Tau neutrino as a probe of nonstandard interactions via charged Higgs and $W'$ contribution

Abstract

We discuss the impact of the presence of a charged Higgs and a $W'$ gauge boson on the tau-neutrino nucleon scattering $ν_τ+ N \rightarrow τ^- + X$ and $\barν_τ+ N \rightarrow τ^+ + X$. We show the effect of the new physics on the three subprocesses quasielastic, $Δ$-resonance, and deep inelastic scattering. The measurement of the atmospheric and reactor mixing angles $θ_{23}$ and $θ_{13}$, respectively, relies on the standard model cross section of the above processes if they have been measured in the appearance channels $ν_μ\rightarrow ν_τ$ and $\barν_e \rightarrow \barν_τ$ ($ν_e \rightarrow ν_τ$), respectively. Consideration of the new physics contributions to those reactions modifies the measured mixing angles, assuming the standard model cross section. We include form factor effects in the new physics calculations and find the deviations of the mixing angles which can be significant and can depend on the energy of the neutrino.

Presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 2013