Lepton-pair Cerenkov radiation emitted by tachyonic neutrinos: Lorentz-covariant approach and IceCube data

Abstract

Current experiments do not exclude the possibility that one or more neutrinos are very slightly superluminal or that they have a very small tachyonic mass. Important bounds on the size of a hypothetical tachyonic neutrino mass term are set by lepton pair Cerenkov radiation (LPCR), i.e., by the decay channel nu -> e^+ e^- nu which proceeds via a virtual Z0 boson. Here, we use a Lorentz-invariant dispersion relation which leads to very tight constraints on the tachyonic mass of neutrinos; we also calculate decay and energy loss rates. A possible cutoff seen in the IceCube neutrino spectrum for E_nu > 2 PeV, due to the potential onset of LPCR, is discussed.