High energy neutrino telescopes as a probe of the neutrino mass mechanism

Abstract

We show that measurements of the spectral shape and flavor ratios of high energy astrophysical neutrinos at neutrino telescopes can be sensitive to the details of the neutrino mass mechanism. We propose a simple model for Majorana neutrino mass generation that realizes the relevant parameter space, in which small explicit lepton number violation is mediated to the Standard Model through the interactions of a light scalar. IceCube, with about ten years of exposure time, could reveal the presence of anomalous neutrino self-interactions. Precision electroweak and lepton flavor laboratory experiments and a determination of the total neutrino mass from cosmology would provide consistency checks on the interpretation of a signal.