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  • Open Access

Tau tridents at accelerator neutrino facilities

Innes Bigaran1,2,*, P. S. Bhupal Dev3,†, Diego Lopez Gutierrez3,‡, and Pedro A. N. Machado2,§

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
  • 2Theoretical Physics Department, Fermilab, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA

  • *Contact author: ibigaran@fnal.gov
  • †Contact author: bdev@wustl.edu
  • ‡Contact author: d.lopezgutierrez@wustl.edu
  • §Contact author: pmachado@fnal.gov
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Phys. Rev. D 111, 113004 – Published 17 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/54md-zlr2

Abstract

We present the first detailed study of Standard Model neutrino tridents involving tau leptons at the near detectors of accelerator neutrino facilities. The rates of these processes were previously thought to be negligible, even at future facilities. Our full 2→4 calculation, including both coherent and incoherent scatterings, reveals that the DUNE near detector could observe a considerable number of tau tridents—an important background to new physics searches. We identify promising kinematic features that may allow distinction of tau tridents from the usual neutrino charged-current background at DUNE, and thus establish the observation of tau tridents for the first time. We also comment on the detection prospects at other accelerator and collider neutrino experiments.

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Phys. Rev. D 111, 113004– Published 17 June, 2025
  • Received 19 August 2024
  • Accepted 22 May 2025
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