756 research outputs found
Are solar neutrino oscillations robust?
The robustness of the large mixing angle (LMA) oscillation (OSC)
interpretation of the solar neutrino data is considered in a more general
framework where non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) are present. Such
interactions may be regarded as a generic feature of models of neutrino mass.
The 766.3 ton-yr data sample of the KamLAND collaboration are included in the
analysis, paying attention to the background from the reaction ^13C(\alpha,n)
^16O. Similarly, the latest solar neutrino fluxes from the SNO collaboration
are included. In addition to the solution which holds in the absence of NSI
(LMA-I) there is a 'dark-side' solution (LMA-D) with sin^2 theta_Sol = 0.70,
essentially degenerate with the former, and another light-side solution (LMA-0)
allowed only at 97% CL. More precise KamLAND reactor measurements will not
resolve the ambiguity in the determination of the solar neutrino mixing angle
theta_Sol, as they are expected to constrain mainly Delta m^2. We comment on
the complementary role of atmospheric, laboratory (e.g. CHARM) and future solar
neutrino experiments in lifting the degeneracy between the LMA-I and LMA-D
solutions. In particular, we show how the LMA-D solution induced by the
simplest NSI between neutrinos and down-type-quarks-only is in conflict with
the combination of current atmospheric data and data of the CHARM experiment.
We also mention that establishing the issue of robustness of the oscillation
picture in the most general case will require further experiments, such as
those involving low energy solar neutrinos.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; Final version to appear in JHE
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