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The LHC has produced an enormous dataset. I'm curious to know if any analyses could be (or have been?) performed on this data to search for signatures related to neutrinos that decoupled from matter in the early universe.

Specifically, since neutrino observatories have extremely low cross-sections due to the weak interaction of neutrinos with matter, it's challenging to detect them directly. However, I'm wondering if the LHC events could be searched for deviations or fluctuations that might be used as a "neutrino telescope" to gain insights into the lepton epoch?

For clarity, the idea is that cosmic neutrinos should have a higher cross section with the high-energy particles produced by the LHC than with static matter in the current neutrino observatories.

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  • $\begingroup$ You should probably look into the FASER experiment at Cerne. $\endgroup$
    – Triatticus
    Commented Aug 13 at 16:29
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, but as far as I understand the FASER experiment is designed to detect neutrinos produced by the LHC collisions, not cosmic neutrinos $\endgroup$
    – Ziofil
    Commented Aug 13 at 16:46
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    $\begingroup$ I see, well LHC cannot be a telescope, it's instruments are not designed to detect neutrinos aside from FASER so I don't see how it would ever be able to. The cross section is so low for neutrinos that you need a huge volume for detection (besides a recent small detector that was championed recently). IceCube already detects high energy cosmic neutrinos, but the low energy C$\nu$B neutrinos are well out of reach of detection for now. $\endgroup$
    – Triatticus
    Commented Aug 13 at 17:52
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    $\begingroup$ One can certainly think about using ultrarelativistic targets for the detection of low-energy neutrinos, but I don't believe that a technical realization is within our reach, right now (or maybe ever). The total mass in the LHC beam is many orders of magnitude too small for that. IceCube detects TeV neutrinos (starting at 0.1TeV) and requires cubic-kilometer volumes for that. I can't see any chance to scale that to the mass range of a high energy beam in a storage ring. $\endgroup$
    – FlatterMann
    Commented Aug 13 at 18:28
  • $\begingroup$ I see. Still way off in terms of mass and volume. $\endgroup$
    – Ziofil
    Commented Aug 14 at 1:51

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