Probing new physics with long-range neutrino interactions: an effective field theory approach

Abstract

Abstract We investigate forces induced by the exchange of two light neutrinos be- tween Standard Model (SM) fermions in the presence of effective operators parametrising physics beyond the SM. We first set up a general framework in which we derive the long-range potential mediated by weakly interacting neutrinos in the SM, retaining both spin-independent and spin-dependent terms. We then derive neutrino-mediated potentials when there are vector, scalar and tensor non-standard interactions present as well as an exotic neutrino magnetic moment. Examining the phenomenology of such long-range potentials in atomic scale laboratory experiments, we derive upper bounds on the Wilson coefficients of the effective operators and compare these to those from processes such as charged lepton flavour violation.