A search for the analogue to Cherenkov radiation by high energy neutrinos at superluminal speeds in ICARUS
ICARUS Collaboration: M. Antonello (1), P. Aprili (1), B. Baibussinov (2), M. Baldo Ceolin (2), P. Benetti (3), E. Calligarich (3), N. Canci (1), F. Carbonara (4), S. Centro (2), A. Cesana (6), K. Cieslik (7), D. B. Cline (8), A. G. Cocco (4), A. Dabrowska (7), D. Dequal (2), A. Dermenev (9), R. Dolfini (3), C. Farnese (2), A. Fava (2), A. Ferrari(10), G. Fiorillo (4), D. Gibin (2), A. Gigli Berzolari (3), S. Gninenko (9), T. Golan (11), A. Guglielmi (2), M. Haranczyk (7), J. Holeczek (12), M. Kirsanov (9), J. Kisiel (12), I. Kochanek (12), J. Lagoda (13), S. Mania (12), G. Mannocchi (14), A. Menegolli (3), G. Meng (2), C. Montanari (3), S. Otwinowski (8), T. J. Palczewski (13), L. Periale (14), A. Piazzoli (3), P. Picchi (14), F. Pietropaolo (2), P. Plonski (15), P. Przewlocki (13), A. Rappoldi (3),et al. (22 additional authors not shown)
(Submitted on 17 Oct 2011 (v1), last revised 22 Oct 2011 (this version, v2))
The OPERA collaboration has claimed evidence of superluminal {\nu}{_\mu} propagation between CERN and the LNGS. Cohen and Glashow argued that such neutrinos should lose energy by producing photons and e+e- pairs, through Z0 mediated processes analogous to Cherenkov radiation. In terms of the parameter {\delta}=(v^2_nu-v^2_c)/v^2_c, the OPERA result implies {\delta} = 5 x 10-5. For this value of {\delta} a very significant deformation of the neutrino energy spectrum and an abundant production of photons and e+e- pairs should be observed at LNGS. We present an analysis based on the 2010 data set from the ICARUS experiment, located at Gran Sasso and using the same neutrino beam from CERN. We find that the neutrino energy distribution of the ICARUS events in LAr agrees with the expectations for an unperturbed spectrum of the CERN neutrino beam. Our results therefore refute a superluminal interpretation of the OPERA result according to the Cohen and Glashow prediction for a weak currents analog to Cherenkov radiation. In particular no superluminal Cherenkov like e+e- pair or {\gamma} event has been directly observed inside the fiducial volume of the "bubble chamber like" ICARUS TPC-LAr detector, setting much stricter limits to the value of {\delta}, comparable with the one due to the observations from the SN1987A.
Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures
Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
Cite as: arXiv:1110.3763v2 [hep-ex]
[v1] Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:03:34 GMT (923kb)
[v2] Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:24:09 GMT (1013kb)
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