Neutrino Masses from Non-minimal Gravitational Interactions of Massive Neutral Fermions

A new mechanism is proposed for generating neutrino masses radiatively through a non-minimal coupling to gravity of fermionic bilinears involving massive neutral fermions. Such coupling terms can arise in theories where the gravity sector is augmented by a scalar field. They necessarily violate the principle of equivalence, but such violations are not ruled out by present experiments. It is shown that the proposed mechanism is realised most convincingly in theories of the Randall- Sundrum type, where gravity couples strongly in the TeV range. The mechanism has the potential for solving both the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems. The smallness of neutrino masses in this scenario is due to the fact that the interaction of the massive neutral fermions arises entirely from higher-dimensional operators in the effective Lagrangian.Comment: 7 page Latex 2e file, axodraw needed. Discussion and references added. Version to appear in MPL

The effect of very low energy solar neutrinos on the MSW mechanism

We study some implications on standard matter oscillations of solar neutrinos induced by a background of extremely low energy thermal neutrinos trapped inside the Sun by means of coherent refractive interactions. Possible experimental tests are envisaged and current data on solar neutrinos detected at Earth are briefly discussed.Comment: RevTex4, 4 pages, no figure

On a generalized gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect

A massless spinor particle is considered in the background gravitational field due to a rotating body. In the weak field approximation it is shown that the solution of the Weyl equations depend on the angular momentum of the rotating body, which does not affect the curvature in this approximation. This result may be looked upon as a generalization of the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect.Comment: 10 pages, LATEX fil

Implications of observed neutrinoless double beta decay

Recently a positive indication of the neutrinoless double beta decay has been announced. We study the implications of this result taking into consideration earlier results on atmospheric neutrinos and solar neutrinos. We also include in our discussions the recent results from SNO and K2K. We point out that on the confidence level given for the double beta signal, the neutrino mass matrices are now highly constrained. All models predicting Dirac masses are ruled out and leptogenesis becomes a natural choice. Only the degenerate and the inverted hierarchical solutions are allowed for the three generation Majorana neutrinos. In both these cases we find that the radiative corrections destabilize the solutions and the LOW, VO and Just So solutions of the solar neutrinos are ruled out. For the four generation case only the inverted hierarchical scenario is allowed.Comment: 16 pages, 2 postscript figure

Lorentz invariance with an invariant energy scale

We propose a modification of special relativity in which a physical energy, which may be the Planck energy, joins the speed of light as an invariant, in spite of a complete relativity of inertial frames and agreement with Einstein's theory at low energies. This is accomplished by a non-linear modification of the action of the Lorentz group on momentum space, generated by adding a dilatation to each boost in such a way that the Planck energy remains invariant. The associated algebra has unmodified structure constants, and we highlight the similarities between the group action found and a transformation previously proposed by Fock. We also discuss the resulting modifications of field theory and suggest a modification of the equivalence principle which determines how the new theory is embedded in general relativity

Probing the Planck Scale with Neutrino Oscillations

Quantum gravity "foam", among its various generic Lorentz non-invariant effects, would cause neutrino mixing. It is shown here that, if the foam is manifested as a nonrenormalizable effect at scale M, the oscillation length generically decreases with energy $E$ as (E/M)^(-2). Neutrino observatories and long-baseline experiments should have therefore already observed foam-induced oscillations, even if M is as high as the Planck energy scale. The null results, which can be further strengthened by better analysis of current data and future experiments, can be taken as experimental evidence that Lorentz invariance is fully preserved at the Planck scale, as is the case in critical string theory.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Final version published in PRD. 1 figure, references, clarifications and explanations added. Results unchange

Quantum Violations of the Equivalence Principle in a Modified Schwarzschild Geometry. Neutrino Oscillations

Neutrino flavour oscillations are analyzed in a model in which particles experience an effective Schwarzschild geometry modified by maximal acceleration corrections. These imply a quantum violation of the equivalence principle. The corresponding shifts in the phase of the neutrino mass eigenstates are calculated and discussed.Comment: 10 pages. Accepted by Phys. Lett.