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arXiv · 2601.06248

Hadronic Probes of Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions

Carlos Henrique de Lima·David McKeen·John Ng·Douglas Tuckler
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Abstract

In this work, we study leptonic decays of hadrons as probes of light neutrinophilic scalars that mediate enhanced neutrino self-interactions. Such scalars can be emitted in processes involving neutrinos, turning two-body decays into three-body final states and producing characteristic spectral distortions. We compute these effects for charged pion decay and nuclear electron capture decay, including both on-shell and off-shell scalar emission, as well as the loop-induced renormalization required to cancel divergences. Using these results, we derive the projected sensitivity of PIONEER and assess the current and future reach of BeEST. The resulting low-energy spectral tails provide a characteristic signal for light neutrinophilic scalars, making upcoming hadron decay experiments powerful probes of light mediators of non-standard neutrino self-interactions.

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Carlos Henrique de Lima, David McKeen, John Ng, Douglas Tuckler. 2026-01-09. Hadronic Probes of Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06248

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