Lepton Pair Čerenkov Radiation Emitted by Tachyonic Neutrinos: Lorentz-Covariant Approach and IceCube Data

Ulrich D. Jentschura, Robert Ehrlich
2016 Advances in High Energy Physics  
Current experiments do not exclude the possibility that one or more neutrinos are very slightly superluminal or that they have a very small tachyonic mass. Important bounds on the size of a hypothetical tachyonic neutrino mass term are set by lepton pair Čerenkov radiation (LPCR), that is, by the decay channelν→e+e-ν, which proceeds via a virtualZ0boson. Here, we use a Lorentz-invariant dispersion relation which leads to very tight constraints on the tachyonic mass of neutrinos; we also
more » ... e decay and energy loss rates. A possible cutoff seen in the IceCube neutrino spectrum forEν>2 PeV, due to the potential onset of LPCR, is discussed.
doi:10.1155/2016/4764981 fatcat:4xvjc3zmyrfyppz5plkh5rwzkq