Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Many quantum gravity theories predict spacetime fluctuations at the Planck scale. Neutrinos, which interact only via the weak force and gravity, propagate over long distances without losing quantum coherence. Planck-scale fluctuations would spoil that coherence, damping the flavor oscillation probability over long baselines. This makes neutrinos sensitive interferometers for Planck-scale physics. We present a search for quantum decoherence using 368,071 atmospheric neutrinos detected by IceCube in the energy range 0.5-100 TeV, an order of magnitude higher in energy than any previous decoherence search. We find no evidence for decoherence and set the strongest constraints to date on this class of neutrino decoherence models, improving on previous limits by over an order of magnitude for decoherence rate scaling as $E^2$ and $E^3$. These results exclude natural Planck-suppressed decoherence for all energy scalings $E^n$ with $0\leq n \leq 3$, the first such exclusion at the Planck scale for $n=3$.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Abbasi, R., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Alameddine, J. M., Ali, S., Amin, N. M., Andeen, K., Argüelles, C., Athanasiadou, S., Axani, S. N., Babu, R., Bai, X., V., A. Balagopal, Barwick, S. W., Basu, V., Bay, R., Beatty, J. J., Tjus, J. Becker, Beise, J., Bellenghi, C., Benkel, S., BenZvi, S., Berley, D., Bernardini, E., Besson, D. Z., Blaufuss, E., Bloom, L., Blot, S., Bontempo, F., Motzkin, J. Y. Book, Meneguolo, C. Boscolo, Böser, S., Botner, O., Braun, J., Brinson, B., Brisson-Tsavoussis, Z., Brusa, L., Burley, R. T., Butterfield, D., Carloni, K., Carpio, J., Chau, N., Chen, Y. C., Chen, Z., Chirkin, D., Choi, S., Chubarov, A., Clark, B. A., Borja, D. A. Coloma, Connolly, A., Conrad, J. M., Cowen, D. F., De Clercq, C., DeLaunay, J. J., Delgado, D., Delmeulle, T., Deng, S., Desiati, P., de Vries, K. D., de Wasseige, G., DeYoung, T., Díaz-Vélez, J. C., DiKerby, S., Ding, T., Dittmer, M., Domi, A., Draper, L., Dueser, L., Durnford, D., Dutta, K., DuVernois, M. A., Ehrhardt, T., Eidenschink, L., Eimer, A., Eldridge, C., Eller, P., Ellinger, E., Elsässer, D., Engel, R., Erpenbeck, H., Esmail, W., Eulig, S., Evans, J., Evenson, P. A., Fan, K. L., Fang, K., Farrag, K., Fattorini, A., Fazely, A. R., Fedynitch, A., Feigl, N., Finley, C., Fox, D., Franckowiak, A., Fukami, S., Fürst, P., Gallagher, J., Garcia, A., Garcia, M., Genton, E., Gerhardt, L., Ghadimi, A., Glaser, C., Glüsenkamp, T., Gonzalez, J. G., Goswami, S., Granados, A., Grant, D., Gray, S. J., Griffin, S., Griswold, S., Groth, K. M., Guevel, D., Günther, C., Gutjahr, P., Ha, C., Hallgren, A., Halzen, F., Handt, M., Hanson, K., Hardin, J., Harnisch, A. A., Hatch, P., Haungs, A., Häu\ssler, J., Helbing, K., Hellrung, J., Henke, B., Hennig, L., Henningsen, F., Heuermann, L., Hewett, R., Heyer, N., Hickford, S., Hidvegi, A., Hill, C., Hill, G. C., Hmaid, R., Hoffman, K. D., Hollnagel, A., Hooper, D., Hori, S., Hoshina, K., Hostert, M., Hou, W., Hrywniak, M., Huber, T., Hultqvist, K., Hymon, K., Ishihara, A., Iwakiri, W., Jacquart, M., Jain, S., Janik, O., Jansson, M., Jin, M., Kamp, N., Kang, D., Kang, W., Kappes, A., Kardum, L., Karg, T., Karle, A., Katil, A., Kauer, M., Kelley, J. L., Kern, B., Khanal, M., Zathul, A. Khatee, Kheirandish, A., Kim, T., Kimku, H., Kirchner, F., Kiryluk, J., Klein, C., Klein, S. R., Kobayashi, Y., Koch, S., Kochocki, A., Koirala, R., Kolanoski, H., Kontrimas, T., Köpke, L., Kopper, C., Koskinen, D. J., Koundal, P., Kowalski, M., Kravka, A., Krieger, N., Krishnan, T., Kruiswijk, K., Krupczak, E., Kun, E., Kurahashi, N., Gualda, C. Lagunas, Arnaud, L. Lallement, Larson, M. J., Lauber, F., Lazar, J. P., DeHolton, K. Leonard, Leszczyńska, A., Li, C., Liao, J., Lin, C., Liu, Q. R., Liu, Y. T., Liubarska, M., Love, C., Lu, L., Lucarelli, F., Luszczak, W., Lyu, Y., Macdonald, M., Machingal, F., Magnus, E., Makino, Y., Manao, E., Mancina, S., Mand, A., Mariş, I. C., Marka, S., Marka, Z., Martinez-Soler, I., Maruyama, R., Mauro, J., Mayhew, F., McNally, F., Meagher, K., Medina, A., Meier, M., Merckx, Y., Merten, L., Mitchell, J. M., Mondal, S., Montaruli, T., Moore, R. W., Morii, Y., Mosbrugger, A., Mousadi, D., Moyaux, E., Mukherjee, T., Nakos, M., Naumann, U., Neshat, R., Neste, L., Neumann, M., Nisa, M. U., Noda, K., Noell, A., Novikov, A., Obertacke, A., O'Dell, V., Olivas, A., Orsoe, R., Osborn, J., O'Sullivan, E., Owens, B., Palusova, V., Pandya, H., Parenti, A., Parisel, C., Park, N., Parrish, V., Paudel, E. N., Paul, L., Heros, C. Pérez de los, Pernice, T., Petersen, T. C., Peterson, J., Pick, S., Plum, M., Pontén, A., Poojyam, V., Pries, B., Procter-Murphy, R., Przybylski, G. T., Pyras, L., Raab, C., Rack-Helleis, J., Rad, N., Ravn, M., Rawlins, K., Rechav, Z., Rehman, A., Reimann, R., Reistroffer, I., Resconi, E., Rho, C. D., Rhode, W., Ricca, L., Riedel, B., Rifaie, A., Roberts, E. J., Rodan, S., Rongen, M., Rosted, A., Rott, C., Ruhe, T., Ruohan, L., Ryckbosch, D., Saffer, J., Salazar-Gallegos, D., Sampathkumar, P., Sandrock, A., Sanger-Johnson, G., Santander, M., Sarkar, S., Scarnera, M., Schaufel, M., Schieler, H., Schindler, S., Schlickmann, L., Schlüter, B., Schlüter, F., Schmeisser, N., Schmidt, T., Schmitt, F., Scholz, A., Schröder, F. G., Schwirn, S., Sclafani, S., Seckel, D., Seen, L., Seikh, M., Seunarine, S., Myhr, P. A. Sevle, Shah, R., Shah, S., Sharma, A., Shefali, S., Shimizu, N., Shin, M., Singh, R., Skrzypek, B., Snihur, R., Soedingrekso, J., Soldin, D., Soldin, P., Sommani, G., Song, D., Spannfellner, C., Spiczak, G. M., Spiering, C., Stachurska, J., Stamatikos, M., Stanev, T., Stezelberger, T., Stürwald, T., Stuttard, T., Sullivan, G. W., Taboada, I., Ter-Antonyan, S., Terliuk, A., Thakuri, A., Thelen, P., Thiesmeyer, M., Thompson, W. G., Thwaites, J., Tian, W., Tilav, S., Tollefson, K., Torres, J. A., Toscano, S., Tosi, D., Upshaw, K., Vaidyanathan, A., Valtonen-Mattila, N., Valverde, J., Vandenbroucke, J., Van Eeden, T., van Eijndhoven, N., Van Rootselaar, L., van Santen, J., Vara, J., Varsi, F., Velazquez, M., Venugopal, M., Vereecken, M., Carrasco, S. Vergara, Verpoest, S., Vijai, A., Villarreal, J., Walck, C., Wang, A., Warrick, E. H. S., Weaver, C., Weigel, P., Weindl, A., Weldert, J., Wen, A. Y., Wendt, C., Werthebach, J., Weyrauch, M., Whitehorn, N., Wiebusch, C. H., Williams, D. R., Witthaus, L., Woodward, J., Wrede, G., Xu, X. W., Yanez, J. P., Yao, Y., Yildizci, E., Yoshida, S., Yu, F., Yu, S., Yuan, T., Yun-Cárcamo, S., Jurowitzki, A. Zander, Zegarelli, A., Zhang, S., Zhang, Z., Zhelnin, P., Zilberman, P., Cañas, C. Zilleruelo, Zimmermann, M.
Institutions: Loyola University Chicago, International Center for Hadron Astrophysics, Chiba University, University of Canterbury, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Copenhagen, TU Dortmund University, Harvard University, Michigan State University, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Berkeley, The Ohio State University, Ruhr University Bochum, Technical University of Munich, University of Maryland, College Park, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Queen's University, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova, The University of Adelaide, University of Nevada, Reno, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Chalmers University of Technology, RWTH Aachen University, University of Alberta, Ghent University, Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Geneva, University of Alaska Anchorage, Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, The University of Tokyo
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: U.S. Department of Energy, Nvidia, Harvard University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, Office of Science, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Compute Ontario
OpenAlex ID: W7221757646