Neutrino Mass and Oscillation

The question of neutrino mass is one of the major riddles in particle physics. Recently, strong evidence that neutrinos have nonzero masses has been found. While tiny, these masses could be large enough to contribute significantly to the mass density of the universe. The evidence for nonvanishing neutrino masses is based on the apparent observation of neutrino oscillation -- the transformation of a neutrino of one type or "flavor" into one of another. We explain the physics of neutrino oscillation, and review and weigh the evidence that it actually occurs in nature. We also discuss the constraints on neutrino mass from cosmology and from experiments with negative results. After presenting illustrative neutrino mass spectra suggested by the present data, we consider how near- and far-future experiments can further illuminate the nature of neutrinos and their masses.Comment: 43 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, Vol. 49 (1999

Expression of Interest: The Atmospheric Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE)

Submitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingSubmitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingSubmitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingSubmitted for the January 2014 Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee meetingNeutron tagging in Gadolinium-doped water may play a significant role in reducing backgrounds from atmospheric neutrinos in next generation proton-decay searches using megaton-scale Water Cherenkov detectors. Similar techniques might also be useful in the detection of supernova neutrinos. Accurate determination of neutron tagging efficiencies will require a detailed understanding of the number of neutrons produced by neutrino interactions in water as a function of momentum transferred. We propose the Atmospheric Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE), designed to measure the neutron yield of atmospheric neutrino interactions in gadolinium-doped water. An innovative aspect of the ANNIE design is the use of precision timing to localize interaction vertices in the small fiducial volume of the detector. We propose to achieve this by using early production of LAPPDs (Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors). This experiment will be a first application of these devices demonstrating their feasibility for Water Cherenkov neutrino detectors

ASASSN-14ae: a tidal disruption event at 200 Mpc

ASASSN-14ae is a candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) found at the centre of SDSS J110840.11+340552.2 (d ≃ 200 Mpc) by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). We present ground-based and Swift follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations of the source, finding that the transient had a peak luminosity of L ≃ 8 × 1043 erg s−1 and a total integrated energy of E ≃ 1.7 × 1050 erg radiated over the ∼5 months of observations presented. The blackbody temperature of the transient remains roughly constant at T ∼ 20 000 K while the luminosity declines by nearly 1.5 orders of magnitude during this time, a drop that is most consistent with an exponential, L ∝ e-t/t 0 with t0 ≃ 39 d. The source has broad Balmer lines in emission at all epochs as well as a broad He ii feature emerging in later epochs. We compare the colour and spectral evolution to both supernovae and normal AGN to show that ASASSN-14ae does not resemble either type of object and conclude that a TDE is the most likely explanation for our observations. At z = 0.0436, ASASSN-14ae is the lowest-redshift TDE candidate discovered at optical/UV wavelengths to date, and we estimate that ASAS-SN may discover 0.1–3 of these events every year in the future

ASASSN-15oi: A Rapidly Evolving, Luminous Tidal Disruption Event at 216 Mpc

We present ground-based and Swift photometric and spectroscopic observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-15oi, discovered at the center of 2MASX J20390918-3045201 ($d\simeq216$ Mpc) by the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). The source peaked at a bolometric luminosity of $L\simeq1.9\times10^{44}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ and radiated a total energy of $E\simeq5.0\times10^{50}$ ergs over the $\sim3.5$ months of observations. The early optical/UV emission of the source can be fit by a blackbody with temperature increasing from $T\sim2\times10^4$ K to $T\sim6\times10^4$ K while the luminosity declines from $L\simeq1.9\times10^{44}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ to $L\simeq2.8\times10^{43}$ ergs s$^{-1}$, requiring the photosphere to be shrinking rapidly. The optical/UV luminosity decline is broadly consistent with an exponential decline, $L\propto e^{-t/t_0}$, with $t_0\simeq35$ days. ASASSN-15oi also exhibits roughly constant soft X-ray emission that is significantly weaker than the optical/UV emission. Spectra of the source show broad helium emission lines and strong blue continuum emission in early epochs, although these features fade rapidly and are not present $\sim3$ months after discovery. The early spectroscopic features and color evolution of ASASSN-15oi are consistent with a TDE, but the rapid spectral evolution is unique among optically-selected TDEs

Characterizing the non-linear growth of large-scale structure in the Universe

The local Universe displays a rich hierarchical pattern of galaxy clusters and superclusters. The early Universe, however, was almost smooth, with only slight 'ripples' seen in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Models of the evolution of structure link these observations through the effect of gravity, because the small initially overdense fluctuations attract additional mass as the Universe expands. During the early stages, the ripples evolve independently, like linear waves on the surface of deep water. As the structures grow in mass, they interact with other in non-linear ways, more like waves breaking in shallow water. We have recently shown how cosmic structure can be characterized by phase correlations associated with these non-linear interactions, but hitherto there was no way to use that information to reach quantitative insights into the growth of structures. Here we report a method of revealing phase information, and quantify how this relates to the formation of a filaments, sheets and clusters of galaxies by non-linear collapse. We use a new statistic based on information entropy to separate linear from non-linear effects and thereby are able to disentangle those aspects of galaxy clustering that arise from initial conditions (the ripples) from the subsequent dynamical evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nature. For high-resolution Figure 3, please see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppzpc/phases/n0colorphase.html, For the animations and the idea of this paper please see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppzpc/phases/index.htm

Six months of multiwavelength follow-up of the tidal disruption candidate ASASSN-14li and implied TDE rates from ASAS-SN

We present ground-based and Swift photometric and spectroscopic observations of the candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-14li, found at the center of PGC043234 (d ' 90 Mpc) by the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). The source had a peak bolometric luminosity of L ' 1044 ergs

ASASSN-15lh: The Most Luminous Supernova Ever Discovered

We report the discovery and early evolution of ASASSN-15lh, the most luminous supernova ever found. At redshift z=0.2326, ASASSN-15lh reached an absolute magnitude of M_{u,AB} ~ -23.5 and bolometric luminosity L_bol ~ 2.2x10^45 ergs/s, which is >~ 2 times more luminous than any previously known supernova. Its spectra match the hydrogen-poor sub-class of super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe-I), whose energy sources and progenitors are poorly understood. In contrast to known SLSNe-I, most of which reside in star-forming, dwarf galaxies, its host appears to be a luminous galaxy (M_V ~ -22; M_K ~ -25.1) with little star formation. In the two months since its first detection, ASASSN-15lh has radiated ~7.5x10^51 ergs, challenging the popular magnetar model for the engine of SLSNe-I

Letter of Intent: The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE)

Neutron tagging in Gadolinium-doped water may play a significant role in reducing backgrounds from atmospheric neutrinos in next generation proton-decay searches using megaton-scale Water Cherenkov detectors. Similar techniques might also be useful in the detection of supernova neutrinos. Accurate determination of neutron tagging efficiencies will require a detailed understanding of the number of neutrons produced by neutrino interactions in water as a function of momentum transferred. We propose the Atmospheric Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE), designed to measure the neutron yield of atmospheric neutrino interactions in gadolinium-doped water. An innovative aspect of the ANNIE design is the use of precision timing to localize interaction vertices in the small fiducial volume of the detector. We propose to achieve this by using early production of LAPPDs (Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors). This experiment will be a first application of these devices demonstrating their feasibility for Water Cherenkov neutrino detectors

Dichromatic dark matter

Both the robust INTEGRAL 511 keV gamma-ray line and the recent tentative hint of the 135 GeV gamma-ray line from Fermi-LAT have similar signal morphologies, and may be produced from the same dark matter annihilation. Motivated by this observation, we construct a dark matter model to explain both signals and to accommodate the two required annihilation cross sections that are different by more than six orders of magnitude. In our model, to generate the low-energy positrons for INTEGRAL, dark matter particles annihilate into a complex scalar that couples to photon via a charge-radius operator. The complex scalar contains an excited state decaying into the ground state plus an off-shell photon to generate a pair of positron and electron. Two charged particles with non-degenerate masses are necessary for generating this charge-radius operator. One charged particle is predicted to be long-lived and have a mass around 3.8 TeV to explain the dark matter thermal relic abundance from its late decay. The other charged particle is predicted to have a mass below 1 TeV given the ratio of the two signal cross sections. The 14 TeV LHC will concretely test the main parameter space of this lighter charged particle.University of Wisconsin--Madison (Start-up funds)SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US DOE contract DE-AC02-76SF00515)Aspen Center for Physics (NSF Grant No. 1066293)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship grant number PF2-130102)Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Chandra X-ray Center, NASA under contract NAS8-03060