Heavy Neutrino searches through Double-Bang Events at Super-Kamiokande, DUNE, and Hyper-Kamiokande

Abstract

A variety of new physics scenarios allow 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.

Comments: 17 pages, 6 figures. v2: minor changes, references added and typos fixed. Matches version accepted for publication in JHEP