paper describes the opportunities astrophysical neutrino observations offer for astrophysics and high-energy physics, today and in coming years. Astrophysical neutrinos are excellent probes of astroparticle physics and high-energy physics. With energies far beyond solar, supernovae, atmospheric, and accelerator neutrinos, high-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos probe fundamental physics from the TeV scale to the EeV scale and beyond. They are sensitive to physics both within and beyond the Standard Model through their production mechanisms and in their propagation over cosmological distances. They carry unique information about their extreme non-thermal sources by giving insight into regions that are opaque to electromagnetic radiation. This white paper describes the opportunities astrophysical neutrino observations offer for astrophysics and high-energy physics, today and in coming years.

Neutrino fluxes at high rapidity and at high energy are sensitive to QCD dynamics of heavy-flavor production in kinematic regions where measurements have not yet been made. The FASER$\nu$ and SND@LHC experiments scheduled for Run 3 at the LHC and the proposed Forward Physics Facility with a suite of experiments during the High-Luminosity LHC phase will probe neutrinos at high pseudorapidity. This short paper reports on recent evaluations of the prompt $\nu_\tau+\bar\nu_\tau$ and $\nu_e+\bar\nu_e$ double-differential cross sections in $pp$ collisions at the Large Hadron Collider from the production and decays of $D_s^\pm$ and $D^\pm$, respectively. For $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, the double-differential neutrino energy and pseudorapidity distributions are evaluated at NLO QCD. Data tables with these predictions are presented. Future work needed to refine predictions of neutrino and antineutrino fluxes in the forward region at the LHC is discussed., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, contribution to Snowmass 2021, updated to include ancillary files

Ultra-high-energy neutrinos serve as messengers of some of the highest energy astrophysical environments. Given that neutrinos are neutral and only interact via weak interactions, neutrinos can emerge from sources, traverse astronomical distances, and point back to their origins. Their weak interactions require large target volumes for neutrino detection. Using the Earth as a neutrino converter, terrestrial, sub-orbital, and satellite-based instruments are able to detect signals of neutrino-induced extensive air showers. In this paper, we describe the software code $\texttt{nuPyProp}$ that simulates tau neutrino and muon neutrino interactions in the Earth and predicts the spectrum of the $\tau$-lepton and muons that emerge. The $\texttt{nuPyProp}$ outputs are lookup tables of charged lepton exit probabilities and energies that can be used directly or as inputs to the $\texttt{nuSpaceSim}$ code designed to simulate optical and radio signals from extensive air showers induced by the emerging charged leptons. We describe the inputs to the code, demonstrate its flexibility and show selected results for $\tau$-lepton and muon exit probabilities and energy distributions. The $\texttt{nuPyProp}$ code is open source, available on Github., Comment: 42 pages, 21 figures, fixed typo in one of the author's name. Code available at https://github.com/NuSpaceSim/nupyprop

New experiments to measure neutrinos in the far-forward region at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are under design or already in preparation. Two of them, FASER$\nu$ and SND@LHC, are expected to be active during Run 3 and have the potential to detect neutrinos that come from high-energy collisions in one of the LHC interaction points, extracted along the direction tangent to the beam line. Tau neutrinos and antineutrinos come predominantly from $D_s^\pm$ production in $pp$ collisions, followed by the leptonic decay of these mesons. Neutrino pseudorapidities in the range of $\eta>6.9$ and $\eta>8.9$ are relevant to these future experiments. At such pseudorapidities at high energies, theoretical predictions for the flux of tau neutrinos rely on parton distribution functions (PDFs) in a combination of very small and large parton$-x$ values. We evaluate PDF uncertainties in a next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculation of the flux of $\nu_\tau$ + $\bar{\nu}_\tau$ produced by $D_s^\pm$ decay in the far forward region at the LHC. The theoretical uncertainty associated with the 40 PDF sets of the PROSA19 group amounts to $\pm (20-30)$\% for the ($\nu_\tau$ + $\bar{\nu}_\tau$) number of charged-current (CC) events. Scale uncertainties are much larger, resulting in a range of CC event predictions from $\sim 70\%$ lower to $\sim 90\%$ higher than the central prediction. A comparison of the predictions with those obtained using as input the central PDFs from the 3-flavour NLO PDF sets of the CT14, ABMP16 and NNPDF3.1 collaborations show that far-forward neutrino energy distributions vary by as much as a factor of $\sim 2-4$ relative to the PROSA19 predictions at TeV neutrino energies. The Forward Physics Facility in the high luminosity LHC era will provide data capable of constraining NLO QCD evaluations with these PDF sets., Comment: 61 pages, 23 figures, 12 tables

High to ultrahigh energy neutrino detectors can uniquely probe the properties of dark matter $\chi$ by searching for the secondary products produced through annihilation and/or decay processes. We evaluate the sensitivities to dark matter thermally averaged annihilation cross section $\langle\sigma v\rangle$ and partial decay width into neutrinos $\Gamma_{\chi\rightarrow\nu\bar{\nu}}$ (in the mass scale $10^7 \leq m_\chi/{\rm GeV} \leq 10^{15}$) for next generation observatories like POEMMA and GRAND. We show that in the range $ 10^7 \leq m_\chi/{\rm GeV} \leq 10^{11}$, space-based Cherenkov detectors like POEMMA have the advantage of full-sky coverage and rapid slewing, enabling an optimized dark matter observation strategy focusing on the Galactic center. We also show that ground-based radio detectors such as GRAND can achieve high sensitivities and high duty cycles in radio quiet areas. We compare the sensitivities of next generation neutrino experiments with existing constraints from IceCube and updated 90\% C.L. upper limits on $\langle\sigma v\rangle$ and $\Gamma_{\chi\rightarrow\nu\bar{\nu}}$ using results from the Pierre Auger Collaboration and ANITA. We show that in the range $ 10^7 \leq m_\chi/{\rm GeV} \leq 10^{11}$ POEMMA and GRAND10k will improve the neutrino sensitivity to particle dark matter by factors of 2 to 10 over existing limits, whereas GRAND200k will improve this sensitivity by two orders of magnitude. In the range $10^{11} \leq m_\chi/{\rm GeV} \leq 10^{15}$, POEMMA's fluorescence observation mode will achieve an unprecedented sensitivity to dark matter properties. Finally, we highlight the importance of the uncertainties related to the dark matter distribution in the Galactic halo, using the latest fit and estimates of the Galactic parameters., Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted to PRD

An accurate modeling of neutrino flux attenuation and the distribution of leptons they produce in transit through the Earth is an essential component to determine neutrino flux sensitivities of underground, sub-orbital and space-based detectors. Through neutrino oscillations over cosmic distances, astrophysical neutrino sources are expected to produce nearly equal fluxes of electron, muon and tau neutrinos. Of particular interest are tau neutrinos that interact in the Earth at modest slant depths to produce $\tau$-leptons. Some $\tau$-leptons emerge from the Earth and decay in the atmosphere to produce extensive air showers. Future balloon-borne and satellite-based optical Cherenkov neutrino telescopes will be sensitive to upward air showers from tau neutrino induced $\tau$-lepton decays. We present nuPyProp, a python code that is part of the nuSpaceSim package. nuPyProp generates look-up tables for exit probabilities and energy distributions for $\nu_\tau\to \tau$ and $\nu_\mu\to \mu$ propagation in the Earth. This flexible code runs with either stochastic or continuous electromagnetic energy losses for the lepton transit through the Earth. Current neutrino cross section models and energy loss models are included along with templates for user input of other models. Results from nuPyProp are compared with other recent simulation packages for neutrino and charged lepton propagation. Sources of modeling uncertainties are described and quantified., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, PoS(ICRC2021)1203; for associated code, see https://github.com/NuSpaceSim/nupyprop

Theoretical predictions of the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux have large uncertainties associated with charm hadron production, by far the dominant source of prompt neutrinos in the atmosphere. The flux of cosmic rays, with its steeply falling energy spectrum, weights the forward production of charm in the evaluation of the atmospheric neutrino flux at high energies. The current LHCb experiment at CERN constrains charm production in kinematic regions relevant to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux. The proposed Forward Physics Facility has additional capabilities to detect neutrino fluxes from forward charm production at the LHC. We discuss the implications of the current and planned experiments on the development of theoretical predictions of the high energy atmospheric neutrino flux., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Proceedings of the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021)

The evidence for dark matter particles, $\chi$, is compelling based on Galactic to cosmological scale observations. Thus far, the promising weakly interacting massive particle scenario have eluded detection, motivating alternative models of dark matter. We consider scenarios involving superheavy dark matter (SHDM) that potentially can decay or annihilate to neutrinos and antineutrinos. In the mass range $m_\chi=10^7-10^{15}\,{\rm GeV}$, we evaluate the sensitivities of future observatories POEMMA and GRAND for indirect dark matter detection via the measurement of neutrino-induced extensive air showers (EAS), compute the Auger and ANITA limits using their last up-to-date sensitivities, and compare them with IceCube limits. We also show that the uncertainties related to the dark matter distribution in the Galactic halo have a large impact on the neutrino flux. We show that a ground-based radio detector such as GRAND can achieve high sensitivities due to its large effective area and high duty cycle. Space-based Cherenkov detectors such as POEMMA that measure the EAS optical Cherenkov signal have the advantage of full-sky coverage and rapid slewing, enabling an optimized SHDM observation strategy focusing on the Galactic Center. We show that increasing the field of view of the Cherenkov detectors can significantly enhance the sensitivity. Moreover, POEMMA's fluorescence observation mode that measures EAS above $20\,$EeV will achieve state-of-the-art sensitivity to SHDM properties at the highest mass scales., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021)

Multi-messenger observations of transient astrophysical sources have the potential to characterize the highest energy accelerators and the most extreme environments in the Universe. Detection of neutrinos, in particular tau neutrinos generated by neutrino oscillations in transit from their sources to Earth, is possible for neutrino energies above 10 PeV using optical Cherenkov detectors imaging upward-moving extensive air showers (EAS). These EAS are produced from Earth interacting tau neutrinos leading to tau leptons that subsequently decay in the atmosphere. We compare neutrino detection sensitivities for generic short- and long-burst transient neutrino sources and sensitivities to the diffuse neutrino flux for the second generation Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB2) balloon-borne mission and the proposed space-based Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission., 8 pages, 6 figures, ICRC 2021 proceedings

Recent theoretical work has explored dark matter accumulation in the Earth and its drift towards the center of the Earth that, for the current age of the Earth, does not necessarily result in a concentration of dark matter ($\chi$) in the Earth's core. We consider a scenario of long-lived ($\tau_\chi\sim 10^{28}$ s), super heavy ($m_\chi=10^7-10^{10}$ GeV) dark matter that decays via $\chi\to \nu_\tau \bar{\nu}_\tau$ or $\chi\to \nu_\mu \bar{\nu}_\mu$. We show that an IceCube-like detector over 10 years can constrain a dark matter density that mirrors the Earth's density or has a uniform density with density fraction $\epsilon_\rho$ combined with the partial decay width $B_{\chi\to \nu_\tau \bar{\nu}_\tau}\Gamma_\chi$ in the range of $(\epsilon_\rho/10^{-10}) B_{\chi\to \nu_\tau}\Gamma_\chi \lesssim 1.5\times 10^{-29}-1.5\times 10^{-28}$ s$^{-1}$. For $\chi\to \nu_\mu \bar{\nu}_\mu$, $m_\chi = 10^8-10^{10}$ GeV and $E_\mu>10^7$ GeV, the range of constraints is $(\epsilon_\rho/10^{-10}) B_{\chi\to \nu_\mu}\Gamma_\chi \lesssim 3\times 10^{-29}-7\times 10^{-28}$ s$^{-1}$., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, matching version accepted for publication in Physical Review D

We compare two different formalisms for modeling the energy deposition of macroscopically sized/massive quark nuggets (a.k.a. macros) in the Earth's atmosphere. We show that for a reference mass of 1 g, there is a discrepancy in the macro luminosity of about 14 orders of magnitude between the predictions of the two formalisms. Armed with our finding we estimate the sensitivity for macro detection at space-based (Mini-EUSO and POEMMA) and suborbital (EUSO-SPB2) experiments., 5 pages revtex, 3 figures

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to accurately observe ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space with sensitivity over the full celestial sky. POEMMA will observe the extensive air showers (EASs) from UHECRs and UHE neutrinos above 20 EeV via air fluorescence. Additionally, POEMMA will observe the Cherenkov signal from upward-moving EASs induced by Earth-interacting tau neutrinos above 20 PeV. The POEMMA spacecraft are designed to quickly re-orientate to follow up transient neutrino sources and obtain unparalleled neutrino flux sensitivity. Developed as a NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission, POEMMA consists of two identical satellites flying in loose formation in 525 km altitude orbits. Each POEMMA instrument incorporates a wide field-of-view (45$^\circ$) Schmidt telescope with over 6 m$^2$ of collecting area. The hybrid focal surface of each telescope includes a fast (1~$\mu$s) near-ultraviolet camera for EAS fluorescence observations and an ultrafast (10~ns) optical camera for Cherenkov EAS observations. In a 5-year mission, POEMMA will provide measurements that open new multi-messenger windows onto the most energetic events in the universe, enabling the study of new astrophysics and particle physics at these otherwise inaccessible energies., Comment: 66 pages, 53 figures; JCAP accepted version

IceCube has observed a flux of cosmic neutrinos, with a "bump" in the energy range $10 \lesssim E/{\rm TeV} \lesssim 100$ that creates a $3\sigma$ tension with gamma-ray data from the Fermi satellite. This has been interpreted as evidence for a population of hidden cosmic-ray accelerators. We propose an alternative explanation of this conundrum on the basis of cold dark matter which decays into sterile neutrinos that after oscillations produce the bump in the cosmic neutrino spectrum., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Note added. In version 3 of arXiv:2011.01632, bounds on the decaying dark matter component are significantly relaxed. Since our fiducial values are comfortably consistent with the corrected bounds, our conclusions remain unchanged

Newborn, strongly magnetized neutron stars (so-called magnetars) surrounded by their stellar or merger ejecta are expected to be sources of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos via decay of mesons produced in hadronic interactions of protons which are accelerated to ultrahigh energies by magnetic dissipation of the spindown energy. We show that not only pions and kaons but also charm hadrons, which are typically neglected due to their small production cross sections, can represent dominant contributions to neutrino fluence at ultrahigh energies, because of their short lifetimes, while the ultrahigh-energy neutrino fluence from pion and kaon production is suppressed at early times due to their significant cooling before their decay. We show that the next-generation detectors such as Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA), Giant Radio Array for Neurtino Detection (GRAND) and IceCube-Gen2 have a good chance of observing neutrinos, primarily originating from charm hadrons, from nearby magnetars. We also show that neutrinos from nearby magnetar-driven merger novae could be observed in the time interval between $10^2$ s and $10^3$ s, where the charm hadron contribution is dominant for neutrino energies above $10^8$ GeV, of relevance to next generation detectors. We also comment on potential impacts of the charm hadron contribution to the diffuse neutrino flux., 13 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in PRD

The production and prompt decays of $D_s$ and $B$ mesons to tau neutrinos and taus can produce a significant number of tau neutrinos in the high rapidity region at the LHC. Heavy flavor decays dominate tau neutrino production in the far-forward region. Using NLO QCD and heavy quark transverse momentum smearing guided by LHCb data on $D_s$ production for rapidity $y=2.0-4.5$, we present a new calculation of the spectrum of tau neutrinos, and for definiteness, the number of events for a 1.0 m radius, 1.0 m length lead detector, located 480 m from the LHC interaction point for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV and ${\cal L}=3000$ fb$^{-1}$. We illustrate how tau neutrino detection in this region could probe a 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing scenario, in the context of the theoretical uncertainties for heavy flavor production.

We investigate tau neutrinos from heavy flavor hadrons that can be explored at a high rapidity LHC experiment. A large number of tau neutrinos can be produced in $pp$ collision at the LHC in the very forward region, where its main source is $D_s^\pm$ mesons since the weak boson contribution is negligible. Abundant production of tau neutrinos will allow the precise study of tau neutrino charged current interactions to test lepton universality. In addition, it will provide the opportunity to probe the mixing between sterile neutrinos and tau neutrinos. We evaluate the fluxes and the event rates of the prompt tau neutrinos as well as the theoretical uncertainty using fits to the experimental data for charm meson production. Also, we describe the sterile neutrino masses and mixing angles that can be constrained by tau neutrinos from the LHC.

We present a new calculation of the energy distribution of high-energy neutrinos from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the kinematical region of very forward rapidities, heavy-flavor production and decay is a source of tau neutrinos that leads to thousands of { charged-current} tau neutrino events in a 1 m long, 1 m radius lead neutrino detector at a distance of 480 m from the interaction region. In our computation, next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections are accounted for in the production cross-sections. Non-perturbative intrinsic-$k_T$ effects are approximated by a simple phenomenological model introducing a Gaussian $k_T$-smearing of the parton distribution functions, which might also mimic perturbative effects due to multiple initial-state soft-gluon emissions. The transition from partonic to hadronic states is described by phenomenological fragmentation functions. To study the effect of various input parameters, theoretical predictions for $D_s^\pm$ production are compared with LHCb data on double-differential cross-sections in transverse momentum and rapidity. The uncertainties related to the choice of the input parameter values, ultimately affecting the predictions of the tau neutrino event distributions, are discussed. We consider a 3+1 neutrino mixing scenario to illustrate the potential for a neutrino experiment to constrain the 3+1 parameter space using tau neutrinos and antineutrinos. We find large theoretical uncertainties in the predictions of the neutrino fluxes in the far-forward region. Untangling the effects of tau neutrino oscillations into sterile neutrinos and distinguishing a 3+1 scenario from the standard scenario with three active neutrino flavours, will be challenging due to the large theoretical uncertainties from QCD., 39 pages, 16 figures

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a potential NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission designed to observe ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space. POEMMA will monitor colossal volumes of the Earth's atmosphere to detect extensive air showers (EASs) produced by extremely energetic cosmic messengers: UHECRs above 20 EeV over the full sky and cosmic neutrinos above 20 PeV. We focus most of this study on the impact of POEMMA for UHECR science by simulating the detector response and mission performance for EAS from UHECRs. We show that POEMMA will provide a significant increase in the statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies over the entire sky. POEMMA will be the first UHECR fluorescence detector deployed in space that will provide high-quality stereoscopic observations of the longitudinal development of air showers. Therefore, it will be able to provide event-by-event estimates of the calorimetric energy and nuclear mass of UHECRs. The particle physics in the interactions limits the interpretation of the shower maximum on an event by event basis. In contrast, the calorimetric energy measurement is significantly less sensitive to the different possible final states in the early interactions. We study the prospects to discover the origin and nature of UHECRs using expectations for measurements of the energy spectrum, the distribution of arrival direction, and the atmospheric column depth at which the EAS longitudinal development reaches maximum. We also explore supplementary science capabilities of POEMMA through its sensitivity to particle interactions at extreme energies and its ability to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos and photons produced by top-down models including cosmic strings and super-heavy dark matter particle decay in the halo of the Milky Way.

We investigate the capability of the Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) in performing Target-of-Opportunity (ToO) neutrino observations. POEMMA will detect tau neutrinos via Cherenkov radiation from their upward-moving extensive air showers. POEMMA will be able to quickly slew ($90^{\circ}$ in 500 s) to the direction of an astrophysical source, which in combination with its orbital speed will provide it with unparalleled capability to follow up transient alerts. We calculate POEMMA's transient sensitivity for two observational modes for its two satellites (ToO-stereo and ToO-dual) and investigate variations in neutrino sensitivity across the sky arising from POEMMA's orbit. We explore separate scenarios for long ($\sim 10^{6}$ s) and short ($\sim 10^3$ s) bursts, accounting for intrusion from the Sun and the Moon in long-duration scenarios. For long bursts, POEMMA will improve the average neutrino sensitivity above 300 PeV by up to a factor of 7 with respect to existing experiments (e.g., IceCube, ANTARES, and Pierre Auger), reaching the level of model predictions for neutrino fluences at these energies from several types of long-duration astrophysical transients (e.g., binary neutron star mergers and tidal disruption events). For short bursts in the optimal case, POEMMA will improve the sensitivity over existing experiments by at least an order of magnitude above 100 PeV. POEMMA's orbit and rapid slewing will provide access to the full celestial sky, including regions not accessible to ground-based experiments. Finally, we discuss the prospects for detecting neutrinos from candidate astrophysical neutrino sources in the nearby universe. Our results demonstrate that with its improved neutrino sensitivity at ultra-high energies and unique full-sky coverage, POEMMA will be an essential component in an expanding multi-messenger network., Comment: 39 pages (18.5 main + 20.5 appendices and references), 18 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. D

For a sterile neutrino with an eV-scale mass and vacuum mixing angle of order $\theta_0\simeq 0.1$, our evaluation of big bang nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave background constraints allow a new gauge sector for sterile neutrino ``secret interactions'' with a gauge boson mass between a few keV and $\sim 100$ keV and sterile gauge boson couplings of order $g_s\simeq 10^{-4}-10^{-2}$. Relic sterile neutrinos with $m_s=1$ eV that interact via gauge bosons with a mass between $5-8$ keV and couplings in this range would distort the spectrum of the diffuse supernova neutrino background flux. We explore the potential for the distortion to be measured at DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande.

Two unusual neutrino events in the Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna (ANITA) appear to have been generated by air showers from a particle emerging from the Earth at angles 25-35 degrees above the horizon. We evaluate the effective aperture for ANITA with a simplified detection model to illustrate the features of the angular dependence of expected events for incident standard model tau neutrinos and for sterile neutrinos that mix with tau neutrinos. We apply our sterile neutrino aperture results to a dark matter scenario with long-lived supermassive dark matter that decay to sterile neutrino-like particles. We find that for up-going air showers from tau decays, from isotropic fluxes of standard model, sterile neutrinos or other particles that couple to the tau through suppressed weak interaction cross sections cannot be responsible for the unusual events., 13 pages, 12 figures

Cosmic neutrinos above a PeV are produced either within astrophysical sources or when ultra-high energy cosmic rays interact in transit through the cosmic background radiation. Detection of these neutrinos will be essential for understanding cosmic ray acceleration, composition and source evolution. By using the Earth as a tau neutrino converter for upward-going extensive air showers from tau decays, balloon-borne and space-based instruments can take advantage of a large volume and mass of the terrestrial neutrino target. The theoretical inputs and uncertainties in determining the tau lepton exit probabilities and their translation to detection acceptance will be discussed in the context of a new calculation we have performed. We quantify the experimental detection capability based on our calculation, including using the Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) concept study response parameters for optical air Cherenkov detection. These case studies are used to illustrate the features and uncertainties in upward tau air shower detection., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2019), held July 24th - August 1st, 2019 in Madison, WI, USA

We describe a new comprehensive, end-to-end simulation package for the modeling of the extensive air shower (EAS) signals from very-high energy (above a PeV) cosmic neutrinos applicable to sub-orbital and space-based observations. The goal is to provide an efficient and practical cosmic neutrino EAS signal generation modeling package to the community that will provide a standard to gauge the neutrino measurement performance of these experiments and aid in their development. The modeling will be performed in such a way to easily be used to provide the neutrino-induced EAS signals delivered to a specific altitude for a given instrumental field-of-view and orientation. In this paper, we discuss the modeling of tau neutrino interactions inside the Earth, propagating the tau-leptons into the atmosphere, modeling the decays, forming composite EASs, generating the air fluorescence, Cherenkov, and radio signals, and the propagation through the atmosphere. Future work on the modeling of atmospheric transmission and scattering effects will include consideration of the uncertainties and more robust modeling of atmospheric and UHECR backgrounds. Additionally, the framework will allow for the calculation of the sky coverage, the pointing requirements for target-of-opportunity follow up observations of transients, and the inclusion of different neutrino interaction cross-sections to allow for the modeling of non-standard physical processes.

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to observe cosmic neutrinos (CNs) above 20 PeV and ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) above 20 EeV over the full sky. The POEMMA mission calls for two identical satellites flying in loose formation, each comprised of a 4-meter wide field-of-view (45 degrees) Schmidt photometer. The hybrid focal surface includes a fast (1 ${\mu}$s) ultraviolet camera for fluorescence observations and an ultrafast (10 ns) optical camera for Cherenkov observations. POEMMA will provide new multi-messenger windows onto the most energetic events in the universe, enabling the study of new astrophysics and particle physics at these otherwise inaccessible energies., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, presented in 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference (Madison). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1907.06217

We perform a new, detailed calculation of the flux and energy spectrum of Earth-emerging $\tau$-leptons generated from the interactions of tau neutrinos and antineutrinos in the Earth. A layered model of the Earth is used to describe the variable density profile of the Earth. Different assumptions regarding the neutrino charged- and neutral-current cross sections as well as the $\tau$-lepton energy loss models are used to quantify the systematic uncertainty from these on the results. A baseline simulation is then used to generate the optical Cherenkov signal from upward-moving extensive air showers generated by the $\tau$-lepton decay in the atmosphere, applicable to a range of space-based instruments. We use this simulation to determine the neutrino sensitivity for $E_\nu>$ 10 PeV for a space-based experiment with performance similar to that for the Probe of Extreme MultiMessenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission currently under study., Comment: 25 pages; version that appears in PRD

We present a new evaluation of the far-forward neutrino plus antineutrino flux and number of events from charm hadron decays in a 400 GeV proton beam dump experiment like the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP). Using next-to-leading order perturbative QCD and a model for intrinsic charm, we include intrinsic transverse momentum effects and other kinematic angular corrections. We compare this flux to a far-forward flux evaluated with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD, without intrinsic transverse momentum, that used the angular distribution of charm quarks rather than the neutrinos from their decays. The tau neutrino plus antineutrino number of events in the perturbative QCD evaluation is reduced by a factor of about three when intrinsic transverse momentum and the full decay kinematics are included. We show that intrinsic charm contributions can significantly enhance the number of events from neutrinos from charm hadron decays. Measurements of the number of events from tau neutrino plus antineutrino interactions and of the muon charge asymmetry as a function of energy can be used to constrain intrinsic charm models., Comment: 39 pages, 18 figures; v2 with revisions of text for clarity, version to be published in JHEP

Sterile neutrinos with mass in the eV-scale and large mixings of order $\theta_0\simeq 0.1$ could explain some anomalies found in short-baseline neutrino oscillation data. Here, we revisit a neutrino portal scenario in which eV-scale sterile neutrinos have self-interactions via a new gauge vector boson $\phi$. Their production in the early Universe via mixing with active neutrinos can be suppressed by the induced effective potential in the sterile sector. We study how different cosmological observations can constrain this model, in terms of the mass of the new gauge boson, $M_\phi$, and its coupling to sterile neutrinos, $g_s$. Then, we explore how to probe part of the allowed parameter space of this particular model with future observations of the diffuse supernova neutrino background by the Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE detectors. For $M_\phi \sim 5-10$~keV and $g_s \sim 10^{-4}-10^{-2}$, as allowed by cosmological constraints, we find that interactions of diffuse supernova neutrinos with relic sterile neutrinos on their way to the Earth would result in significant dips in the neutrino spectrum which would produce unique features in the event spectra observed in these detectors., Comment: 49 pages, 9 figures

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission is being designed to establish charged-particle astronomy with ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmogenic tau neutrinos (CTNs). The study of UHECRs and CTNs from space will yield orders-of-magnitude increase in statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies, and the observation of the cosmogenic flux of neutrinos for a range of UHECR models. These observations should solve the long-standing puzzle of the origin of the highest energy particles ever observed, providing a new window onto the most energetic environments and events in the Universe, while studying particle interactions well beyond accelerator energies. The discovery of CTNs will help solve the puzzle of the origin of UHECRs and begin a new field of Astroparticle Physics with the study of neutrino properties at ultra-high energies., 8 pages, in the Proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC217, Busan, Korea

We consider propagation of high energy earth-skimming taus produced in interactions of astrophysical tau neutrinos. For astrophysical tau neutrinos we take generic power-law flux, $E^{-2}$ and the cosmogenic flux initiated by the protons. We calculate tau energy loss in several approaches, such as dipole models and the phenomenological approach in which parameterization of the $F_2$ is used. We evaluate the tau neutrino charged-current cross section using the same approaches for consistency. We find that uncertainty in the neutrino cross section and in the tau energy loss partially compensate giving very small theoretical uncertainty in the emerging tau flux for distances ranging from $2$ km to $100$ km and for the energy range between $10^6$ GeV and $10^{11}$ GeV, focusing on energies above $10^8$ GeV. When we consider uncertainties in the neutrino cross section, inelasticity in neutrino interactions and the tau energy loss, which are not correlated, i.e. they are not all calculated in the same approach, theoretical uncertainty ranges from about $30\%$ and $60 \%$ at $10^8$ GeV to about factors of 3.3 and 3.8 at $10^{11}$ GeV for the $E^{-2}$ flux and the cosmogenic flux, respectively, for the distance of 10 km rock. The spread in predictions significantly increases for much larger distances, e.g., $\sim 1,000$ km. Most of the uncertainty comes from the treatment of photonuclear interactions of the tau in transit through large distances. We also consider Monte Carlo calculation of the tau propagation and we find that the result for the emerging tau flux is in agreement with the result obtained using analytic approach. Our results are relevant to several experiments that are looking for skimming astrophysical taus, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory, HAWC and Ashra. We evaluate the aperture for the Auger and discuss briefly application to the the other two experiments., Comment: 21 pages and 20 figures

We evaluate the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux using the different QCD models for heavy quark production including the $b$ quark contribution. We include the nuclear correction and find it reduces the fluxes by $10 \% - 50\%$ according to the models. Our heavy quark results are compared with experimental data from RHIC, LHC and LHCb., 6 page, contribution to the proceedings of ISMD2016

We evaluate the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux including nuclear correction and $B$ hadron contribution in the different frameworks: NLO perturbative QCD and dipole models. The nuclear effect is larger in the prompt neutrino flux than in the total charm production cross section, and it reduces the fluxes by $10\% - 30\%$ depending on the model. We also investigate the uncertainty using the QCD scales allowed by the charm cross section data from RHIC and LHC experiments., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the proceedings of ICHEP2016

Reports on progress in physics 79(12), 124201(2016). doi:10.1088/0034-4885/79/12/124201, This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, →τμ3 and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals—scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation., Published by IOP Publ., Bristol

Neutrino production of radio Cherenkov signals in the Moon is the object of radio telescope observations. Depending on the energy range and detection parameters, the dominant contribution to the neutrino signal may come from interactions of the neutrino on the Moon facing the telescope, rather than neutrinos that have traversed a portion of the Moon. Using the approximate analytic expression of the effective lunar aperture from a recent paper by Gayley, Mutel and Jaeger, we evaluate the background from cosmic ray interactions in the lunar regolith. We also consider the modifications to the effective lunar aperture from generic non-standard model neutrino interactions. A background to neutrino signals are radio Cherenkov signals from cosmic ray interactions. For cosmogenic neutrino fluxes, neutrino signals will be difficult to observe because of low neutrino flux at the high energy end and large cosmic ray background in the lower energy range considered here. We show that lunar radio detection of neutrino interactions is best suited to constrain or measure neutrinos from astrophysical sources and probe non-standard neutrino-nucleon interactions such as microscopic black hole production., 16 pages, 19 figures

Prompt neutrinos due to the decay of charmed mesons produced in the atmosphere from cosmic-ray and atmospheric nuclei interactions may be a significant source of background to ultra-high energy neutrino searches above 10 TeV. We re-evaluate this flux using updated charm production cross-sections based on QCD parameters, the charm quark mass, and the range for the factorization and renormalization scales that provide the best description of this data at fixed target experiments, at RHIC, and at LHC. We find that the prompt neutrino flux is reduced from previous results in the literature by a factor between two and eight, depending on the energy. We discuss the implications of our results for current IceCube data., Comment: Submission towards ICHEP2020 Proceedings