Neutrino secret self-interactions: a booster shot for the cosmic neutrino background

Abstract

Neutrinos might interact among themselves through forces that have so far remained hidden. Throughout the history of the Universe, such secret interactions could lead to scatterings between the neutrinos from supernova explosions and the non-relativistic relic neutrinos left over from the Big Bang. Such scatterings can boost the cosmic neutrino background (CνB) to energies of O(MeV), making it, in principle, observable in experiments searching for the diffuse supernova neutrino background. Assuming a model-independent four-Fermi interaction, we determine the upscattered cosmic neutrino flux, and derive constraints on such secret interactions from the latest results from Super-Kamiokande. Furthermore, we also study prospects for detection of the boosted flux in future lead-based coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments.

Probing non-standard neutrino interactions with a light boson from next galactic and diffuse supernova neutrinos

“…Such interactions are constrained by the observation of SN 1987A neutrino burst [50,54]. In addition, considerations of neutrino self-interactions mediated by a new light boson in the SN core [55][56][57][58][59] as well as the scattering between SN neutrinos and the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CνB) [56,60,61] impose constraints on large non-standard neutrino interactions by the SN 1987A data [56,60] and the Super-Kamiokande data [61]. Such large neutrino interactions with a light boson can also alter the dynamics of the core-collapse and can be constrained [62,63].…”

Energy-dependent boosted dark matter from diffuse supernova neutrino background

“…Furthermore, these interactions facilitate DM scattering off free leptons encountered on their journey towards Earth. We note that analogous boosting of DM can also be achieved in the context of hadrophilic DM models JCAP07(2024)045 due to energetic hadronic interactions of DM with cosmic rays, which has been extensively explored [13,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Such DM interactions enable probing lighter sub-GeV DM masses with nucleon scattering by overcoming kinematic thresholds which impede cold non-relativistic DM searches in conventional noble element detectors [44].…”

“…Furthermore, other future experiments such as Theia [57], as well as those relying on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering for detection [58][59][60], also exhibit promising capabilities for DSNB detection. The anticipated discovery of the DSNB also facilitates exploration of new physics beyond the SM [13,35,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67].…”

The diffuse supernova neutrino background as a probe of late-time neutrino mass generation

“…This isotropic, time-independent flux of neutrinos can be computed with precise knowledge of the underlying cosmology and the rate at which SNe happen in the Universe. The DSNB can be used as an excellent astrophysical laboratory to probe fundamental particle physics [19][20][21].…”