Mass hierarchy, 2-3 mixing and CP-phase with Huge Atmospheric Neutrino Detectors

We explore the physics potential of multi-megaton scale ice or water Cherenkov detectors with low ($\sim 1$ GeV) threshold. Using some proposed characteristics of the PINGU detector setup we compute the distributions of events versus neutrino energy $E_\nu$ and zenith angle $\theta_z$, and study their dependence on yet unknown neutrino parameters. The $(E_\nu - \theta_z)$ regions are identified where the distributions have the highest sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy, to the deviation of the 2-3 mixing from the maximal one and to the CP-phase. We evaluate significance of the measurements of the neutrino parameters and explore dependence of this significance on the accuracy of reconstruction of the neutrino energy and direction. The effect of degeneracy of the parameters on the sensitivities is also discussed. We estimate the characteristics of future detectors (energy and angle resolution, volume, etc.) required for establishing the neutrino mass hierarchy with high confidence level. We find that the hierarchy can be identified at $3\sigma$ -- $10\sigma$ level (depending on the reconstruction accuracies) after 5 years of PINGU operation.Comment: 39 pages, 21 figures. Description of Fig.3 correcte

On the Perturbative Stability of Quantum Field Theories in de Sitter Space

We use a field theoretic generalization of the Wigner-Weisskopf method to study the stability of the Bunch-Davies vacuum state for a massless, conformally coupled interacting test field in de Sitter space. We find that in $\lambda \phi^4$ theory the vacuum does {\em not} decay, while in non-conformally invariant models, the vacuum decays as a consequence of a vacuum wave function renormalization that depends \emph{singularly} on (conformal) time and is proportional to the spatial volume. In a particular regularization scheme the vacuum wave function renormalization is the same as in Minkowski spacetime, but in terms of the \emph{physical volume}, which leads to an interpretation of the decay. A simple example of the impact of vacuum decay upon a non-gaussian correlation is discussed. Single particle excitations also decay into two particle states, leading to particle production that hastens the exiting of modes from the de Sitter horizon resulting in the production of \emph{entangled superhorizon pairs} with a population consistent with unitary evolution. We find a non-perturbative, self-consistent "screening" mechanism that shuts off vacuum decay asymptotically, leading to a stationary vacuum state in a manner not unlike the approach to a fixed point in the space of states.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures. Version to appear in JHEP, more explanation

Searching for sterile neutrinos in ice

Oscillation interpretation of the results from the LSND, MiniBooNE and some other experiments requires existence of sterile neutrino with mass $\sim 1$ eV and mixing with the active neutrinos $|U_{\mu 0}|^2 \sim (0.02 - 0.04)$. It has been realized some time ago that existence of such a neutrino affects significantly the fluxes of atmospheric neutrinos in the TeV range which can be tested by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. In view of the first IceCube data release we have revisited the oscillations of high energy atmospheric neutrinos in the presence of one sterile neutrino. Properties of the oscillation probabilities are studied in details for various mixing schemes both analytically and numerically. The energy spectra and angular distributions of the $\nu_\mu-$events have been computed for the simplest $\nu_s-$mass, and $\nu_s - \nu_\mu$ mixing schemes and confronted with the IceCube data. An illustrative statistical analysis of the present data shows that in the $\nu_s-$mass mixing case the sterile neutrinos with parameters required by LSND/MiniBooNE can be excluded at about $3\sigma$ level. The $\nu_s- \nu_\mu$ mixing scheme, however, can not be ruled out with currently available IceCube data.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in JHEP. Minor changes from the previous versio

Mass hierarchy discrimination with atmospheric neutrinos in large volume ice/water Cherenkov detectors

Large mass ice/water Cherenkov experiments, optimized to detect low energy (1-20 GeV) atmospheric neutrinos, have the potential to discriminate between normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchies. The sensitivity depends on several model and detector parameters, such as the neutrino flux profile and normalization, the Earth density profile, the oscillation parameter uncertainties, and the detector effective mass and resolution. A proper evaluation of the mass hierarchy discrimination power requires a robust statistical approach. In this work, the Toy Monte Carlo, based on an extended unbinned likelihood ratio test statistic, was used. The effect of each model and detector parameter, as well as the required detector exposure, was then studied. While uncertainties on the Earth density and atmospheric neutrino flux profiles were found to have a minor impact on the mass hierarchy discrimination, the flux normalization, as well as some of the oscillation parameter (\Delta m^2_{31}, \theta_{13}, \theta_{23}, and \delta_{CP}) uncertainties and correlations resulted critical. Finally, the minimum required detector exposure, the optimization of the low energy threshold, and the detector resolutions were also investigated.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure

Large-Theta(13) Perturbation Theory of Neutrino Oscillation for Long-Baseline Experiments

The Cervera et al. formula, the best known approximate formula of neutrino oscillation probability for long-baseline experiments, can be regarded as a second-order perturbative formula with small expansion parameter epsilon \equiv Delta m^2_{21} / Delta m^2_{31} \simeq 0.03 under the assumption s_{13} \simeq epsilon. If theta_{13} is large, as suggested by a candidate nu_{e} event at T2K as well as the recent global analyses, higher order corrections of s_{13} to the formula would be needed for better accuracy. We compute the corrections systematically by formulating a perturbative framework by taking theta_{13} as s_{13} \sim \sqrt{epsilon} \simeq 0.18, which guarantees its validity in a wide range of theta_{13} below the Chooz limit. We show on general ground that the correction terms must be of order epsilon^2. Yet, they nicely fill the mismatch between the approximate and the exact formulas at low energies and relatively long baselines. General theorems are derived which serve for better understanding of delta-dependence of the oscillation probability. Some interesting implications of the large theta_{13} hypothesis are discussed.Comment: Fig.2 added, 23 pages. Matches to the published versio

Testing matter effects in propagation of atmospheric and long-baseline neutrinos

We quantify our current knowledge of the size and flavor structure of the matter effects in the evolution of atmospheric and long-baseline neutrinos based solely on the analysis of the corresponding neutrino data. To this aim we generalize the matter potential of the Standard Model by rescaling its strength, rotating it away from the e-e sector, and rephasing it with respect to the vacuum term. This phenomenological parametrization can be easily translated in terms of non-standard neutrino interactions in matter. We show that in the most general case, the strength of the potential cannot be determined solely by atmospheric and long-baseline data. However its flavor composition is very much constrained and the present determination of the neutrino masses and mixing is robust under its presence. We also present an update of the constraints arising from this analysis in the particular case in which no potential is present in the e-mu and e-tau sectors. Finally we quantify to what degree in this scenario it is possible to alleviate the tension between the oscillation results for neutrinos and antineutrinos in the MINOS experiment and show the relevance of the high energy part of the spectrum measured at MINOS.Comment: PDFLaTeX file using JHEP3 class, 25 pages, 7 figures included. Accepted for publication in JHE

Precision on leptonic mixing parameters at future neutrino oscillation experiments

We perform a comparison of the different future neutrino oscillation experiments based on the achievable precision in the determination of the fundamental parameters theta_{13} and the CP phase, delta, assuming that theta_{13} is in the range indicated by the recent Daya Bay measurement. We study the non-trivial dependence of the error on delta on its true value. When matter effects are small, the largest error is found at the points where CP violation is maximal, and the smallest at the CP conserving points. The situation is different when matter effects are sizable. As a result of this effect, the comparison of the physics reach of different experiments on the basis of the CP discovery potential, as usually done, can be misleading. We have compared various proposed super-beam, beta-beam and neutrino factory setups on the basis of the relative precision of theta_{13} and the error on delta. Neutrino factories, both high-energy or low-energy, outperform alternative beam technologies. An ultimate precision on theta_{13} below 3% and an error on delta of < 7^{\circ} at 1 sigma (1 d.o.f.) can be obtained at a neutrino factory.Comment: Minor changes, matches version accepted in JHEP. 30 pages, 9 figure

Mean ergodicity and spectrum of the Cesàro operator on weighted c0 spaces

[EN] A detailed investigation is made of the continuity, the compactness and the spectrum of the Cesàro operator C acting on the weighted Banach sequence space c0(w) for a bounded, strictly positive weight w. New features arise in the weighted setting (e.g. existence of eigenvalues, compactness, mean ergodicity) which are not present in the classical setting of c0.The research of the first two authors was partially supported by the Projects MTM2013-43540-P, GVA Prometeo II/2013/013 and ACOMP/2015/186 (Spain).Albanese, AA.; Bonet Solves, JA.; Ricker, WJ. (2016). Mean ergodicity and spectrum of the Cesàro operator on weighted c0 spaces. Positivity. 20:761-803. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11117-015-0385-xS76180320Akhmedov, A.M., Başar, F.: On the fine spectrum of the Cesàro operator in $$c_0$$ c 0 . Math. J. Ibaraki Univ. 36, 25–32 (2004)Akhmedov, A.M., Başar, F.: The fine spectrum of the Cesàro operator $$C_1$$ C 1 over the sequence space $$bv_p, (1 \le p < \infty )$$ b v p , ( 1 ≤ p < ∞ ) . Math. J. Okayama Univ. 50, 135–147 (2008)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Convergence of arithmetic means of operators in Fréchet spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 401, 160–173 (2013)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Spectrum and compactness of the Cesàro operator on weighted $$\ell _p$$ ℓ p spaces. J. Aust. Math. Soc. 99, 287–314 (2015)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: The Cesàro operator in the Fréchet spaces $$\ell ^{p+}$$ ℓ p + and $$L ^{p-}$$ L p - . Glasg. Math. J (to appear)Ansari, S.I., Bourdon, P.S.: Some properties of cyclic operators. Acta Sci. Math. Szeged 63, 195–207 (1997)Brown, A., Halmos, P.R., Shields, A.L.: Cesàro operators. Acta Sci. Math. Szeged 26, 125–137 (1965)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: Spectrum of the Cesàro operator in $$\ell ^p$$ ℓ p . Arch. Math. 100, 267–271 (2013)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: Solid extensions of the Cesàro operator on $$\ell ^p$$ ℓ p and $$c_0$$ c 0 . Integr. Equ. Oper. Theory 80, 61–77 (2014)Curbera, G.P., Ricker, W.J.: The Cesàro operator and unconditional Taylor series in Hardy spaces. Integr. Equ. Oper. Theory 83, 179–195 (2015)Diestel, J.: Sequences and Series in Banach Spaces. Springer, New York (1984)Dowson, H.R.: Spectral Theory of Linear Operators. Academic Press, London (1978)Dunford, N., Schwartz, J.T.: Linear Operators I: General Theory, 2nd Printing. Wiley Interscience Publ, New York (1964)Emilion, R.: Mean-bounded operators and mean ergodic theorems. J. Funct. Anal. 61, 1–14 (1985)Goldberg, S.: Unbounded Linear Operators: Theory and Applications. Dover Publ, New York (1985)Hille, E.: Remarks on ergodic theorems. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 57, 246–269 (1945)Jarchow, H.: Locally Convex Spaces. Teubner, Stuttgart (1981)Krengel, U.: Ergodic Theorems. de Gruyter, Berlin (1985)Leibowitz, G.: Spectra of discrete Cesàro operators. Tamkang J. Math. 3, 123–132 (1972)Lin, M.: On the uniform ergodic theorem. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 43, 337–340 (1974)Megginson, R.E.: An Introduction to Banach Space Theory. Springer, New York (1998)Mureşan, M.: A Concrete Approach to Classical Analysis. Springer, Berlin (2008)Okutoyi, J.I.: On the spectrum of $$C_1$$ C 1 as an operator on $$bv_0$$ b v 0 . J. Aust. Math. Soc. Ser. A 48, 79–86 (1990)Radjavi, H., Tam, P.-W., Tan, K.-K.: Mean ergodicity for compact operators. Studia Math. 158, 207–217 (2003)Reade, J.B.: On the spectrum of the Cesàro operator. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 17, 263–267 (1985)Rhoades, B.E., Yildirim, M.: The spectra and fine spectra of factorable matrices on $$c_0$$ c 0 . Math. Commun. 16, 265–270 (2011)Taylor, A.E.: Introduction to Functional Analysis. Wiley, New York (1958