VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Shoemaker, Ian M."

Browsing by Author "Shoemaker, Ian M."

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Active-to-sterile neutrino dipole portal and the XENON1T excess
Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tsai, Yu-Dai; Wyenberg, Jason (American Physical Society, 2021-12-27)
In this paper, we find that a magnetic transition dipole moment between tau and sterile neutrinos can account for the XENON1T excess events. Unlike the ordinary neutrino dipole moment, the introduction of the new sterile mass scale allows for astrophysical bounds to be suppressed. Interestingly, the best-fit regions that are compatible with the SN1987A imply either boron-8 as the source flux. We find that sterile neutrinos in the similar to(500-800) keV mass range are capable of evading astrophysical constraints while being able to successfully explain the XENON1T event rate. We also set new constraints on the dipole portal based on the Xenon 1T data. The sterile neutrino in the best fit parameter space may have significant effects on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). We show the region in which a low reheating temperature of the Universe may allow the BBN constraints to be alleviated.
Axionlike Particles at Future Neutrino Experiments: Closing the Cosmological Triangle
Brdar, Vedran; Dutta, Bhaskar; Jang, Wooyoung; Kim, Doojin; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra; Thompson, Adrian; Yu, Jaehoon (2021-05-17)
Axionlike particles (ALPs) provide a promising direction in the search for new physics, while a wide range of models incorporate ALPs. We point out that future neutrino experiments, such as DUNE, possess competitive sensitivity to ALP signals. The high-intensity proton beam impinging on a target can not only produce copious amounts of neutrinos, but also cascade photons that are created from charged particle showers stopping in the target. Therefore, ALPs interacting with photons can be produced (often energetically) with high intensity via the Primakoff effect and then leave their signatures at the near detector through the inverse Primakoff scattering or decays to a photon pair. Moreover, the high-capability near detectors allow for discrimination between ALP signals and potential backgrounds, improving the signal sensitivity further. We demonstrate that a DUNE-like detector can explore a wide range of parameter space in ALP-photon coupling g(a gamma) vs ALP mass m(a), including some regions unconstrained by existing bounds; the "cosmological triangle" will be fully explored and the sensitivity limits would reach up to m(a) similar to 3-4 GeV and down to g(a gamma) similar to 10(-8) GeV-1.
Bounds on cosmic ray-boosted dark matter in simplified models and its corresponding neutrino-floor
Dent, James B.; Dutta, Bhaskar; Newstead, Jayden L.; Shoemaker, Ian M. (2020-06-15)
We study direct detection bounds on cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter in simplified models including light mediators. We find that the energy dependence in the scattering cross section is significant, and produces stronger bounds than previously found (which assumed constant cross sections) by many orders of magnitude at low dark matter mass. Finally, we compute the "neutrino-floor" that will limit future direct detection searches for cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter. While we focus on vector interactions for illustration, we emphasize that the energy dependence is critical in determining accurate bounds on any particle physics model of dark matter-cosmic ray interactions from experimental data on this scenario.
Cosmic-ray upscattered inelastic dark matter
Bell, Nicole F.; Dent, James B.; Dutta, Bhaskar; Ghosh, Sumit; Kumar, Jason; Newstead, Jayden L.; Shoemaker, Ian M. (American Physical Society, 2021-10-21)
Light nonrelativistic components of the galactic dark matter halo elude direct detection constraints because they lack the kinetic energy to create an observable recoil. However, cosmic rays can upscatter dark matter to significant energies, giving direct detection experiments access to previously unreachable regions of parameter space at very low dark matter mass. In this work we extend the cosmic-ray dark matter formalism to models of inelastic dark matter and show that previously inaccessible regions of the mass-splitting p ammeter space can be probed. Conventional direct detection of nonrelativistic halo dark matter is limited to mass splittings of delta similar to 10 keV and is highly mass dependent. We find that including the effect of cosmic-ray upscattering can extend the reach to mass splittings of delta similar to 100 MeV and maintain that reach at much lower dark matter mass.
Dark matter-neutrino interconversion at COHERENT, direct detection, and the early Universe
Hurtado, Nicholas; Mir, Hana; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Welch, Eli; Wyenberg, Jason (2020-07-14)
We study a dark matter (DM) model in which the dominant coupling to the standard model occurs through a neutrino-DM-scalar coupling. The new singlet scalar will generically have couplings to nuclei/electrons arising from renormalizable Higgs portal interactions. As a result, the DM particle X can convert into a neutrino via scattering on a target nucleus N: X + N -> nu + N, leading to striking signatures at direct detection experiments. Similarly, DM can be produced in neutrino scattering events at neutrino experiments: nu + N -> X + N, predicting spectral distortions at experiments such as COHERENT. Furthermore, the model allows for late kinetic decoupling of dark matter with implications for small-scale structure. At low masses, we find that COHERENT and late kinetic decoupling produce the strongest constraints on the model, while at high masses the leading constraints come from DM down-scattering at XENON1T and Borexino. Future improvement will come from CavNS data, ultralow threshold direct detection, and rare kaon decays.
Extending the reach of leptophilic boson searches at DUNE and MiniBooNE with bremsstrahlung and resonant production
Capozzi, Francesco; Dutta, Bhaskar; Gurung, Gajendra; Jang, Wooyoung; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Thompson, Adrian; Yu, Jaehoon (American Physical Society, 2021-12-10)
New gauge bosons coupling to leptons are simple and well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. We study the sensitivity to gauged L-mu- L-e, L-e - L-tau and L-mu- L-tau both with the existing beam dump mode data of MiniBooNE and with the DUNE near detector. We find that including bremsstrahlung and resonant production of Z' which decays to e(+/-) and mu(+/-) final states leads to a significant improvement in existing bounds, especially for L-mu- L-e and L-e - L-tau for DUNE while competitive constraints can be achieved with the existing data from the MiniBooNE's beam dump run.
Gamma ray signals from cosmic ray scattering on axionlike particles
Dent, James B.; Dutta, Bhaskar; Newstead, Jayden L.; Rodriguez, Alejandro; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra; Arellano, Natalia Tapia (2021-09-28)
Dark matter (DM) may be comprised of axionlike particles (ALPs) with couplings to photons and the standard model fermions. In this paper, we study photon signals arising from cosmic ray (CR) electron scattering on background ALPs. For a range of masses we find that these bounds can place competitive new constraints on the ALP-electron coupling, although in many models lifetime constraints may supersede these bounds. In addition to current Fermi constraints, we also consider future e-Astrogram bounds which will have greater sensitivity to ALP-CR induced gamma-rays.
Heavy neutrino searches through double-bang events at Super-Kamiokande, DUNE, and Hyper-Kamiokande
Atkinson, M. C.; Coloma, Pilar; Martinez-Soler, Ivan; Rocco, Noemi; Shoemaker, Ian M. (2022-04-28)
Abstract A variety of new physics scenarios allows for neutrinos to up-scatter into a heavy neutral lepton state. For a range of couplings and neutrino energies, the heavy neutrino may travel some distance before decaying to visible final states. When both the up-scattering and decay occur within the detector volume, these “double bang” events produce distinctive phenomenology with very low background. In this work, we first consider the current sensitivity at Super-Kamiokande via the atmospheric neutrino flux, and find current data may already provide new constraints. We then examine projected future sensitivity at DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande, including both atmospheric and beam flux contributions to double-bang signals.
Mass distribution of magnetized quark-nugget dark matter and comparison with requirements and observations
VanDevender, J. Pace; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Sloan, T.; VanDevender, Aaron P.; Ulmen, Benjamin A. (2020-10-21)
Quark nuggets are a candidate for dark matter consistent with the Standard Model. Previous models of quark nuggets have investigated properties arising from their being composed of strange, up, and down quarks and have not included any effects caused by their self-magnetic field. However, Tatsumi found that the core of a magnetar star may be a quark nugget in a ferromagnetic state with core magnetic field Bsurface = 1012±1 T. We apply Tatsumi’s result to quark-nugget dark-matter and report results on aggregation of magnetized quark nuggets (MQNs) after formation from the quark-gluon plasma until expansion of the universe freezes out the mass distribution to ~ 10−24 kg to ~ 1014 kg. Aggregation overcomes weak-interaction decay. Computed mass distributions show MQNs are consistent with requirements for dark matter and indicate that geologic detectors (craters in peat bogs) and space-based detectors (satellites measuring radio-frequency emissions after passage through normal matter) should be able to detect MQN dark matter. Null and positive observations narrow the range of a key parameter Bo ~ Bsurface to 1 × 1011 T < Bo ≤ 3 × 1012 T.
Milli-magnetic monopole dark matter and the survival of galactic magnetic fields
Graesser, Michael L.; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Arellano, Natalia Tapia (Springer, 2022-03-16)
Dark sectors with Abelian gauge symmetries can interact with ordinary matter via kinetic mixing. In such scenarios, magnetic monopoles of a broken dark U(1) will appear in our sector as confined milli-magnetically charged objects under ordinary electromagnetism. Halo ellipticity constraints are shown to significantly bound the strength of dark magnetic Coulomb monopole interactions. The bound magnetic monopole ground state, which in vacuum is stable and has no magnetic charge or moment, is shown to become quantum mechanically unstable in the presence of an external, ordinary magnetic field. If these states contribute sizably to the local dark matter density, they extract significant energy from the galactic magnetic field. We revise and extend this "Parker Bound" on galactic magnetic energy loss to milli-magnetic monopoles which leads to the strongest existing constraints on these states, satisfying our halo ellipticity bounds, over a wide range of magnetic monopole masses.
Neutrino portals, terrestrial upscattering, and atmospheric neutrinos
Gustafson, R. Andrew; Plestid, Ryan; Shoemaker, Ian M. (American Physical Society, 2022-11)
We consider the upscattering of atmospheric neutrinos in the interior of Earth producing heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) which subsequently decay inside large volume detectors (e.g., Super-Kamiokande or DUNE). We compute the flux of upscattered HNLs arriving at a detector and the resultant event rate of visible decay products. Using Super-Kamiokande's atmospheric neutrino dataset we find new leading constraints for dipole couplings to any flavor with HNL masses between roughly 10 and 100 MeV. For mass mixing with tau neutrinos, we probe new parameter space near HNL masses of similar to 20 MeV with prospects for substantial future improvements. We also discuss prospects at future experiments such as DUNE, JUNO, and Hyper-Kamiokande.
New constraints on heavy neutral leptons from Super-Kamiokande data
Coloma, P.; Hernandez, P.; Munoz, V.; Shoemaker, Ian M. (2020-03-12)
Heavy neutral leptons are predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model with massive neutrinos. If kinematically accessible, they can be copiously produced from kaon and pion decays in atmospheric showers, and subsequently decay inside large neutrino detectors. We perform a search for these long-lived particles using Super-Kamiokande multi-GeV neutrino data and derive stringent limits on the mixing with electron, muon and tau neutrinos as a function of the long-lived particle mass. We also present the limits on the branching ratio versus lifetime plane, which are helpful in determining the constraints in non-minimal models where the heavy neutral leptons have new interactions with the Standard Model.
Present and future status of light dark matter models from cosmic-ray electron upscattering
Dent, James B.; Dutta, Bhaskar; Newstead, Jayden L.; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Arellano, Natalia Tapia (2021-05-18)
Nonrelativistic dark matter (DM) can be accelerated by scattering on high-energy cosmic-ray (CR) electrons. This process leads to a subpopulation of relativistic or semirelativistic DM which extends the experimental reach for direct detection in the sub-GeV mass regime. In this paper we examine the current and future potential of this mechanism for constraining models of light dark matter. In particular, we find that Super-Kamiokande and XENON1T data can already provide leading constraints on the flux of dark matter that has been accelerated to high energies from cosmic ray electrons. We also examine future projected sensitivities for DUNE and Hyper-K, and contrary to previous findings, conclude that DUNE will be able supersede Super-K bounds on cosmic-ray upscattered DM for a variety of DM models.
Probing new physics at DUNE operating in a beam-dump mode
Brdar, Vedran; Dutta, Bhaskar; Jang, Wooyoung; Kim, Doojin; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra; Thompson, Adrian; Yu, Jaehoon (American Physical Society, 2023-03)
In this work we demonstrate that a future accelerator-based neutrino experiment such as DUNE can greatly increase its sensitivity to a variety of new physics scenarios by operating in a mode where the proton beam impinges on a beam dump. We consider two new physics scenarios, namely light dark matter and axionlike particles and show that by utilizing a dump mode at a DUNE-like experiment, unexplored new regions of parameter space can be probed with an exposure of only 3 months with half of its expected initial beam power. Specifically, targetless configuration of future high intensity neutrino experiments will probe the parameter space for thermal relic dark matter as well as the QCD axion. The strength of such a configuration in the context of new physics searches stems from the fact that the neutrino flux is significantly reduced compared to that of the target, resulting in much smaller backgrounds from neutrino interactions. We have verified this in detail by explicitly computing neutrino fluxes which we make publicly available in order to facilitate further studies with a targetless configuration.
Reflections on the anomalous ANITA events: the Antarctic subsurface as a possible explanation
Shoemaker, Ian M.; Kusenko, Alexander; Munneke, Peter Kuipers; Romero-Wolf, Andrew; Schroeder, Dustin M.; Siegert, Martin J. (Cambridge University Press, 2020-03-30)
The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) balloon experiment was designed to detect radio signals initiated by high-energy neutrinos and cosmic ray (CR) air showers. These signals are typically discriminated by the polarization and phase inversions of the radio signal. The reflected signal from CRs suffer phase inversion compared to a direct ‘tau neutrino’ event. In this paper, we study subsurface reflection, which can occur without phase inversion, in the context of the two anomalous up-going events reported by ANITA. It is found that subsurface layers and firn density inversions may plausibly account for the events, while ice fabric layers and wind ablation crusts could also play a role. This hypothesis can be tested with radar surveying of the Antarctic region in the vicinity of the anomalous ANITA events. Future experiments should not use phase inversion as a sole criterion to discriminate between down-going and up-going events, unless the subsurface reflection properties are well understood.
Sterile Neutrino Searches
Delgadillo Franco, Luis Angel (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-15)
In the first part of the thesis we explore the sensitivity to sterile neutrinos by using a novel kaon tagging technology: ENUBET, the proposed experiment could decisively test indications from the experiments Neutrino-4 and IceCube. In the second part of the thesis we discuss the current status of sterile neutrino searches at nuclear reactors, we present a study with the optimization of a green field, two baseline reactor experiment with respect to the sensitivity for electron anti-neutrino disappearance in search of a light sterile neutrino at both research and commercial reactors. We find that a total of 5 tons of detectors deployed at a commercial reactor with a closest approach of 25 m can probe the mixing angle sin²2θ down to ∼ 5 × 10⁻³ around ∆m² ∼ 1 eV² . The same detector mass deployed at a research reactor can be sensitive up to ∆m² ∼ 20 − 30 eV² assuming a closest approach of 3 m and excellent energy resolution, such as that projected for TAO. We also find that lithium doping of the reactor could be effective in increasing the sensitivity for higher ∆m² values.
Using DUNE to shed light on the electromagnetic properties of neutrinos
Mathur, Varun; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Tabrizi, Zahra (2022-10-06)
We study future DUNE sensitivity to various electromagnetic couplings of neutrinos, including magnetic moments, milli-charges, and charge radii. The DUNE PRISM capabilities play a crucial role in constraining the electron flavored couplings. We find that DUNE will be able to place the strongest beam based constraint on the muon-neutrino magnetic moment by improving on LSND’s bounds by roughly a factor of two, although Borexino’s constraint from solar neutrinos will be stronger. For the muon neutrino millicharge DUNE can place the leading beam based bound, with two orders of magnitude improvement compared to the existing COHERENT constraint, suggesting that DUNE can be useful for light mediators more generally. Despite this strength, the millicharge bounds are not competitive with strong bounds from stellar cooling, beta-decay, and matter stability. Finally, DUNE may be able to test the SM prediction for the muon neutrino charge radius, by placing a constraint two times better than CHARM-II and CCFR experiments.

Browsing by Author "Shoemaker, Ian M."

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