Constraints on long-baseline neutrino oscillations from the results of neutrino oscillation experiments

It is shown that in the two schemes with four massive neutrinos which are compatible with the results of all neutrino oscillation experiments, the probabilities of nu_e disappearance and nu_mu->nu_e appearance in long-baseline experiments are severely constrained.Comment: 7 pages, including 2 figures. Talk presented by C. Giunti at TAUP97, September 7-11, 1997, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Ital

Constraints from Neutrino Oscillation Experiments on the Effective Majorana Mass in Neutrinoless Double β\beta-Decay

We determine the possible values of the effective Majorana neutrino mass $|< m > |= |\sum_j U_{ej}^2 m_j|$ in the different phenomenologically viable three and four-neutrino scenarios. The quantities $U_{\alpha j}$ ($\alpha = e,\mu,\tau,...$) denote the elements of the neutrino mixing matrix and the Majorana neutrino masses $m_j$ ($j=1,2,3,...$) are ordered as $m_1 < m_2 < ...$ Assuming $m_1 \ll m_3$ in the three-neutrino case and $m_1 \ll m_4$ in the four-neutrino case, we discuss, in particular, how constraints on $| |$ depend on the mixing angle relevant in solar neutrino oscillations and on the three mass-squared differences obtained from the analyses of the solar, atmospheric and LSND data. If neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay proceeds via the mechanism involving $||$, conclusions about neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay can be drawn. If one of the two viable four-neutrino schemes (Scheme A) is realized in nature, $||$ can be as large as 1 eV and neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay could possibly be discovered in the near future. In this case a Majorana CP phase of the mixing matrix $U$ could be determined. In the other four-neutrino scheme (Scheme B) there is an upper bound on $||$ of the order of $10^{-2}$ eV. In the case of three-neutrino mixing the same is true if the neutrino mass spectrum is hierarchical, however, if there exist two quasi-degenerate neutrinos and the first neutrino has a much smaller mass, values of $||$ as large as $\sim 0.1$ eV are possible.Comment: 15 pages, REVTEX, 2 figures, final version to be published in Phys. Lett.

Neutrinoless double-beta decay with three or four neutrino mixing

Considering the scheme with mixing of three neutrinos and a mass hierarchy that can accommodate the results of solar and atmospheric neutrino experiments, it is shown that the results of solar neutrino experiments imply a lower bound for the effective Majorana mass in neutrinoless double-beta decay, under the natural assumptions that massive neutrinos are Majorana particles and there are no unlikely fine-tuned cancellations among the contributions of the different neutrino masses. Considering the four-neutrino schemes that can accommodate also the results of the LSND experiment, it is shown that only one of them is compatible with the results of neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments and with the measurement of the abundances of primordial elements produced in Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis. It is shown that in this scheme, under the assumptions that massive neutrinos are Majorana particles and there are no cancellations among the contributions of the different neutrino masses, the results of the LSND experiment imply a lower bound for the effective Majorana mass in neutrinoless double-beta decay.Comment: 18 pages including 2 figures, RevTe

Neutrino Oscillations in the Framework of Three-Generation Mixings with Mass Hierarchy

We have analyzed the results of reactor and accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments in the framework of a general model with mixing of three neutrino fields and a neutrino mass hierarchy that can accommodate the results of the solar neutrino experiments. It is shown that $\nu_\mu \leftrightarrows \nu_e$ oscillations with $0.6 \le \Delta m^2 \le 100 \, \mathrm{eV}^2$ and amplitude larger than $2 \times 10^{-3}$ are not compatible with the existing limits on neutrino oscillations if the non-diagonal elements of the mixing matrix $\left| U_{e3} \right|$ and $\left| U_{\mu3} \right|$ are small. Thus, if the excess of electron events recently observed in the LSND experiment is due to $\nu_\mu \leftrightarrows \nu_e$ oscillations, the mixing in the lepton sector is basically different from the CKM mixing of quarks. If this type of mixing is realized in nature, the observation of $\nu_\mu \leftrightarrows \nu_e$ oscillations would not influence $\nu_\mu \leftrightarrows \nu_\tau$ oscillations that are being searched for in the CHORUS and NOMAD experiments.Comment: Revtex file, 13 pages + 2 figures (included). The postscript file of text and figures is available at http://www.to.infn.it/teorici/giunti/papers.html or ftp://ftp.to.infn.it/pub/giunti/1995/dftt-25-95/dftt-25-95.ps.

Neutrino masses and mixing from neutrino oscillation data

We discuss what information about the neutrino mass spectrum and the elements of the neutrino mixing matrix can be inferred from the results of neutrino oscillation experiments. The cases of three and four massive neutrinos are considered. It is shown that the general characteristics of the neutrino mixing matrix are quite different from those of the quark mixing matrix.Comment: 4 pages, including 2 figures. Talk presented by S.M. Bilenky at the XVI International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos, Capri, Italy, June 22-28 199

Status of four-neutrino mass schemes: a global and unified approach to current neutrino oscillation data

We present a unified global analysis of neutrino oscillation data within the framework of the four-neutrino mass schemes (3+1) and (2+2). We include all data from solar and atmospheric neutrino experiments, as well as information from short-baseline experiments including LSND. If we combine only solar and atmospheric neutrino data, (3+1) schemes are clearly preferred, whereas short-baseline data in combination with atmospheric data prefers (2+2) models. When combining all data in a global analysis the (3+1) mass scheme gives a slightly better fit than the (2+2) case, though all four-neutrino schemes are presently acceptable. The LSND result disfavors the three-active neutrino scenario with only $\Delta m^2_{sol}$ and $\Delta m^2_{atm}$ at 99.9% CL with respect to the four-neutrino best fit model. We perform a detailed analysis of the goodness of fit to identify which sub-set of the data is in disagreement with the best fit solution in a given mass scheme.Comment: 32 pages, 8 Figures included, REVTeX4.Improved discussion in sec. XI, references added, version accepted by Phys. Rev.

Neutrino oscillation constraints on neutrinoless double beta decay

We have studied the constraints imposed by the results of neutrino oscillation experiments on the effective Majorana mass || that characterizes the contribution of Majorana neutrino masses to the matrix element of neutrinoless double-beta decay. We have shown that in a general scheme with three Majorana neutrinos and a hierarchy of neutrino masses (which can be explained by the see-saw mechanism), the results of neutrino oscillation experiments imply rather strong constraints on the parameter ||. From the results of the first reactor long-baseline experiment CHOOZ and the Bugey experiment it follows that || < 3x10^{-2} eV if the largest mass-squared difference is smaller than 2 eV^2. Hence, we conclude that the observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay with a probability that corresponds to || > 10^{-1} eV would be a signal for a non-hierarchical neutrino mass spectrum and/or non-standard mechanisms of lepton number violation.Comment: 20 pages, including 4 figure

Lepton Mixing Matrix in Standard Model Extended by One Sterile Neutrino

We consider the simplest extension of the standard electroweak model by one sterile neutrino that allows for neutrino masses and mixing. We find that its leptonic sector contains much less free physical parameters than previously realized. In addition to the two neutrino masses, the lepton mixing matrix in charged current interactions involves (n-1) free physical mixing angles for n generations. The mixing matrix in neutral current interactions of neutrinos is completely fixed by the two masses. Both interactions conserve CP. We illustrate the phenomenological implications of the model by vacuum neutrino oscillations, tritium beta decay and neutrinoless double beta decay. It turns out that, due to the revealed specific structure in its mixing matrix, the model with any n generations cannot accommodate simultaneously the data by KamLAND, K2K and CHOOZ.Comment: 14 pages, no figures; version 2: (1) added a short paragraph at the end of subsec 2.2 to record the counting of physical parameters for any numbers of generations and sterile neutrinos for completeness; (2) added a note in ref list, item [18] to quote and comment on an earlier work; (3) added the second paper to ref list, item [17]; (4) fixed typo

Statistical Analysis of Different Muon-antineutrino->Electron-antineutrino Searches

A combined statistical analysis of the experimental results of the LSND and KARMEN \numubnueb oscillation search is presented. LSND has evidence for neutrino oscillations that is not confirmed by the KARMEN experiment. This joint analysis is based on the final likelihood results for both data sets. A frequentist approach is applied to deduce confidence regions. At a combined confidence level of 36%, there is no area of oscillation parameters compatible with both experiments. For the complementary confidence of 1-0.36=64%, there are two well defined regions of oscillation parameters (sin^2(2th),Dm^2) compatible with both experiments.Comment: 25 pages, including 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and CP violation in the lepton sector

We discuss possibilities to investigate the effects of CP (and T) violation in the lepton sector in neutrino oscillation experiments. We consider the effects of CP violation in the framework of two schemes of mixing of four massive neutrinos that can accommodate the results of all neutrino oscillation experiments. Using the constraints on the mixing parameters that follow from the results of short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, we derive rather strong upper bounds on the effects of CP violation in nu_munu_e transitions in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. We show that the effects of CP violation in nu_munu_tau transitions in long-baseline oscillation experiments can be as large as is allowed by the unitarity of the mixing matrix. The matter effects, which complicate the problem of searching for CP violation in long-baseline experiments, are discussed in detail. We consider the T-odd asymmetries whose measurement could allow to reveal T and CP violation in the lepton sector independently from matter effects.Comment: 31 pages, including 5 figure