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Author (up) Fischer, O.; Pattnaik, B.; Zurita, J.
Title Testing Heavy Neutral Leptons in Cosmic Ray Beam Dump experiments Type Journal Article
Year 2023 Publication Journal of High Energy Physics Abbreviated Journal J. High Energy Phys.
Volume 07 Issue 7 Pages 193 - 24pp
Keywords Cosmic Rays; Sterile or Heavy Neutrinos; New Light Particles
Abstract In this work, we discuss the possibility to test Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) using “Cosmic Ray Beam Dump” experiments. In analogy with terrestrial beam dump experiments, where a beam first hits a target and is then absorbed by a shield, we consider high-energy incident cosmic rays impinging on the Earth's atmosphere and then the Earth's surface. We focus here on HNL production from atmospherically produced kaon, pion and D-meson decays, and discuss the possible explanation of the appearing Cherenkov showers observed by the SHALON Cherenkov telescope and the ultra-high energy events detected by the neutrino experiment ANITA. We show that these observations can not be explained with a long-lived HNL, as the relevant parameter space is excluded by existing constraints. Then we propose two new experimental setups that are inspired by these experiments, namely a Cherenkov telescope pointing at a sub-horizontal angle and shielded by the mountain cliff at Mount Thor, and a geostationary satellite that observes part of the Sahara desert. We show that the Cherenkov telescope at Mount Thor can probe currently untested HNL parameter space for masses below the kaon mass. We also show that the geostationary satellite experiment can significantly increase the HNL parameter space coverage in the whole mass range from 10 MeV up to 2 GeV and test neutrino mixing |U-& alpha;4|(2) down to 10(-11) for masses around 300 MeV.
Address [Fischer, Oliver] Univ Liverpool, Dept Math Sci, Liverpool L69 3BX, England, Email: Oliver.Fischer@liverpool.ac.uk;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Springer Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1029-8479 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:001037689200008 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 5615
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