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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Probing Heavy Neutral Leptons through New Gauge Interactions at the Forward Physics Facilities

  • Francis M. Burk
  • P. S. Bhupal Dev
  • Bhaskar Dutta
  • Tao Han
  • Aparajitha Karthikeyan
  • Doojin Kim
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Abstract

We investigate the prospects for improving the heavy neutral lepton (HNL) searches at the far-forward LHC experiments FASER and FASERν, as well as their proposed HL-LHC successors, FASER2 and FASERν2, using new HNL production mechanisms. We consider scenarios in which HNLs couple directly to a new U(1) gauge boson and decay into visible Standard Model final states through mixing with active neutrinos. Focusing on the U(1)B−L, U(1)B−3Lτ, and U(1)B gauge extensions as benchmark models, we study HNL production through proton bremsstrahlung and Drell--Yan processes, which probe complementary mediator-mass regimes. We analyze several visible decay channels, including charged leptons, neutral mesons, and other hadrons, and evaluate the projected sensitivities for different neutrino-flavor mixing patterns. We find that these new production mechanisms that differ qualitatively from the conventional picture in which both production and decay are controlled by active-sterile mixing enable the far-forward LHC program to probe previously unexplored regions of HNL parameter space, with the first-ever demonstration of FASERν having sensitivity to HNLs and FASER2 and FASERν2 offering substantially enhanced sensitivity during the HL-LHC era, even reaching the canonical seesaw prediction for all three lepton flavors. Our results demonstrate that new gauge interactions can substantially enhance HNL production independently of the active-sterile mixing that governs their visible decays, opening complementary opportunities to explore HNLs at the forward physics facilities.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{burk2026probing,
  title = {{Probing Heavy Neutral Leptons through New Gauge Interactions at the Forward Physics Facilities}},
  author = {Francis M. Burk and P. S. Bhupal Dev and Bhaskar Dutta and Tao Han and Aparajitha Karthikeyan and Doojin Kim},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.30240},
  eprint = {2610.30240},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30240},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Probing Heavy Neutral Leptons through New Gauge Interactions at the Forward Physics Facilities
AU  - Francis M. Burk
AU  - P. S. Bhupal Dev
AU  - Bhaskar Dutta
AU  - Tao Han
AU  - Aparajitha Karthikeyan
AU  - Doojin Kim
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/21
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.30240
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30240
AB  - We investigate the prospects for improving the heavy neutral lepton (HNL) searches at the far-forward LHC experiments FASER and FASERν, as well as their proposed HL-LHC successors, FASER2 and FASERν2, using new HNL production mechanisms. We consider scenarios in which HNLs couple directly to a new U(1) gauge boson and decay into visible Standard Model final states through mixing with active neutrinos. Focusing on the U(1)_B−L, U(1)_B−3L_τ, and U(1)_B gauge extensions as benchmark models, we study HNL production through proton bremsstrahlung and Drell--Yan processes, which probe complementary mediator-mass regimes. We analyze several visible decay channels, including charged leptons, neutral mesons, and other hadrons, and evaluate the projected sensitivities for different neutrino-flavor mixing patterns. We find that these new production mechanisms that differ qualitatively from the conventional picture in which both production and decay are controlled by active-sterile mixing enable the far-forward LHC program to probe previously unexplored regions of HNL parameter space, with the first-ever demonstration of FASERν having sensitivity to HNLs and FASER2 and FASERν2 offering substantially enhanced sensitivity during the HL-LHC era, even reaching the canonical seesaw prediction for all three lepton flavors. Our results demonstrate that new gauge interactions can substantially enhance HNL production independently of the active-sterile mixing that governs their visible decays, opening complementary opportunities to explore HNLs at the forward physics facilities.
ER  -