Search for quantum gravity using astrophysical neutrino flavour with IceCube

Abbasi R, Ackermann M, Adams J, Aguilar JA, Ahlers M, Ahrens M, Alameddine JM, Alispach C, Alves AA, Amin NM, Andeen K, Anderson T, Anton G, Argüelles C, Ashida Y, Axani S, Bai X, Balagopal V A, Barbano A, Barwick SW, Bastian B, Basu V, Baur S, Bay R, Beatty JJ, Becker KH, Tjus JB, Bellenghi C, BenZvi S, Berley D, Bernardini E, Besson DZ, Binder G, Bindig D, Blaufuss E, Blot S, Boddenberg M, Bontempo F, Borowka J, Böser S, Botner O, Böttcher J, Bourbeau E, Bradascio F, Braun J, Brinson B, Bron S, Brostean-Kaiser J, Browne S, Burgman A, Burley RT, Busse RS, Campana MA, Carnie-Bronca EG, Chen C, Chen Z, Chirkin D, Choi K, Clark BA, Clark K, Classen L, Coleman A, Collin GH, Conrad JM, Coppin P, Correa P, Cowen DF, Cross R, Dappen C, Dave P, Clercq CD, DeLaunay JJ, López DD, Dembinski H, Deoskar K, Desai A, Desiati P, Vries KD, Wasseige Gd, With Md, DeYoung T, Diaz A, Díaz-Vélez JC, Dittmer M, Dujmovic H, Dunkman M, DuVernois MA, Dvorak E, Ehrhardt T, Eller P, Engel R, Erpenbeck H, Evans J, Evenson PA, Fan KL, Farrag K, Fazely AR, Feigl N, Fiedlschuster S, Fienberg AT, Filimonov K, Finley C, Fischer L, Fox D, Franckowiak A, Friedman E, Fritz A, Fürst P, Gaisser TK, Gallagher J, Ganster E, Garcia A, Garrappa S, Gerhardt L, Ghadimi A, Glaser C, Glauch T, Glüsenkamp T, Gonzalez JG, Goswami S, Grant D, Grégoire T, Griswold S, Günther C, Gutjahr P, Haack C, Hallgren A, Halliday R, Halve L, Halzen F, Minh MH, Hanson K, Hardin J, Harnisch AA, Haungs A, Hebecker D, Helbing K, Henningsen F, Hettinger EC, Hickford S, Hignight J, Hill C, Hill GC, Hoffman KD, Hoffmann R, Hokanson-Fasig B, Hoshina K, Huang F, Huber M, Huber T, Hultqvist K, Hünnefeld M, Hussain R, Hymon K, In S, Iovine N, Ishihara A, Jansson M, Japaridze GS, Jeong M, Jin M, Jones BJ, Kang D, Kang W, Kang X, Kappes A, Kappesser D, Kardum L, Karg T, Karl M, Karle A, Katori T, Katz U, Kauer M, Kellermann M, Kelley JL, Kheirandish A, Kin K, Kintscher T, Kiryluk J, Klein SR, Koirala R, Kolanoski H, Kontrimas T, Köpke L, Kopper C, Kopper S, Koskinen DJ, Koundal P, Kovacevich M, Kowalski M, Kozynets T, Kun E, Kurahashi N, Lad N, Gualda CL, Lanfranchi JL, Larson MJ, Lauber F, Lazar JP, Lee JW, Leonard K, Leszczyńska A, Li Y, Lincetto M, Liu QR, Liubarska M, Lohfink E, Mariscal CJ, Lu L, Lucarelli F, Ludwig A, Luszczak W, Lyu Y, Ma WY, Madsen J, Mahn KB, Makino Y, Mancina S, Mandalia S, Mariş IC, Martinez-Soler I, Maruyama R, Mase K, McElroy T, McNally F, Mead JV, Meagher K, Mechbal S, Medina A, Meier M, Meighen-Berger S, Micallef J, Mockler D, Montaruli T, Moore RW, Morse R, Moulai M, Naab R, Nagai R, Naumann U, Necker J, Nguyên LV, Niederhausen H, Nisa MU, Nowicki SC, Pollmann AO, Oehler M, Oeyen B, Olivas A, O’Sullivan E, Pandya H, Pankova DV, Park N, Parker GK, Paudel EN, Paul L, de los Heros CP, Peters L, Peterson J, Philippen S, Pieper S, Pittermann M, Pizzuto A, Plum M, Popovych Y, Porcelli A, Rodriguez MP, Price PB, Pries B, Przybylski GT, Raab C, Raissi A, Rameez M, Rawlins K, Rea IC, Rehman A, Reichherzer P, Reimann R, Renzi G, Resconi E, Reusch S, Rhode W, Richman M, Riedel B, Roberts EJ, Robertson S, Roellinghoff G, Rongen M, Rott C, Ruhe T, Ryckbosch D, Cantu DR, Safa I, Saffer J, Herrera SE, Sandrock A, Sandroos J, Santander M, Sarkar S, Sarkar S, Satalecka K, Schaufel M, Schieler H, Schindler S, Schmidt T, Schneider A, Schneider J, Schröder FG, Schumacher L, Schwefer G, Sclafani S, Seckel D, Seunarine S, Sharma A, Shefali S, Silva M, Skrzypek B, Smithers B, Snihur R, Soedingrekso J, Soldin D, Spannfellner C, Spiczak GM, Spiering C, Stachurska J, Stamatikos M, Stanev T, Stein R, Stettner J, Steuer A, Stezelberger T, Stürwald T, Stuttard T, Sullivan GW, Taboada I, Ter-Antonyan S, Tilav S, Tischbein F, Tollefson K, Tönnis C, Toscano S, Tosi D, Trettin A, Tselengidou M, Tung CF, Turcati A, Turcotte R, Turley CF, Twagirayezu JP, Ty B, Elorrieta MA, Valtonen-Mattila N, Vandenbroucke J, van Eijndhoven N, Vannerom D, van Santen J, Verpoest S, Walck C, Watson TB, Weaver C, Weigel P, Weindl A, Weiss MJ, Weldert J, Wendt C, Werthebach J, Weyrauch M, Whitehorn N, Wiebusch CH, Williams DR, Wolf M, Woschnagg K, Wrede G, Wulff J, Xu XW, Yanez JP, Yoshida S, Yu S, Yuan T, Zhang Z, Zhelnin P (2022)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

DOI: 10.1038/s41567-022-01762-1

Abstract

Along their long propagation from production to detection, neutrinos undergo flavour conversions that convert their types or flavours1,2. High-energy astrophysical neutrinos propagate unperturbed over a billion light years in vacuum3 and are sensitive to small effects caused by new physics. Effects of quantum gravity4 are expected to appear at the Planck energy scale. Such a high-energy universe would have existed only immediately after the Big Bang and is inaccessible by human technologies. On the other hand, quantum gravity effects may exist in our low-energy vacuum5–8, but are suppressed by inverse powers of the Planck energy. Measuring the coupling of particles to such small effects is difficult via kinematic observables, but could be observable through flavour conversions. Here we report a search with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, using astrophysical neutrino flavours9,10 to search for new space–time structure. We did not find any evidence of anomalous flavour conversion in the IceCube astrophysical neutrino flavour data. We apply the most stringent limits of any known technologies, down to 10−42 GeV−2 with Bayes factor greater than 10 on the dimension-six operators that parameterize the space–time defects. We thus unambiguously reach the parameter space of quantum-gravity-motivated physics.

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How to cite

APA:

Abbasi, R., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J.A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M.,... Zhelnin, P. (2022). Search for quantum gravity using astrophysical neutrino flavour with IceCube. Nature Physics. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01762-1

MLA:

Abbasi, R., et al. "Search for quantum gravity using astrophysical neutrino flavour with IceCube." Nature Physics (2022).

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