33 research outputs found
Experimental Status of Neutrino Physics
After a fascinating phase of discoveries, neutrino physics still has a few
mysteries such as the absolute mass scale, the mass hierarchy, the existence of
CP violation in the lepton sector and the existence of right-handed neutrinos.
It is also entering a phase of precision measurements. This is what motivates
the NUFACT 11 conference which prepares the future of long baseline neutrino
experiments. In this paper, we report the status of experimental neutrino
physics. We focus mainly on absolute mass measurements, oscillation parameters
and future plans for oscillation experiments
Discovery potential of xenon-based neutrinoless double beta decay experiments in light of small angular scale CMB observations
The South Pole Telescope (SPT) has probed an expanded angular range of the CMB temperature power spectrum. Their recent analysis of the latest cosmological data prefers nonzero neutrino masses, mnu = 0.32+-0.11 eV. This result, if confirmed by the upcoming Planck data, has deep implications on the discovery of the nature of neutrinos. In particular, the values of the effective neutrino mass involved in neutrinoless double beta decay (bb0nu) are severely constrained for both the direct and inverse hierarchy, making a discovery much more likely. In this paper, we focus in xenon-based bb0nu experiments, on the double grounds of their good performance and the suitability of the technology to large-mass scaling. We show that the current generation, with effective masses in the range of 100 kg and conceivable exposures in the range of 500 kg year, could already have a sizable opportunity to observe bb0nu events, and their combined discovery potential is quite large. The next generation, with an exposure in the range of 10 ton year, would have a much more enhanced sensitivity, in particular due to the very low specific background that all the xenon technologies (liquid xenon, high-pressure xenon and xenon dissolved in liquid scintillator) can achieve. In addition, a high-pressure xenon gas TPC also features superb energy resolution. We show that such detector can fully explore the range of allowed effective Majorana masses, thus making a discovery very likely
Neutrino-less Double Beta Decay and Particle Physics
We review the particle physics aspects of neutrino-less double beta decay.
This process can be mediated by light massive Majorana neutrinos (standard
interpretation) or by something else (non-standard interpretations). The
physics potential of both interpretations is summarized and the consequences of
future measurements or improved limits on the half-life of neutrino-less double
beta decay are discussed. We try to cover all proposed alternative realizations
of the decay, including light sterile neutrinos, supersymmetric or left-right
symmetric theories, Majorons, and other exotic possibilities. Ways to
distinguish the mechanisms from one another are discussed. Experimental and
nuclear physics aspects are also briefly touched, alternative processes to
double beta decay are discussed, and an extensive list of references is
provided.Comment: 96 pages, 38 figures. Published versio
Theory of neutrinoless double beta decay
Neutrinoless double beta decay, which is a very old and yet elusive process,
is reviewed. Its observation will signal that lepton number is not conserved
and the neutrinos are Majorana particles. More importantly it is our best hope
for determining the absolute neutrino mass scale at the level of a few tens of
meV. To achieve the last goal certain hurdles have to be overcome involving
particle, nuclear and experimental physics. Nuclear physics is important for
extracting the useful information from the data. One must accurately evaluate
the relevant nuclear matrix elements, a formidable task. To this end, we review
the sophisticated nuclear structure approaches recently been developed, which
give confidence that the needed nuclear matrix elements can be reliably
calculated. From an experimental point of view it is challenging, since the
life times are long and one has to fight against formidable backgrounds. If a
signal is found, it will be a tremendous accomplishment. Then, of course, the
real task is going to be the extraction of the neutrino mass from the
observations. This is not trivial, since current particle models predict the
presence of many mechanisms other than the neutrino mass, which may contribute
or even dominate this process. We will, in particular, consider the following
processes: (i)The neutrino induced, but neutrino mass independent contribution.
(ii)Heavy left and/or right handed neutrino mass contributions.
(iii)Intermediate scalars (doubly charged etc). (iv)Supersymmetric (SUSY)
contributions. We will show that it is possible to disentangle the various
mechanisms and unambiguously extract the important neutrino mass scale, if all
the signatures of the reaction are searched in a sufficient number of nuclear
isotopes.Comment: 104 pages, 6 tables, 25 figures.References added. To appear in ROP
(Reports on Progress in Physics), copyright RO
Neutrinoless double-beta decay and physics beyond the standard model
Neutrinoless double-beta decay is the most powerful tool to probe not only for Majorana neutrino masses but for lepton number violating physics in general. We discuss relations between lepton number violation, double-beta decay and neutrino mass, review a general Lorentz-invariant parametrization of the double-beta decay rate, highlight a number of different new physics models showing how different mechanisms can trigger double-beta decay and, finally, discuss possibilities of discriminating and testing these models and mechanisms in complementary experiments