51 research outputs found
Planck scale effects in neutrino physics
We study the phenomenology and cosmology of the Majoron (flavon) models of
three active and one inert neutrino paying special attention to the possible
(almost) conserved generalization of the Zeldovich-Konopinski-Mahmoud lepton
charge. Using Planck scale physics effects which provide the breaking of the
lepton charge, we show how in this picture one can incorporate the solutions to
some of the central issues in neutrino physics such as the solar and
atmospheric neutrino puzzles, dark matter and a 17 keV neutrino. These
gravitational effects induce tiny Majorana mass terms for neutrinos and
considerable masses for flavons. The cosmological demand for the sufficiently
fast decay of flavons implies a lower limit on the electron neutrino mass in
the range of 0.1-1 eV.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure (not included but available upon request), LaTex,
IC/92/196, SISSA-140/92/EP, LMU-09/9
Relativistic Mass Ejecta from Phase-transition-induced Collapse of Neutron Stars
We study the dynamical evolution of a phase-transition-induced collapse
neutron star to a hybrid star, which consists of a mixture of hadronic matter
and strange quark matter. The collapse is triggered by a sudden change of
equation of state, which result in a large amplitude stellar oscillation. The
evolution of the system is simulated by using a 3D Newtonian hydrodynamic code
with a high resolution shock capture scheme. We find that both the temperature
and the density at the neutrinosphere are oscillating with acoustic frequency.
However, they are nearly 180 out of phase. Consequently, extremely
intense, pulsating neutrino/antineutrino fluxes will be emitted periodically.
Since the energy and density of neutrinos at the peaks of the pulsating fluxes
are much higher than the non-oscillating case, the electron/positron pair
creation rate can be enhanced dramatically. Some mass layers on the stellar
surface can be ejected by absorbing energy of neutrinos and pairs. These mass
ejecta can be further accelerated to relativistic speeds by absorbing
electron/positron pairs, created by the neutrino and antineutrino annihilation
outside the stellar surface. The possible connection between this process and
the cosmological Gamma-ray Bursts is discussed.Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in JCA
Planck Scale Symmetry Breaking and Majoron Physics
Majoron models provide neutrino masses via the spontaneous breaking of a
global symmetry. However, it may be argued that all global symmetries
will be explicitly violated by gravitational effects. We show that it is
possible to preserve most of the usual features of majoron models by invoking
to be a gauge symmetry and adding a second singlet scalar field.
The majoron gets a small model dependent mass. The couplings of majorons to
neutrinos may be of ordinary strength or may be made arbitrarily weak. We
discuss the cosmological and astrophysical consequences of majoron models in
the context of a model dependent majoron mass and neutrino coupling. For an
appropriate choice of parameters majorons can play the role of dark matter.Comment: 30 pages, UM-TH-92-3
Bounds on Dirac Neutrino Masses from Nucleosynthesis
We derive new bounds on the Dirac mass of the tau and muonic neutrinos. By
solving the kinetic equation for the rate of energy deposition due to helicity
flipping processes and imposing the constraint that the number of effective
species contributing to the energy density at the time of nucleosynthesis be
, we find the bounds KeV and
KeV for MeV. The constraint leads to the much stronger bound KeV for both species
of neutrinos.Comment: 10 pages, UM-TH-94-21, UMN-TH-1303-94, FERMILAB-Pub-94/199-
Potential for Supernova Neutrino Detection in MiniBooNE
The MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab is designed to search for oscillation appearance at and to make a
decisive test of the LSND signal. The main detector (inside a veto shield) is a
spherical volume containing 0.680 ktons of mineral oil. This inner volume,
viewed by 1280 phototubes, is primarily a \v{C}erenkov medium, as the
scintillation yield is low. The entire detector is under a 3 m earth
overburden. Though the detector is not optimized for low-energy (tens of MeV)
events, and the cosmic-ray muon rate is high (10 kHz), we show that MiniBooNE
can function as a useful supernova neutrino detector. Simple trigger-level cuts
can greatly reduce the backgrounds due to cosmic-ray muons. For a canonical
Galactic supernova at 10 kpc, about 190 supernova
events would be detected. By adding MiniBooNE to the international network of
supernova detectors, the possibility of a supernova being missed would be
reduced. Additionally, the paths of the supernova neutrinos through Earth will
be different for MiniBooNE and other detectors, thus allowing tests of
matter-affected mixing effects on the neutrino signal.Comment: Added references, version to appear in PR
Menus for Feeding Black Holes
Black holes are the ultimate prisons of the Universe, regions of spacetime
where the enormous gravity prohibits matter or even light to escape to
infinity. Yet, matter falling toward the black holes may shine spectacularly,
generating the strongest source of radiation. These sources provide us with
astrophysical laboratories of extreme physical conditions that cannot be
realized on Earth. This chapter offers a review of the basic menus for feeding
matter onto black holes and discusses their observational implications.Comment: 27 pages. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to
appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of
Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher
Gravitational Wave Emission from Galactic Radio Pulsars
We consider in this work continuous gravitational wave (GW) emission from
non-axisymmetric radio pulsars. We treat in some detail the observational
issues related to the known radio pulsar sample with the aim of unveiling the
actual number of sources contributing to GW, which are likely to be the main
contributors of GWs. It is shown that the operation of spheroidal GW detectors
and full-size interferometers could detect this component of the radiation or
impose useful limits on the effective oblateness of young radio pulsars.Comment: 7 pages, RevTex , no figures , to appear in Phys. Rev.
A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007
We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts
associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal
new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy,
particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the
underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the
period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first
science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed
for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with
the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place
limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave
emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of
merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at
http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access
area to figures, tables at
https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000
SN1987A and the properties of neutrino burst
We reanalyze the neutrino events from SN1987A in IMB and Kamiokande-II (KII)
detectors, and compare them with the expectations from simple theoretical
models of the neutrino emission. In both detectors the angular distributions
are peaked in the forward direction, and the average cosines are 2 sigma above
the expected values. Furthermore, the average energy in KII is low if compared
with the expectations; but, as we show, the assumption that a few (probably
one) events at KII have been caused by elastic scattering is not in contrast
with the 'standard' picture of the collapse and yields a more satisfactory
distributions in angle and (marginally) in energy. The observations give useful
information on the astrophysical parameters of the collapse: in our
evaluations, the mean energy of electron antineutrinos is =12-16 MeV, the
total energy radiated around (2-3)*1.E53 erg, and there is a hint for a
relatively large radiation of non-electronic neutrino species. These properties
of the neutrino burst are not in disagreement with those suggested by the
current theoretical paradigm, but the data leave wide space to non-standard
pictures, especially when neutrino oscillations are included.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
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