Prospects of indirect searches for dark matter annihilations in the earth with ICAL@INO

We study the prospects of detecting muon events at the upcoming Iron CALorimeter (ICAL) detector to be built at the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) facility due to neutrinos arising out of annihilation of Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMP) in the centre of the earth. The atmospheric neutrinos coming from the direction of earth core presents an irreducible background. We consider 50kt $\times$ 10 years of ICAL running and WIMP masses between 10-100 GeV and present 90 \% C.L. exclusion sensitivity limits on $\sigma_{SI}$ which is the WIMP-nucleon Spin Independent (SI) interaction cross-section. The expected sensitivity limits calculated for ICAL for the WIMP annihilation in the earth are more stringent than the limits obtained by any other indirect detection experiment. For a WIMP mass of ~$52.14 \textup{ GeV}$, where the signal fluxes are enhanced due to resonance capture of WIMP in earth due to Fe nuclei, the sensitivity limits, assuming 100\% branching ratio for each channel, are : $\sigma_{SI} =1.02\times 10^{-44}~cm^2$ for the $\tau^{+} \tau^{-}$ channel and $\sigma_{SI} =5.36\times 10^{-44} ~cm^2$ for the $b ~\bar{b}$ channel.Comment: 20 pages, 1 table and 11 figure

Neutrino Physics with Non-Standard Interactions at INO

Non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) involved in neutrino propagation inside Earth matter could potentially alter atmospheric neutrino fluxes. In this work, we look at the impact of these NSI on the signal at the ICAL detector to be built at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). We show how the sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy of ICAL changes in the presence of NSI. The mass hierarchy sensitivity is shown to be rather sensitive to the NSI parameters $\epsilon_{e\mu}$ and $\epsilon_{e\tau}$, while the dependence on $\epsilon_{\mu\tau}$ and $\epsilon_{\tau\tau}$ is seen to be very mild, once the $\chi^2$ is marginalised over oscillation and NSI parameters. If the NSI are large enough, the event spectrum at ICAL is expected to be altered and this can be used to discover new physics. We calculate the lower limit on NSI parameters above which ICAL could discover NSI at a given C.L. from 10 years of data. If NSI were too small, the null signal at ICAL can constrain the NSI parameters. We give upper limits on the NSI parameters at any given C.L. that one is expected to put from 10 years of running of ICAL. Finally, we give C.L. contours in the NSI parameter space that is expected to be still allowed from 10 years of running of the experiment.Comment: 24 pages, minor improvement

Earth Tomography with ICAL at INO

Observing matter effects in atmospheric neutrinos travelling through the entire mantle and core of the Earth is a promising way of enhancing our understanding of Earth's density structure. In that context we study the prospects of Earth tomography with the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory. While this experiment is smaller in size in comparison to some of the other bigger detectors being proposed, it is the only neutrino experiment with charge-identification sensitivity. In particular, ICAL can see matter effects separately in neutrinos and antineutrinos. This has been seen to enhance ICAL's sensitivity to earth matter effects and hence the mass ordering sensitivity for both normal and inverted mass orderings. It is therefore, pertinent to see if the ICAL sensitivity to earth tomography is competitive or better with respect to other experiments, especially for the inverted mass ordering, where other experiments suffer reduced sensitivity. We present the sensitivity of ICAL to earth tomography by taking into consideration both the Earth's mass constraint as well as the hydrostatic equilibrium constraints.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, 10 table

Determining Neutrino Mass Ordering with ICAL, JUNO and T2HK

In this paper we study the synergy among the future accelerator (T2HK), future atmospheric (ICAL) and future reactor (JUNO) neutrino experiments to determine the neutrino mass ordering. T2HK can measure the mass ordering only for favorable values of $\delta_{\rm CP}$, whereas the mass ordering sensitivity of JUNO is dependent on the energy resolution. Our results show that with a combination of T2HK, ICAL and JUNO one can have a mass ordering sensitivity of 7.2 $\sigma$ even for the unfavorable value of $\delta_{\rm CP} = 0^\circ$ for T2HK and most conservative value of JUNO energy resolution of 5$\%/\sqrt{E(MeV)}$. The synergy mainly comes because different oscillation channels prefer different values of $|\Delta m_{31}^2|$ in the fit when the mass-ordering $\chi^2$ is minimized. In this context we also study: (i) effect of varying energy resolution of JUNO, (ii) the effect of longer run-time of ICAL, (iii) effect of different true values of $\theta_{23}$ and (iv) effect of octant degeneracy in the determination of neutrino mass ordering.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 8 table

Comprehensive study of Lorentz invariance violation in atmospheric and long-baseline experiments

In this paper, we have presented a comprehensive study of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in the context of atmospheric neutrino experiment ICAL and long-baseline experiments T2HK and DUNE. Our study consists of the full parameter space of the LIV parameters (isotropic), i.e., six CPT violating LIV parameters ($a_{\alpha \beta}$) and six CPT conserving LIV parameters ($c_{\alpha \beta}$). In this study, our objective is to calculate the upper bound on all the LIV parameters with respect to the individual experiments and their combination. Our results show that DUNE gives the best sensitivity for the parameters $a_{ee}$, $a_{e\mu}$, $a_{e\tau}$ and $a_{\mu\tau}$ in its 7 years of running whereas ICAL gives the best sensitivity on $a_{\mu\mu}$, $a_{\mu\tau}$, $c_{ee}$, $c_{\mu \mu}$, $c_{\tau\tau}$ and $c_{\mu\tau}$ in its 10 years of running. For $a_{\tau\tau}$, the sensitivity of DUNE and ICAL is similar. The combination of T2HK, DUNE and ICAL, gives the best sensitivity for $a_{e\mu}$ and $a_{ee}$ with respect to all the existing bounds in the literature. For the CPT even diagonal parameters (isotropic) $c_{ee}$ and $c_{\mu\mu}$, our work provides the first ever bounds.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, 5 table

Neutrino Mass Ordering -- Circumventing the Challenges using Synergy between T2HK and JUNO

One of the major open problems of neutrino physics is MO (mass ordering). We discuss the prospects of measuring MO with two under-construction experiments T2HK and JUNO. JUNO alone is expected to measure MO with greater than $3\sigma$ significance as long as certain experimental challenges are met. In particular, JUNO needs better than 3$\%$ energy resolution for MO measurement. On the other hand, T2HK has rather poor prospects at measuring the MO, especially for certain ranges of the CP violating parameter $\delta_{\rm CP}$, posing a major drawback for T2HK. In this letter we show that the synergy between JUNO and T2HK will bring two-fold advantage. Firstly, the synergy between the two experiments helps us determine the MO at a very high significance. With the baseline set-up of the two experiments, we have a greater than $9\sigma$ determination of the MO for all values of $\delta_{\rm CP}$. Secondly, the synergy also allows us to relax the constraints on the two experiments. We show that JUNO, could perform extremely well even for energy resolution of 5$\%$, while for T2HK the MO problem with "bad" values of $\delta_{\rm CP}$ goes away. The MO sensitivity for the combined analysis is expected to be greater than $6\sigma$ for all values of $\delta_{\rm CP}$ and with just 5$\%$ energy resolution for JUNO.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Identification of Co-Existing Mutations and Gene Expression Trends Associated With K13-Mediated Artemisinin Resistance in Plasmodium falciparum

Plasmodium falciparum infects millions and kills thousands of people annually the world over. With the emergence of artemisinin and/or multidrug resistant strains of the pathogen, it has become even more challenging to control and eliminate the disease. Multiomics studies of the parasite have started to provide a glimpse into the confounding genetics and mechanisms of artemisinin resistance and identified mutations in Kelch13 (K13) as a molecular marker of resistance. Over the years, thousands of genomes and transcriptomes of artemisinin-resistant/sensitive isolates have been documented, supplementing the search for new genes/pathways to target artemisinin-resistant isolates. This meta-analysis seeks to recap the genetic landscape and the transcriptional deregulation that demarcate artemisinin resistance in the field. To explore the genetic territory of artemisinin resistance, we use genomic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) datasets from 2,517 isolates from 15 countries from the MalariaGEN Network (The Pf3K project, pilot data release 4, 2015) to dissect the prevalence, geographical distribution, and co-existing patterns of genetic markers associated with/enabling artemisinin resistance. We have identified several mutations which co-exist with the established markers of artemisinin resistance. Interestingly, K13-resistant parasites harbor α-ß hydrolase and putative HECT domain–containing protein genes with the maximum number of SNPs. We have also explored the multiple, publicly available transcriptomic datasets to identify genes from key biological pathways whose consistent deregulation may be contributing to the biology of resistant parasites. Surprisingly, glycolytic and pentose phosphate pathways were consistently downregulated in artemisinin-resistant parasites. Thus, this meta-analysis highlights the genetic and transcriptomic features of resistant parasites to propel further exploratory studies in the community to tackle artemisinin resistance.</p

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

The third international hackathon for applying insights into large-scale genomic composition to use cases in a wide range of organisms

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