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Constraints on heavy neutrinos

Abstract

If a heavy neutrino of mass 1.1 MeV <m <14 MeV participates in the weak charged current coupling for the electron, then it can be produced in the Sun and decay in flight into an electron, a positron and a light neutrino. It is shown here that existing experimental bounds on low-energy interplanetary positrons severely constrain the heavy neutrino–electron coupling. Accelerator experiments severely constrain the coupling of still heavier neutrinos.

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Toussaint, D., Wilczek, F. Constraints on heavy neutrinos. Nature 289, 777–778 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/289777a0

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