770 research outputs found
Spin-Flavour Oscillations and Neutrinos from SN1987A
The neutrino signal from SN1987A is analysed with respect to spin-flavour
oscillations between electron antineutrinos, , and muon
neutrinos, , by means of a maximum likelihood analysis.
Following Jegerlehner et al. best fit values for the total energy released in
neutrinos, , and the temperature of the electron antineutrino,
, for a range of mixing parameters and progenitor models are
calculated. In particular the dependence of the inferred quantities on the
metallicity of the supernova is investigated and the uncertainties involved in
using the neutrino signal to determine the neutrino magnetic moment are pointed
out.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review
Magnetic fields in the early universe in the string approach to MHD
There is a reformulation of magnetohydrodynamics in which the fundamental
dynamical quantities are the positions and velocities of the lines of magnetic
flux in the plasma, which turn out to obey equations of motion very much like
ideal strings. We use this approach to study the evolution of a primordial
magnetic field generated during the radiation-dominated era in the early
Universe. Causality dictates that the field lines form a tangled random
network, and the string-like equations of motion, plus the assumption of
perfect reconnection, inevitably lead to a self-similar solution for the
magnetic field power spectrum. We present the predicted form of the power
spectrum, and discuss insights gained from the string approximation, in
particular the implications for the existence or not of an inverse cascade.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Neutrino Oscillations and the Supernova 1987A Signal
We study the impact of neutrino oscillations on the interpretation of the
supernova (SN) 1987A neutrino signal by means of a maximum-likelihood analysis.
We focus on oscillations between with or
with those mixing parameters that would solve the solar
neutrino problem. For the small-angle MSW solution (, ), there are no
significant oscillation effects on the Kelvin-Helmholtz cooling signal; we
confirm previous best-fit values for the neutron-star binding energy and
average spectral temperature. There is only marginal overlap
between the upper end of the 95.4\% CL inferred range of and the lower end of the range of theoretical
predictions. Any admixture of the stiffer spectrum by
oscillations aggravates the conflict between experimentally inferred and
theoretically predicted spectral properties. For mixing parameters in the
neighborhood of the large-angle MSW solution (, ) the oscillations in the SN are adiabatic,
but one needs to include the regeneration effect in the Earth which causes the
Kamiokande and IMB detectors to observe different spectra. For
the solar vacuum solution (,
) the oscillations in the SN are nonadiabatic; vacuum
oscillations take place between the SN and the detector. If either of the
large-angle solutions were borne out by the upcoming round of solar neutrino
experiments, one would have to conclude that the SN~1987A
and/or spectra had been much softer than predicted by currentComment: Final version with very minor wording changes, to be published in
Phys. Rev.
Testing The Friedmann Equation: The Expansion of the Universe During Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
In conventional general relativity, the expansion rate H of a
Robertson-Walker universe is related to the energy density by the Friedmann
equation. Aside from the present day, the only epoch at which we can constrain
the expansion history in a model-independent way is during Big-Bang
Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We consider a simple two-parameter characterization of
the behavior of H during BBN and derive constraints on this parameter space,
finding that the allowed region of parameter space is essentially
one-dimensional. We also study the effects of a large neutrino asymmetry within
this framework. Our results provide a simple way to compare an alternative
cosmology to the observational requirement of matching the primordial
abundances of the light elements.Comment: 18 pages, Final version to be published in Phys. Rev.
Neutrino propagation in a random magnetic field
The active-sterile neutrino conversion probability is calculated for neutrino
propagating in a medium in the presence of random magnetic field fluctuations.
Necessary condition for the probability to be positive definite is obtained.
Using this necessary condition we put constraint on the neutrino magnetic
moment from active-sterile electron neutrino conversion in the early universe
hot plasma and in supernova.Comment: 11 page
Neutrino Decay as an Explanation of Atmospheric Neutrino Observations
We show that the observed zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric
neutrinos can be accounted for by neutrino decay. Furthermore, it is possible
to account for all neutrino anomalies with just three flavors.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Primordial magnetic fields, anomalous isocurvature fluctuations and Big Bang nucleosynthesis
We show that the presence of primordial stochastic (hypercharge) magnetic
fields before the electroweak (EW) phase transition induces isocurvature
fluctuations (baryon number inhomogeneities). Depending on the details of the
magnetic field spectrum and on the particle physics parameters (such as the
strength of the EW phase transition and electron Yukawa couplings) these
fluctuations may survive until the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Their
lenghtscale may exceed the neutron diffusion length at that time, while their
magnitude can be so large that sizable antimatter domains are present. This
provides the possibility of a new type of initial conditions for
non-homogeneous BBN or, from a more conservative point of view, stringent
bounds on primordial magnetic fields.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 1 epsfi
Reconciling Present Neutrino Puzzles: Sterile Neutrinos as Mirror Neutrinos
We suggest that recent neutrino puzzles that are the solar and atmospheric
neutrino deficits as well as the possible neutrino oscillations reported by the
LSND experiment and the possibility of massive neutrinos providing the hot
component of the cosmological dark matter, can all be naturally explained by
assuming existence of a mirror world described by an ``electroweak'' gauge
symmetry , with the breaking scale larger by about factor
of 30 than the scale of the standard model. An interesting
aspect of this model is that the sterile neutrinos arise from the hidden mirror
sector of the theory and thus their lightness is more natural than in the usual
neutrino mass scenarios. The needed pattern of the neutrino mass matrix in this
model is obtained by assuming a conserved ZKM-type global lepton number , which is violated by Planck scale effects. One implication
of our proposal is that bulk of the dark matter in the universe is a warm dark
matter consisting of few KeV mass particles rather than the 100 GeV range
particles of the currently popular cold dark matter scenarios.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, no figure
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields
We reanalyze the effect of magnetic fields in BBN, incorporating several
features which were omitted in previous analyses. We find that the effects of
coherent magnetic fields on the weak interaction rates and the electron
thermodynamic functions (\rhoe, \Pe, and \drhoedt ) are unimportant in
comparison to the contribution of the magnetic field energy density in BBN. In
consequence the effect of including magnetic fields in BBN is well approximated
numerically by treating the additional energy density as effective neutrino
number. A conservative upper bound on the primordial magnetic field,
parameterized as , is (). This bound can be stronger than the conventional bound coming from
the Faraday rotation measures of distant quasars if the cosmological magnetic
field is generated by a causal mechanism.Comment: Latex, 20 pages, 3 uuencoded figures appende
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