1,836 research outputs found
Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations and New Physics
We study the robustness of the determination of the neutrino masses and
mixing from the analysis of atmospheric and K2K data under the presence of
different forms of phenomenologically allowed new physics in the nu_mu--nu_tau
sector. We focus on vector and tensor-like new physics interactions which allow
us to treat, in a model independent way, effects due to the violation of the
equivalence principle, violations of the Lorentz invariance both CPT conserving
and CPT violating, non-universal couplings to a torsion field and non-standard
neutrino interactions with matter. We perform a global analysis of the full
atmospheric data from SKI together with long baseline K2K data in the presence
of nu_mu -> nu_tau transitions driven by neutrino masses and mixing together
with sub-dominant effects due to these forms of new physics. We show that
within the present degree of experimental precision, the extracted values of
masses and mixing are robust under those effects and we derive the upper bounds
on the possible strength of these new interactions in the nu_mu--nu_tau sector.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX file using RevTEX4, 5 figures and 4 tables include
Probing neutrino non-standard interactions with atmospheric neutrino data
We have reconsidered the atmospheric neutrino anomaly in light of the laetst
data from Super-Kamiokande contained events and from Super-Kamiokande and MACRO
up-going muons. We have reanalysed the proposed solution to the atmospheric
neutrino anomaly in terms of non-standard neutrino-matter interactions (NSI) as
well as the standard nu_mu -> nu_tau oscillations (OSC). Our statistical
analysis shows that a pure NSI mechanism is now ruled out at 99%, while the
standard nu_mu -> nu_tau OSC mechanism provides a quite remarkably good
description of the anomaly. We therefore study an extended mechanism of
neutrino propagation which combines both oscillation and non-standard
neutrino-matter interactions, in order to derive limits on flavour-changing
(FC) and non-universal (NU) neutrino interactions. We obtain that the
off-diagonal flavour-changing neutrino parameter epsilon and the diagonal
non-universality neutrino parameter epsilon' are confined to -0.03 < epsilon <
0.02 and |epsilon'| < 0.05 at 99.73% CL. These limits are model independent and
they are obtained from pure neutrino-physics processes. The stability of the
neutrino oscillation solution to the atmospheric neutrino anomaly against the
presence of non-standard neutrino interactions establishes the robustness of
the near-maximal atmospheric mixing and massive-neutrino hypothesis. The best
agreement with the data is obtained for Delta_m^2 = 2.3*10^{-3} eV^2,
sin^2(2*theta) = 1, epsilon = 6.7*10^{-3} and epsilon' = 1.1*10^{-3}, although
the chi^2 function is quite flat in the epsilon and epsilon' directions for
epsilon, epsilon' -> 0.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX file using REVTeX4, 1 table and 12 figures included.
Added a revised analysis which takes into account the new 1489-day
Super-Kamiokande and final MACRO data. The bound on NSI parameters is
considerably improve
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
Global Analysis of the post-SNO Solar Neutrino Data for Standard and Non-Standard Oscillation Mechanisms
What can we learn from solar neutrino observations? Is there any solution to
the solar neutrino anomaly which is favored by the present experimental
panorama? After SNO results, is it possible to affirm that neutrinos have mass?
In order to answer such questions we analyze the current available data from
the solar neutrino experiments, including the recent SNO result, in view of
many acceptable solutions to the solar neutrino problem based on different
conversion mechanisms, for the first time, using the same statistical
procedure. This allows us to do a direct comparison of the goodness of the fit
among different solutions, from which we can discuss and conclude on the
current status of each proposed dynamical mechanism. These solutions are based
on different assumptions: (a) neutrino mass and mixing, (b) non-vanishing
neutrino magnetic moment, (c) the existence of non-standard flavor-changing and
non-universal neutrino interactions and (d) the tiny violation of the
equivalence principle. We investigate the quality of the fit provided by each
one of these solutions not only to the total rate measured by all the solar
neutrino experiments but also to the recoil electron energy spectrum measured
at different zenith angles by the Super-Kamiokande collaboration. We conclude
that several non-standard neutrino flavor conversion mechanisms provide a very
good fit to the experimental data which is comparable with (or even slightly
better than) the most famous solution to the solar neutrino anomaly based on
the neutrino oscillation induced by mass.Comment: Minor changes in the solar magnetic field profile used, and some
refferences added. Final version to appear in PR
Effects of new physics in neutrino oscillations in matter
A new flavor changing electron neutrino interaction with matter would always
dominate the nu_e oscillation probability at sufficiently high neutrino
energies. Being suppressed by theta_{13}, the energy scale at which the new
effect starts to be relevant may be within the reach of realistic experiments,
where the peculiar dependence of the signal with energy could give rise to a
clear signature in the nu_e --> nu_tau channel. The latter could be observed by
means of a coarse large magnetized detector by exploiting tau --> mu decays. We
discuss the possibility of identifying or constraining such effects with a high
energy neutrino factory. We also comment on the model independent limits on
them.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Confusing non-standard neutrino interactions with oscillations at a neutrino factory
Most neutrino mass theories contain non-standard interactions (NSI) of
neutrinos which can be either non-universal (NU) or flavor-changing (FC). We
study the impact of such interactions on the determination of neutrino mixing
parameters at a neutrino factory using the so-called ``golden channels''
\pnu{e}\to\pnu{\mu} for the measurement of \theta_{13}. We show that a certain
combination of FC interactions in neutrino source and earth matter can give
exactly the same signal as oscillations arising due to \theta_{13}. This
implies that information about \theta_{13} can only be obtained if bounds on
NSI are available. Taking into account the existing bounds on FC interactions,
this leads to a drastic loss in sensitivity in \theta_{13}, at least two orders
of magnitude. A near detector at a neutrino factory offers the possibility to
obtain stringent bounds on some NSI parameters. Such near site detector
constitutes an essential ingredient of a neutrino factory and a necessary step
towards the determination of \theta_{13} and subsequent study of leptonic CP
violation.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, improved version, accepted for publication in
Phs. Rev. D, references adde
Reexamining nonstandard interaction effects on supernova neutrino flavor oscillations
Several extensions of the standard electroweak model allow new four-fermion
interactions (nu_a nu_b * ff) with strength eps_ab*G_F, where (a,b) are flavor
indices. We revisit their effects on flavor oscillations of massive
(anti)neutrinos in supernovae, in order to achieve, in the region above the
protoneutron star, an analytical treatment valid for generic values of the
neutrino mixing angles (omega,phi,psi)=(theta_12,theta_13,theta_23). Assuming
that eps_ab<<1, we find that the leading effects on the flavor transitions
occurring at high (H) and low (L) density along the supernova matter profile
can be simply embedded through the replacements phi-->phi+eps_H and
omega-->omega+eps_L, respectively, where eps_H and eps_L are specific linear
combinations of the eps_ab's. Similar replacements hold for eventual
oscillations in the Earth matter. From a phenomenological point of view, the
most relevant consequence is a possible uncontrolled bias (phi-->phi+eps_H) in
the value of the mixing angle phi inferred by inversion of supernova neutrino
data. Such a drawback, however, does not preclude the discrimination of the
neutrino mass spectrum hierarchy (direct or inverse) through supernova neutrino
oscillations.Comment: Text clarified, one figure added. To appear in PR
Non-standard interactions versus non-unitary lepton flavor mixing at a neutrino factory
The impact of heavy mediators on neutrino oscillations is typically described
by non-standard four-fermion interactions (NSIs) or non-unitarity (NU). We
focus on leptonic dimension-six effective operators which do not produce
charged lepton flavor violation. These operators lead to particular
correlations among neutrino production, propagation, and detection non-standard
effects. We point out that these NSIs and NU phenomenologically lead, in fact,
to very similar effects for a neutrino factory, for completely different
fundamental reasons. We discuss how the parameters and probabilities are
related in this case, and compare the sensitivities. We demonstrate that the
NSIs and NU can, in principle, be distinguished for large enough effects at the
example of non-standard effects in the --sector, which basically
corresponds to differentiating between scalars and fermions as heavy mediators
as leading order effect. However, we find that a near detector at superbeams
could provide very synergistic information, since the correlation between
source and matter NSIs is broken for hadronic neutrino production, while NU is
a fundamental effect present at any experiment.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures. Final version published in JHEP. v3: Typo in Eq.
(27) correcte
Solar neutrinos: global analysis with day and night spectra from SNO
We perform global analysis of the solar neutrino data including the day and
night spectra of events at SNO. In the context of two active neutrino mixing,
the best fit of the data is provided by the LMA MSW solution with Delta m^2 =
6.15 10^{-5} eV^2, tan^2\theta = 0.41, f_B = 1.05, where f_B is the boron
neutrino flux in units of the corresponding flux in the Standard Solar Model
(SSM). At 3 sigma level we find the following upper bounds: tan^2\theta < 0.84
and Delta m^2 < 3.6 10^{-4} eV^2. From 1 sigma-interval we expect the day-night
asymmetries of the charged current and electron scattering events to be:
A_{DN}^{CC} = 3.9 +3.6-2.9 and A_{DN}^{ES} = 2.1 +2.1-1.4. The only other
solution which appears at 3 sigma-level is the VAC solution with Delta m^2 =
4.5 10^{-10} eV^2, tan^2\theta = 2.1 and f_B=0.75. The best fit point in the
LOW region, with Delta m^2 = 0.93 10^{-7} eV^2 and tan^2\theta = 0.64, is
accepted at 99.95% (3.5 sigma) C.L. . The least chi^2 point from the SMA
solution region, with Delta m^2 = 4.6 10^{-6} eV^2 and tan^2\theta = 5 10^{-4},
could be accepted at 5.5 sigma-level only. In the three neutrino context the
influence of theta_{13} is studied. We find that with increase of theta_{13}
the LMA best fit point shifts to larger Delta m^2, mixing angle is practically
unchanged, and the quality of the fit becomes worse. The fits of LOW and SMA
slightly improve. Predictions for KamLAND experiment (total rates, spectrum
distortion) have been calculated.Comment: Typos corrected, reference adde
Quasi-energy-independent solar neutrino transitions
Current solar, atmospheric, and reactor neutrino data still allow oscillation
scenarios where the squared mass differences are all close to 10^-3 eV^2,
rather than being hierarchically separated. For solar neutrinos, this situation
(realized in the upper part of the so-called large-mixing angle solution)
implies adiabatic transitions which depend weakly on the neutrino energy and on
the matter density, as well as on the ``atmospheric'' squared mass difference.
In such a regime of ``quasi-energy-independent'' (QEI) transitions,
intermediate between the more familiar ``Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein'' (MSW)
and energy-independent (EI) regimes, we first perform analytical calculations
of the solar nu_e survival probability at first order in the matter density,
beyond the usual hierarchical approximations. We then provide accurate,
generalized expressions for the solar neutrino mixing angles in matter, which
reduce to those valid in the MSW, QEI and EI regimes in appropriate limits.
Finally, a representative QEI scenario is discussed in some detail.Comment: Title changed; text and acronyms revised; results unchanged. To
appear in PR
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