1010.4096 — arXiv2

Search for a Lorentz-violating sidereal signal with atmospheric neutrinos in IceCube

astro-ph.HE

/ Published

Oct 20, 2010

/ Updated

Nov 11, 2010

/ Categories

astro-ph.HE hep-ex hep-ph

/ Links

/ Authors

IceCube Collaboration, R. Abbasi, Y. Abdou, T. Abu-Zayyad, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, K. Andeen, J. Auffenberg, X. Bai

and 251 more authors

M. Baker, S. W. Barwick, R. Bay, J. L. Bazo Alba, K. Beattie, J. J. Beatty, S. Bechet, J. K. Becker, K. -H. Becker, M. L. Benabderrahmane, S. BenZvi, J. Berdermann

, E. Bernardini

, J. Blumenthal

, D. J. Boersma

, F. Clevermann

, M. V. D'Agostino

, G. de Vries-Uiterweerd

, J. C. Díaz-Vélez

, M. Dierckxsens

, M. R. Duvoort

, R. W. Ellsworth

, O. Engdegård

, P. A. Evenson

, M. M. Foerster

, A. Franckowiak

, T. K. Gaisser

, T. Glüsenkamp

, A. Goldschmidt

, J. A. Goodman

, K. D. Hoffman

, J. -P. Hülß

, G. S. Japaridze

, K. -H. Kampert

, J. -H. Köhne

, D. J. Koskinen

, P. Mészáros

, A. O'Murchadha

, C. Pérez de los Heros

, G. T. Przybylski

, J. P. Rodrigues

, H. -G. Sander

, S. Schlenstedt

, G. M. Spiczak

, M. Stamatikos

, T. Stezelberger

, R. G. Stokstad

, E. A. Strahler

, T. Straszheim

, G. W. Sullivan

, S. Ter-Antonyan

, N. van Eijndhoven

, J. Vandenbroucke

, A. Van Overloop

, J. van Santen

, T. Waldenmaier

, S. Westerhoff

, C. H. Wiebusch

, D. R. Williams

, R. Wischnewski

, P. Zarzhitsky

/ Abstract

A search for sidereal modulation in the flux of atmospheric muon neutrinos in IceCube was performed. Such a signal could be an indication of Lorentz-violating physics. Neutrino oscillation models, derivable from extensions to the Standard Model, allow for neutrino oscillations that depend on the neutrino's direction of propagation. No such direction-dependent variation was found. A discrete Fourier transform method was used to constrain the Lorentz and CPT-violating coefficients in one of these models. Due to the unique high energy reach of IceCube, it was possible to improve constraints on certain Lorentz-violating oscillations by three orders of magnitude with respect to limits set by other experiments.