Testing the dark origin of neutrino masses with oscillation experiments
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866912503526588416 |
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| author | Cheek, Andrew Visinelli, Luca Zhang, Hong-Yi |
| author_facet | Cheek, Andrew Visinelli, Luca Zhang, Hong-Yi |
| contents | The origin of neutrino masses remains unknown to date. One popular idea involves interactions between neutrinos and ultralight dark matter, described as fields or particles with masses $m_ϕ\ll 10\,\mathrm{eV}$. Due to the large phase-space number density, this type of dark matter exists in coherent states and can be effectively described by an oscillating classical field. As a result, neutrino mass-squared differences undergo field-induced interference in spacetime, potentially generating detectable effects in oscillation experiments. We demonstrate that if $m_ϕ\gg 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$, the mechanism becomes sensitive to dark matter density fluctuations, which suppresses the oscillatory behavior of flavor-changing probabilities as a function of neutrino propagation distance in a model-independent way, thereby ruling out this regime. Furthermore, by analyzing data from the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND), a benchmark long-baseline reactor experiment, we show that the hypothesis of a dark origin for the neutrino masses is disfavored for $m_ϕ\ll 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$, compared to the case of constant mass values in vacuum. This result holds at more than the 4$σ$ level across different datasets and parameter choices. The mass range $10^{-17}\,\mathrm{eV} \lesssim m_ϕ\lesssim 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$ can be further tested in current and future oscillation experiments by searching for time variations (rather than periodicity) in oscillation parameters. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_08439 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Testing the dark origin of neutrino masses with oscillation experiments Cheek, Andrew Visinelli, Luca Zhang, Hong-Yi High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory The origin of neutrino masses remains unknown to date. One popular idea involves interactions between neutrinos and ultralight dark matter, described as fields or particles with masses $m_ϕ\ll 10\,\mathrm{eV}$. Due to the large phase-space number density, this type of dark matter exists in coherent states and can be effectively described by an oscillating classical field. As a result, neutrino mass-squared differences undergo field-induced interference in spacetime, potentially generating detectable effects in oscillation experiments. We demonstrate that if $m_ϕ\gg 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$, the mechanism becomes sensitive to dark matter density fluctuations, which suppresses the oscillatory behavior of flavor-changing probabilities as a function of neutrino propagation distance in a model-independent way, thereby ruling out this regime. Furthermore, by analyzing data from the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND), a benchmark long-baseline reactor experiment, we show that the hypothesis of a dark origin for the neutrino masses is disfavored for $m_ϕ\ll 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$, compared to the case of constant mass values in vacuum. This result holds at more than the 4$σ$ level across different datasets and parameter choices. The mass range $10^{-17}\,\mathrm{eV} \lesssim m_ϕ\lesssim 10^{-14}\,\mathrm{eV}$ can be further tested in current and future oscillation experiments by searching for time variations (rather than periodicity) in oscillation parameters. |
| title | Testing the dark origin of neutrino masses with oscillation experiments |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.08439 |