- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Generalized neutrino interactions: Constraints and parametrizations

L. J. Flores1,*, O. G. Miranda2,†, and G. Sanchez Garcia3,‡

  • *Contact author: ljflores@jerez.tecnm.mx
  • †Contact author: omar.miranda@cinvestav.mx
  • ‡Contact author: g.sanchez@ciencias.unam.mx
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 113, 095019 – Published 12 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/t3s4-8kvh

Abstract

Generalized neutrino interactions (GNI) are emerging as a convenient framework for describing effective scalar, vector, and tensor interactions. Such interactions arise naturally from extensions of the Standard Model that aim to explain neutrino properties and their mass origin. In this paper, we carefully study the two more common parametrizations for GNI and how to relate them. This allows us to compare bounds obtained from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) and deep-inelastic scattering under the same footing. In addition, we present the current bounds from CEvNS measurements by COHERENT and compare them to those obtained from deep inelastic scattering on the same level. Our results focus on neutrino-quark interactions, and illustrate the complementarity between experiments working at different scales for GNI, showing that scalar interactions are better constrained by low-energy experiments like COHERENT, while tensor interactions are robustly constrained from deep inelastic scattering.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (79)

  1. T. Kajita, Nobel lecture: Discovery of atmospheric neutrino oscillations, Rev. Mod. Phys. 88, 030501 (2016).
  2. A. B. McDonald, Nobel lecture: The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory: Observation of flavor change for solar neutrinos, Rev. Mod. Phys. 88, 030502 (2016).
  3. F. P. An et al. (Daya Bay Collaboration), Precision measurement of reactor antineutrino oscillation at kilometer-scale baselines by Daya Bay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 161802 (2023).
  4. S. Abubakar et al. (T2K and NOvA Collaborations), Joint neutrino oscillation analysis from the T2K and NOvA experiments, Nature (London) 646, 818 (2025).
  5. A. Abusleme et al. (JUNO Collaboration), First measurement of reactor neutrino oscillations at JUNO, arXiv:2511.14593.
  6. B. Abi et al. (DUNE Collaboration), Deep underground neutrino experiment (DUNE), Far detector technical design report, volume I introduction to DUNE, J. Instrum. 15, T08008 (2020).
  7. K. Abe et al. (Hyper-Kamiokande Collaboration), Hyper-Kamiokande design report, arXiv:1805.04163.
  8. P. F. de Salas, D. V. Forero, S. Gariazzo, P. Martínez-Miravé, O. Mena, C. A. Ternes, M. Tórtola, and J. W. F. Valle, 2020 global reassessment of the neutrino oscillation picture, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2021) 071.
  9. J. Schechter and J. W. F. Valle, Neutrino masses in SU(2)×U(1) theories, Phys. Rev. D 22, 2227 (1980).
  10. J. Schechter and J. W. F. Valle, Neutrino decay and spontaneous violation of lepton number, Phys. Rev. D 25, 774 (1982).
  11. R. N. Mohapatra and J. W. F. Valle, Neutrino mass and baryon number nonconservation in superstring models, Phys. Rev. D 34, 1642 (1986).
  12. E. Ma, Verifiable radiative seesaw mechanism of neutrino mass and dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 73, 077301 (2006).
  13. R. Foot, H. Lew, X. G. He, and G. C. Joshi, Seesaw neutrino masses induced by a triplet of leptons, Z. Phys. C 44, 441 (1989).
  14. M. Hirsch and J. W. F. Valle, Supersymmetric origin of neutrino mass, New J. Phys. 6, 76 (2004).
  15. M. Malinsky, J. C. Romao, and J. W. F. Valle, Novel supersymmetric SO(10) seesaw mechanism, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 161801 (2005).
  16. W. Grimus, Neutrino physics—models for neutrino masses and lepton mixing, Proc. Sci. 2GC2006 (2006) 001 [arXiv:hep-ph/0612311].
  17. P. M. Candela, V. De Romeri, P. Melas, D. K. Papoulias, and N. Saoulidou, Up-scattering production of a sterile fermion at DUNE: Complementarity with spallation source and direct detection experiments, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2024) 032.
  18. V. M. Lozano, G. Sanchez Garcia, and J. W. F. Valle, Collider signatures of fermionic scotogenic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 112, 055007 (2025).
  19. J. Barranco, O. G. Miranda, and T. I. Rashba, Probing new physics with coherent neutrino scattering off nuclei, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2005) 021.
  20. T. Ohlsson, Status of non-standard neutrino interactions, Rep. Prog. Phys. 76, 044201 (2013).
  21. O. G. Miranda and H. Nunokawa, Non standard neutrino interactions: Current status and future prospects, New J. Phys. 17, 095002 (2015).
  22. Y. Farzan and M. Tortola, Neutrino oscillations and non-standard interactions, Front. Phys. 6, 10 (2018).
  23. P. Coloma, M. C. Gonzalez-Garcia, M. Maltoni, J. P. Pinheiro, and S. Urrea, Global constraints on non-standard neutrino interactions with quarks and electrons, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2023) 032.
  24. W. Buchmuller, R. Ruckl, and D. Wyler, Leptoquarks in lepton—quark collisions, Phys. Lett. B 191, 442 (1987); 448, 320(E) (1999).
  25. A. Crivellin, D. Müller, and F. Saturnino, Flavor phenomenology of the leptoquark singlet-triplet model, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2020) 020.
  26. V. De Romeri, V. M. Lozano, and G. Sanchez Garcia, Neutrino window to scalar leptoquarks: From low energy to colliders, Phys. Rev. D 109, 055014 (2024).
  27. D. Aristizabal Sierra, R. Branada, O. G. Miranda, and G. Sanchez Garcia, Sensitivity of direct detection experiments to neutrino magnetic dipole moments, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2020) 178.
  28. V. De Romeri, D. K. Papoulias, G. Sanchez Garcia, C. A. Ternes, and M. Tórtola, Neutrino electromagnetic properties and sterile dipole portal in light of the first solar CEνNS data, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2025) 080.
  29. M. Demirci, H. I. Sezer, M. F. Mustamin, and A. B. Balantekin, Constraining neutrino electromagnetic properties with recent low-energy electron recoil data at dark matter direct detection experiments, Phys. Rev. D 112, 095035 (2025).
  30. M. Lindner, W. Rodejohann, and X.-J. Xu, Coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and new neutrino interactions, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2017) 097.
  31. D. Aristizabal Sierra, V. De Romeri, and N. Rojas, COHERENT analysis of neutrino generalized interactions, Phys. Rev. D 98, 075018 (2018).
  32. A. N. Khan, W. Rodejohann, and X.-J. Xu, Borexino and general neutrino interactions, Phys. Rev. D 101, 055047 (2020).
  33. T. Han, J. Liao, H. Liu, and D. Marfatia, Scalar and tensor neutrino interactions, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2020) 207.
  34. F. J. Escrihuela, L. J. Flores, O. G. Miranda, and J. Rendón, Global constraints on neutral-current generalized neutrino interactions, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2021) 061.
  35. S. Bergmann, Y. Grossman, and E. Nardi, Neutrino propagation in matter with general interactions, Phys. Rev. D 60, 093008 (1999).
  36. Z. Chen, T. Li, and J. Liao, Constraints on general neutrino interactions with exotic fermion from neutrino-electron scattering experiments, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2021) 131.
  37. L. J. Flores, N. Nath, and E. Peinado, CEνNS as a probe of flavored generalized neutrino interactions, Phys. Rev. D 105, 055010 (2022).
  38. V. De Romeri, O. G. Miranda, D. K. Papoulias, G. Sanchez Garcia, M. Tórtola, and J. W. F. Valle, Physics implications of a combined analysis of COHERENT CsI and LAr data, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2023) 035.
  39. P. Coloma, M. C. Gonzalez-Garcia, M. Maltoni, J. P. Pinheiro, and S. Urrea, Constraining new physics with Borexino Phase-II spectral data, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2022) 138; 11 (2022) 138(E).
  40. F. J. Escrihuela, L. J. Flores, O. G. Miranda, J. Rendón, and R. Sánchez-Vélez, Examining the sensitivity of FASER to generalized neutrino interactions, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2024) 102.
  41. M. Aker et al. (KATRIN Collaboration), First constraints on general neutrino interactions based on KATRIN data, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 251801 (2025).
  42. P. B. Denton, A. Giarnetti, and D. Meloni, Solar neutrinos and the strongest oscillation constraints on scalar NSI, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2025) 097.
  43. D. Aristizabal Sierra, N. Mishra, and L. Strigari, Implications of first neutrino-induced nuclear recoil measurements in direct detection experiments: Probing nonstandard interaction via CEνNS, Phys. Rev. D 111, 055007 (2025).
  44. J. Liao, J. Tang, and B.-L. Zhang, Tensor interaction in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 112, 035036 (2025).
  45. M. Alpízar-Venegas, L. J. Flores, E. Peinado, and E. Vázquez-Jáuregui, Exploring the standard model and beyond from the evidence of CEνNS with reactor antineutrinos in CONUS+, Phys. Rev. D 111, 053001 (2025).
  46. A. Chattaraj, A. Majumdar, and R. Srivastava, Probing standard model and beyond with reactor CEνNS data of CONUS+ experiment, Phys. Lett. B 864, 139438 (2025).
  47. V. De Romeri, D. K. Papoulias, and G. Sanchez Garcia, Implications of the first CONUS+ measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 111, 075025 (2025).
  48. S. Karadağ et al. (TEXONO Collaboration), Constraints on new physics with light mediators and generalized neutrino interactions via coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 112, 035038 (2025).
  49. M. Demirci and M. F. Mustamin, Probing light mediators with recent PandaX-4T low-energy electron recoil data, Phys. Rev. D 111, 055032 (2025).
  50. M. Demirci and M. F. Mustamin, Solar neutrino constraints on light mediators through coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Phys. Rev. D 109, 015021 (2024).
  51. J. M. Celestino-Ramírez, F. J. Escrihuela, L. J. Flores, O. G. Miranda, and R. Sánchez-Vélez, Searching for generalized neutrino interactions in direct detection experiments with EνES, arXiv:2510.17027.
  52. S. Abbaslu, M. Dehpour, Y. Farzan, and S. Safari, Neutrino nucleus quasi-elastic and resonant neutral current scatterings with non-standard interactions, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2025) 041.
  53. Y. Farzan and S. Abbaslu, Constraining axial non-standard interactions of neutrinos with long baseline experiments, arXiv:2601.18888.
  54. J. F. Nieves and P. B. Pal, Generalized Fierz identities, Am. J. Phys. 72, 1100 (2004).
  55. T. D. Lee and C.-N. Yang, Question of parity conservation in weak interactions, Phys. Rev. 104, 254 (1956).
  56. C. S. Wu, E. Ambler, R. W. Hayward, D. D. Hoppes, and R. P. Hudson, Experimental test of parity conservation in β decay, Phys. Rev. 105, 1413 (1957).
  57. E. C. G. Sudarshan and R. e. Marshak, Chirality invariance and the universal Fermi interaction, Phys. Rev. 109, 1860 (1958).
  58. D. Z. Freedman, Coherent effects of a weak neutral current, Phys. Rev. D 9, 1389 (1974).
  59. D. Akimov et al. (COHERENT Collaboration), Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, Science 357, 1123 (2017).
  60. D. Akimov et al. (COHERENT Collaboration), Measurement of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering cross section on CsI by COHERENT, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 081801 (2022).
  61. D. Akimov et al. (COHERENT Collaboration), First measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering on argon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 012002 (2021).
  62. S. Adamski et al. (The COHERENT Collaboration Collaboration), Evidence of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering with COHERENT’s germanium array, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 231801 (2025).
  63. N. Ackermann et al., Direct observation of coherent elastic antineutrino–nucleus scattering, Nature (London) 643, 1229 (2025).
  64. S. Adamski et al. (COHERENT Collaboration), Evidence of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering with COHERENT’s germanium array, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 231801 (2025).
  65. Z. Bo et al. (PandaX Collaboration), First indication of solar B8 neutrinos through coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering in PandaX-4T, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 191001 (2024).
  66. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), First indication of solar B8 neutrinos via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering with XENONnT, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 191002 (2024).
  67. D. S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration), Searches for light dark matter and evidence of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering of solar neutrinos with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, arXiv:2512.08065.
  68. I. Bischer and W. Rodejohann, General neutrino interactions from an effective field theory perspective, Nucl. Phys. B947, 114746 (2019).
  69. M. Hoferichter, J. R. de Elvira, B. Kubis, and U.-G. Meißner, On the role of isospin violation in the pion–nucleon σ-term, Phys. Lett. B 843, 138001 (2023).
  70. R. Gupta, B. Yoon, T. Bhattacharya, V. Cirigliano, Y.-C. Jang, and H.-W. Lin, Flavor diagonal tensor charges of the nucleon from (2+1+1)-flavor lattice QCD, Phys. Rev. D 98, 091501 (2018).
  71. S. S. Chatterjee, S. Lavignac, O. G. Miranda, and G. Sanchez Garcia, Exploring the sensitivity to non-standard neutrino interactions of NaI and cryogenic CsI detectors at the spallation neutron source, Phys. Rev. D 110, 095027 (2024).
  72. V. Bresó-Pla, S. Cruz-Alzaga, M. González-Alonso, and S. Prakash, EFT analysis of New Physics at COHERENT with Dirac neutrinos, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2025) 007.
  73. M. Hoferichter, J. Menéndez, and A. Schwenk, Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering: EFT analysis and nuclear responses, Phys. Rev. D 102, 074018 (2020).
  74. J. Dorenbosch et al. (CHARM Collaboration), Experimental verification of the universality of νe and νμ coupling to the neutral weak current, Phys. Lett. B 180, 303 (1986).
  75. J. Allaby et al. (CHARM Collaboration), A precise determination of the electroweak mixing angle from semileptonic neutrino scattering, Z. Phys. C 36, 611 (1987).
  76. A. Blondel et al., Electroweak parameters from a high statistics neutrino nucleon scattering experiment, Z. Phys. C 45, 361 (1990).
  77. J. Erler and S. Su, The weak neutral current, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 71, 119 (2013).
  78. A. D. Martin, W. J. Stirling, R. S. Thorne, and G. Watt, Parton distributions for the LHC, Eur. Phys. J. C 63, 189 (2009).
  79. M. Jonker et al. (CHARM Collaboration), Experimental study of neutral current and charged current neutrino cross-sections, Phys. Lett. 99B, 265 (1981); 100B, 520(E) (1981); 103B, 469(E) (1981).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 113, 095019– Published 12 May, 2026
  • Received 13 February 2026
  • Accepted 10 April 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation