Constraints on neutrino decay lifetime using long-baseline charged and neutral current data

Abstract

We investigate the status of a scenario involving oscillations and decay for charged and neutral current data from the MINOS and T2K experiments. We first present an analysis of charged current neutrino and anti-neutrino data from MINOS in the framework of oscillation with decay and obtain a best fit for non-zero decay parameter α3. The MINOS charged and neutral current data analysis results in the best fit for |Δm322|=2.34×10−3 eV2, sin2⁡θ23=0.60 and zero decay parameter, which corresponds to the limit for standard oscillations. Our combined MINOS and T2K analysis reports a constraint at the 90% confidence level for the neutrino decay lifetime τ3/m3>2.8×10−12 s/eV. This is the best limit based only on accelerator produced neutrinos. Keywords: Neutrino, Neutrino decay, Neutrino oscillation