Neutrino Parameter Space for a Vanishing eeee Element in the Neutrino Mass Matrix

The consequences of a texture zero at the $ee$ entry of neutrino mass matrix in the flavor basis, which also implies a vanishing effective Majorana mass for neutrinoless double beta decay, have been studied for Majorana neutrinos. The neutrino parameter space under this condition has been constrained in the light of all available neutrino data including the CHOOZ bound on $s_{13}^{2}$.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures, typographical errors corrected, version to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Spectral Distortions at Super-Kamiokande

We examine the effect of the rise in the survival probability of the electron neutrinos with the decrease in the neutrino energy on the recoil electron spectrum at Super-Kamiokande.Comment: 9 pages, 8 eps figures, to be published in Physical Review D as a Brief Repor

Challenges for Revival of Indian Agriculture

In India, economic growth has improved significantly during the past two and a half decades, particularly in the post-reform period. India is considered as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. However, the exclusion problems have not been addressed seriously by the government programmes and strategies. The experience of the economic reforms during the past 15 years indicates that while there have been improvements in the economic growth, foreign exchange, IT revolution, export growth, etc., the income distribution has been unequal and only some sections of the population have been benefited more from this higher growth and prosperity. In other words, real development in terms of growth shared by all sections of the population has not taken place. We have problems of poverty, unemployment, inequalities in access to credit, health care and education and poor performance of the agriculture sector. One of the excluded sectors during the reform period was agriculture which showed low growth and experienced more farmers’ suicides. There are serious concerns about the performance of agriculture sector in the country. The post-reform period growth has been led by the services. The commodity sector growth (agriculture + industry) has not been higher in the post-reform period as compared to that during the 1980s. The particular worry is the agriculture sector which has shown less than 2 per cent per annum growth during the past decade. Also, there is a disconnect between employment growth and GDP growth. In other words, employment is not being generated in the industry and services sector, where growth is high. On the other hand, GDP growth is low in the agriculture wherein a majority of people are employed. Thus, there has been a lop-sided approach to agricultural development in India during the past few decades. Growth may be higher during the past two decades, but the inclusive growth in terms of focus on agriculture has been missing1. It is like running a train with engine only without connecting a majority of the bogies and people to the engine. The role of agriculture in economic development is well known. Agriculture not only contributes to overall growth of the economy but also provides employment and food security to the majority population, which in turn reduces poverty in a developing country. Thus, if we want pro-poor growth and real development, high agricultural growth and rising incomes for farmers are essential. In recent decades, the context within which agriculture policy has to be developed and implemented, has undergone fundamental changes. The relationships operated for much of the 1960s and 1970s have changed. Globalization policies during the 1980s and particularly during 1990s and beyond have created many challenges for agriculture in developing countries. Some of the consequences and impacts of globalization in developing countries are: exposure of domestic agriculture to international competition, growth of non-agricultural sector and its impact on demand for agricultural products, urban middle class life-style changes, including diets, rising food imports, competitiveness and diversification of domestic production systems, vertical integration of the food supply chain, etc. (Prabhu, 2006). Because of demographic pressures, there has been a significant increase in small and marginal farm holdings. These farmers have to face the challenges of globalization. Risk and uncertainty have also increased as cultivation has spread to marginal lands. The diversification of agriculture has also raised concerns on food security. In recent years, there has been a concern regarding increase in the global food prices. Rise in crude oil prices has increased agricultural costs also. Increased use of food crops for biofuels has also pushed up their demand. The USA uses 20 per cent of its maize production for biofuels; Brazil uses 50 per cent of sugarcane for biofuels; and the European Union uses 68 per cent of its vegetable oil production for biofuels. Such large usages, by reducing the availability of these products for food and feed, have exerted pressure on their prices. Food prices have also increased due to low output stocks. International prices of wheat, rice and maize have increased significantly in the past two years. This is another challenge for India in maintaining its food security. This lecture is divided into three sections. Section 1 deals with the performance and problems of agriculture, while Section 2 discusses policy challenges for the revival of Indian agriculture. The last Section provides concluding observations.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Inclusive Growth in Andhra Pradesh - Challenges in Agriculture, Poverty, Social Sector and Regional Disparities

This paper deals with inclusive growth in Andhra Pradesh. Growth may be higher in the last two decades but inclusive growth or equitable development has been missing. It is like running a train with engine only without connecting bogies and people to the engine. According to us, important elements of inclusive growth are : agricultural growth, employment generation and poverty reduction, social sector (health and education) and reduction in regional and other disparities. In this paper, we concentrate on these four elements of inclusive growth. There seems to be some 'turn around' in the gross state domestic product (GSDP) of A.P. in the last five years. The average annual growth rate was 6.9% during 2002-07 and 7.8% during 2003-07. However, there are problems in the four elements of inclusive growth. Growth of agriculture particularly crop sector is very low. Employment growth in the postreform period (1993-94 to 2004-05) is the lowest in the country. The recent data shows that literacy levels are also low as compared to many other states. The National Family Health survey (NFHS III) indicate that A.P.'s rank for infant mortality is 11 out of 17 states in the year 2005-06. Growth rates in district domestic product (DDP) and per capita DDP shows that 7 districts of Telangana (Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Khammam, Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar, Warangal and Medak) and 2 districts of North Coastal (Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam) recorded higher growth rates than that of state average. On the other hand, all the districts in South Coastal and Rayalaseema and three districts of Telangana and one district of North Coastal showed lower growth than that of state average. However, one has to see the quality of growth in Telangana and Rayalaseema districts. We have examined whether A.P. can achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is depressing to note that Andhra Pradesh will not meet MDGs in 10 out of 14 indicators. Thus, except in poverty, enrolment of boys and girls and drinking water, A.P. may not achieve millennium development goals in crucial indicators of education, health and sanitation at current rates of progress. The progress in MDGs for some regions and socially deprived sections like SCs and STs has been slower than the state average. This paper suggests several policies for improving inclusive growth in A.P. Economic growth may be improving but A.P. is lagging behind in agriculture, employment , human development and in reducing regional disparities. There is a need to operationalize a plan for achieving inclusive growth during the 11th Five Year Plan period and beyond in Andhra Pradesh. The action plan should cover the priority areas like agriculture, employment and social sectors. It should have a plan for removing economic and social deprivation across all regions. Also it should have a plan for socially disadvantaged sections.Gowth, Andhra Pradesh, agriculture, poverty, Social Sector, Regional Disparities

Constraints on Weakly Mixed Sterile Neutrinos in the Light of SNO Salt Phase and 766.3 Ty KamLAND Data

The possibility of flavor transitions into sterile neutrinos (accompanying the dominant LMA transitions) in the solar boron neutrino flux has been examined in a scenario proposed by Hollanda and Smirnov to overcome some generic problems of the pure LMA scenario. It is found that the most recent SNO salt phase solar neutrino data and the KamLAND 766.3 Ty spectral data, allow for a significant sterile presence in the solar boron neutrino flux reaching the earth.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Displaced vertex signatures of doubly charged scalars in the type-II seesaw and its left-right extensions

The type-II seesaw mechanism with an isospin-triplet scalar $\Delta_L$ provides one of the most compelling explanations for the observed smallness of neutrino masses. The triplet contains a doubly-charged component $H_L^{\pm\pm}$, which dominantly decays to either same-sign dileptons or to a pair of $W$ bosons, depending on the size of the triplet vacuum expectation value. However, there exists a range of Yukawa couplings $f_L$ of the triplet to the charged leptons, wherein a relatively light $H_L^{\pm\pm}$ tends to be long-lived, giving rise to distinct displaced-vertex signatures at the high-energy colliders. We find that the displaced vertex signals from the leptonic decays $H_L^{\pm\pm} \to \ell_\alpha^\pm \ell_\beta^\pm$ could probe a broad parameter space with $10^{-10} \lesssim |f_L| \lesssim 10^{-6}$ and 45.6 GeV $< M_{H_L^{\pm\pm}} \lesssim 200$ GeV at the high-luminosity LHC. Similar sensitivity can also be achieved at a future 1 TeV $e^+e^-$ collider. The mass reach can be extended to about 500 GeV at a future 100 TeV proton-proton collider. Similar conclusions apply for the right-handed triplet $H_R^{\pm\pm}$ in the TeV-scale left-right symmetric models, which provide a natural embedding of the type-II seesaw. We show that the displaced vertex signals are largely complementary to the prompt same-sign dilepton pair searches at the LHC and the low-energy, high-intensity/precision measurements, such as neutrinoless double beta decay, charged lepton flavor violation, electron and muon anomalous magnetic moments, muonium oscillation and M{\o}ller scattering.Comment: 49 pages, 25 figures and 2 tables, minor changes, version to appear in JHE

Asymmetric Dark Matter in the Sun and the Diphoton Excess at the LHC

It has been recently pointed out that a momentum-dependent coupling of the asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) with nucleons can explain the broad disagreement between helioseismological observables and the predictions of standard solar models. In this paper, we propose a minimal simplified ADM model consisting of a scalar and a pseudoscalar mediator, in addition to a Dirac fermionic DM, for generating such momentum-dependent interactions. Remarkably, the pseudoscalar with mass around 750 GeV can simultaneously explain the solar anomaly and the recent diphoton excess observed by both ATLAS and CMS experiments in the early $\sqrt s=13$ TeV LHC data. In this framework, the total width of the resonance is naturally large, as suggested by the ATLAS experiment, since the resonance mostly decays to the ADM pair. The model predicts the existence of a new light scalar in the GeV range, interacting with quarks, and observable dijet, monojet and $t\bar{t}$ signatures for the 750 GeV resonance at the LHC.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Version to appear in PR

Neutrino Mass Matrices with Two Vanishing Elements/Cofactors

We study the phenomenological implications of the recent neutrino data for class B of two texture zeros and two vanishing cofactors for Majorana neutrinos in the flavor basis. We find that classes $B_{1}$($B_2$) of two texture zeros and classes $B_5$($B_6$) of two vanishing cofactors have similar predictions for neutrino oscillation parameters for the same mass hierarchy. Similar predictions for classes $B_3$($B_4$) of two texture zeros and classes $B_3$($B_4$) of two vanishing cofactors are expected. However, a preference for a shift in the quadrant of the Dirac-type CP violating phase($\delta$) in contrast to the earlier analysis has been predicted for a relatively large value of the reactor neutrino mixing angle($\theta_{13}$) for class B of two texture zeros and two vanishing cofactors for an inverted mass spectrum. No such shift in the quadrant of $\delta$ has been found for the normal mass spectrum.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures and 3 table