Heavy neutral leptons from kaons in effective field theory

Abstract

In the framework of the low-energy effective theory containing, in addition to the Standard-Model fields, heavy neutral leptons (HNLs), we compute the decay rates of neutral and charged kaons into HNLs. We consider both lepton-number-conserving and lepton-number-violating four-fermion operators, taking into account also the contribution of active-heavy neutrino mixing. Assuming that the produced HNLs are long-lived, we perform simulations and calculate the sensitivities of future long-lived-particle (LLP) detectors at the high-luminosity LHC as well as the near detector of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE-ND) to the considered scenario. When applicable, we also recast the existing bounds on the minimal mixing case obtained by NA62, T2K, and PS191. Our findings show that, while the future LHC LLP detectors can probe currently allowed parameter space only in certain benchmark scenarios, DUNE-ND should be sensitive to parameter space beyond the current bounds in almost all the benchmark scenarios, and, for some of the effective operators considered, it can even probe new-physics scales in excess of 3000 TeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024