Model independent bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos from the angular distribution of $\mathbf{B\to D^*\ellν}$ decays

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bernlochner, Florian U., Fedele, Marco, Kretz, Tim, Nierste, Ulrich, Prim, Markus T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916516365074432
author Bernlochner, Florian U.
Fedele, Marco
Kretz, Tim
Nierste, Ulrich
Prim, Markus T.
author_facet Bernlochner, Florian U.
Fedele, Marco
Kretz, Tim
Nierste, Ulrich
Prim, Markus T.
contents In this paper we study the bounds that can be inferred on New Physics couplings to heavy sterile neutrinos $N$ from the recent measurements performed by the Belle collaboration of the angular analysis of $B\to D^*\ell\barν_\ell$ decays, with $\ell=e,μ$. Indeed, a sterile neutrino $N$ may lead to competing $B\to D^*\ell\bar N$ decays and Belle might have measured an incoherent sum of these two independent channels. After reviewing the theoretical formalism required to describe this phenomenon in full generality, we first perform a bump hunt in the $M_{\rm miss}^2$ Belle distribution to search for evidences of an additional massive neutrino. We found in such a way a small hint at $M_{\rm miss}^2 \sim (350\ {\rm MeV})^2$. However, the Belle angular analysis is sensitive to $N$ masses up to $\mathcal{O}$(50 MeV), preventing us to further inspect this hint. Nevertheless, we study the potential impact of this additional channel in the allowed mass range on the measured angular distributions and extract model-independent bounds on the new-physics couplings which could mediate such an interaction. In particular, in the mass window here inspected, we obtain the most stringent bounds for vector and left-handed scalar operators to date.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_11945
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Model independent bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos from the angular distribution of $\mathbf{B\to D^*\ellν}$ decays
Bernlochner, Florian U.
Fedele, Marco
Kretz, Tim
Nierste, Ulrich
Prim, Markus T.
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
In this paper we study the bounds that can be inferred on New Physics couplings to heavy sterile neutrinos $N$ from the recent measurements performed by the Belle collaboration of the angular analysis of $B\to D^*\ell\barν_\ell$ decays, with $\ell=e,μ$. Indeed, a sterile neutrino $N$ may lead to competing $B\to D^*\ell\bar N$ decays and Belle might have measured an incoherent sum of these two independent channels. After reviewing the theoretical formalism required to describe this phenomenon in full generality, we first perform a bump hunt in the $M_{\rm miss}^2$ Belle distribution to search for evidences of an additional massive neutrino. We found in such a way a small hint at $M_{\rm miss}^2 \sim (350\ {\rm MeV})^2$. However, the Belle angular analysis is sensitive to $N$ masses up to $\mathcal{O}$(50 MeV), preventing us to further inspect this hint. Nevertheless, we study the potential impact of this additional channel in the allowed mass range on the measured angular distributions and extract model-independent bounds on the new-physics couplings which could mediate such an interaction. In particular, in the mass window here inspected, we obtain the most stringent bounds for vector and left-handed scalar operators to date.
title Model independent bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos from the angular distribution of $\mathbf{B\to D^*\ellν}$ decays
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.11945