Neutrino oscillations provide compelling evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model, while the weakly interacting nature of neutrinos makes them powerful probes of new interactions and hidden sectors. In this work, we investigate a \textit{dark neutrino portal} scenario in which neutrino mass generation is linked to a light dark sector charged under a new $U(1)_D$ gauge symmetry. While Standard Model fields remain neutral under $U(1)_D$, the dark neutrino sector is charged and communicates with the Standard Model exclusively through active--dark neutrino mixing. The associated neutrinophilic mediator induces ultra-long-range interactions, whereby electrons and neutrons in the Earth, Moon, Sun, Milky Way, and the cosmological matter distribution generate sizable matter potentials that modify neutrino oscillations. We explore the sensitivity of the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), whose long baseline and pronounced matter effects make it uniquely suited to probe such interactions. We show that DUNE can access previously unexplored regions of parameter space and demonstrate that the same underlying coupling can simultaneously give rise to sizable neutrino self-interactions, including regions relevant for alleviating the Hubble tension, while remaining consistent with current neutrino oscillation constraints.
The combination of the long baseline and characteristic energies of solar neutrinos offers an ideal framework to probe invisible neutrino decay. In this work we present the first constraint on invisible solar-neutrino decay using coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, recently observed in dark matter direct detection experiments. Through a combined analysis of nuclear-recoil data from XENONnT, PandaX-4T, and LUX-ZEPLIN, we constrain the lifetime of the neutrino mass state $\nu_{2}$, obtaining a bound already comparable in strength to that from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. We further evaluate the sensitivity that could be reached by a future xenon-based dark matter detector. For this projection, we extend the analysis to electronic-recoil data, estimating the impact of detecting lower-energy solar neutrinos from the $pp$-chain via elastic scattering off electrons. This channel would allow us to place strong constraints on the lifetimes of both the $\nu_{1}$ and $\nu_{2}$ mass eigenstates. Our results show that, with nominal future exposures, nuclear-recoil data would improve the current bound by about one order of magnitude, while electronic-recoil data would open a new detection channel for low-energy solar neutrinos, surpassing existing dedicated solar-neutrino bounds by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude.
Martin Beccaria, V. Beligotti, V. Romeri et al.· 0 citations
Neutrino self-interactions mediated by a light scalar offer a compelling resolution to cosmological tensions and may naturally arise in neutrino mass generation mechanisms. When the scalar also couples to a light dark-sector fermion, supernova neutrinos can resonantly annihilate with the cosmic neutrino background (C$\nu$B) into invisible dark radiation, depleting the flux en route to Earth. We use this depletion to constrain the neutrino-scalar coupling from the SN1987A data. Within a Bayesian framework we analyze the data for two supernova neutrino emission models, a parameterized model and a 2D hydrodynamic simulation, and for two coupling types, a mass-independent one and a mass-proportional one. Our results show that new-physics limits from SN1987A cannot be quoted independently of the heavy-flavor emission, the flavor conversion, or the coupling structure. Finally, we forecast that a future high-statistics burst recorded by Hyper-Kamiokande would restore a meaningful upper bound even when flavor conversion is included.
Christina Gao, Ke Hu, Kun-Feng Lyu et al.· 0 citations
Ultralight gauge bosons associated with flavour-dependent leptonic symmetries generate long-range potentials that can modify neutrino flavour evolution over astrophysical distances. We investigate the sensitivity of neutronization-burst neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae for such interactions in the anomaly-free $U(1)'_{L_e-L_\mu}$ framework. Incorporating the long-range potential into supernova neutrino oscillations, we simulate the corresponding signal in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) using a realistic detector response of its 40 kt Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber. We show that in the range where the long-range potential dominates over or is comparable to the vacuum oscillation term, the electron-neutrino survival probability can be significantly modified. This would produce observable distortions in the time and energy distributions of the neutronization burst neutrino spectra. Our results demonstrate that future observations of galactic supernova neutrinos, particularly from a nearby event such as Betelgeuse, can provide a sensitive and complementary probe of flavour-dependent long-range leptonic interactions.
Heavy Neutral Lepton (HNL)-mediated t-channel processes provide a unique opportunity to probe mass scales beyond the kinematic reach of direct production at high-energy colliders. We revisit these processes using the vector boson scattering channel $WW\to\ell\ell$ at the LHC as a case study, highlighting the essential role of the light neutrinos in restoring the proper high-energy unitary behavior of the scattering amplitude. Their inclusion, overlooked in some previous studies, leads to destructive interference that strongly suppresses lepton number violating signatures, demonstrating that a consistent treatment of the full seesaw spectrum qualitatively alters the phenomenology of t-channel HNL searches. This motivates the exploration of lepton number conserving but lepton flavor violating final states instead. We present a detailed analysis of the $pp\to e\mu jj$ channel and show that it provides a promising probe of TeV-scale HNLs in low-scale seesaw scenarios with sizable active-sterile mixing, extending the LHC sensitivity beyond existing direct searches.
C. García-García, Manuel González-López, Xabier Marcano et al.· 0 citations
We investigate the sensitivity of the Pierre Auger Observatory to physics beyond the Standard Model arising from magnetic-moment-induced transitions between active and heavy sterile neutrinos. Such dipole portal interactions can enhance neutrino-nucleon cross sections above a kinematic threshold set by the sterile neutrino mass, leading to observable modifications of neutrino detection rates at ultrahigh energies (UHE). We estimate the impact of these interactions on both down-going and Earth-skimming neutrino detection channels, the contrasting responses of which enable discrimination between an enhanced neutrino flux and a modified interaction cross section. Using the non-observation of UHE neutrino candidates, we derive neutrino-flux-dependent constraints with 90% confidence-level on the transition magnetic moment for sterile neutrino masses in the range 1 TeV-100 TeV. Under the assumed flux scenarios, the resulting flavor-independent limits extend existing bounds into previously unexplored parameter space.
T. P. A. A. Halim, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta et al.· 0 citations
We consider the hypothesis that neutrino masses are generated by a coupling to an ultra-light (pseudo-)scalar field, which provides the dark matter in the universe. This leads to time-varying neutrino masses with a frequency set by the dark matter mass, with implications for neutrino oscillation data. We use that dark matter is in a virialised state in the galaxy and provide a detailed discussion of the relevant time scales. Using data from the T2K, RENO and JUNO experiments, we show that for dark matter masses smaller than about $3\times 10^{-8}$eV down to the smallest allowed dark matter mass of about $10^{-21}$eV only a fraction of between 9\% to 54\% of the total neutrino mass can arise from the coupling to the background scalar, depending on the value of the scalar mass. Future data from JUNO may improve these limits down to 1\% in certain regions of scalar masses. We focus on a real scalar field, but most of our results hold also for a complex scalar.
Kierthika Chathirathas, Sabya Sachi Chatterjee, T. Schwetz· 0 citations
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