Distortion of neutrino oscillations by dark photon dark matter

A weakly coupled and light dark photon coupling to lepton charges L mu - L tau is an intriguing dark matter candidate whose coherent oscillations alter the dispersion relations of leptons. We study how this effect modifies the dynamics of neutrino flavor conversions, focusing on long baseline and solar oscillations. We analyze data from the T2K, SNO, and Super-Kamiokande experiments in order to obtain world-leading limits on the dark photon gauge coupling for masses below similar to 10-11 eV. Degeneracies between shifts in the neutrino mass-squared differences and mixing angles and the new physics effect significantly relax the current constraints on the neutrino vacuum oscillation parameters.

Automated summary

We study the impact of weakly coupled and light dark photons on the dynamics of neutrino flavor conversions. By analyzing data from T2K, SNO, and Super-Kamiokande experiments, we provide world-leading limits on the dark photon gauge coupling for masses below 10^-11 eV. The degeneracies between shifts in neutrino mass-squared differences, mixing angles, and the new physics effect relax the current constraints on neutrino vacuum oscillation parameters.