Spin-dependent neutrino-induced nucleon knockout

We study neutrino-induced nucleon knockout off atomic nuclei and examine the polarization properties of the ejectile. A detailed study of the spin dependence of the outgoing nucleon is presented. The numerical results are derived within a non-relativistic plane-wave impulse-approximation approach. Our calculations reveal large polarization asymmetries, and clear dissimilarities between neutrino- and antineutrino-induced reactions. They reflect the fact that neutrino-induced nucleon knockout is dominated by the transverse axial current and gains its major contributions from forward nucleon emission and backward lepton scattering.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Solar neutrino interactions: Using charged currents at SNO to tell neutral currents at Super-Kamiokande

In the presence of flavor oscillations, muon and tau neutrinos can contribute to the Super-Kamiokande (SK) solar neutrino signal through the neutral current process \nu_{\mu,\tau} e^{-}\to \nu_{\mu,\tau} e^{-}. We show how to separate the \nu_e and \nu_{\mu,\tau} event rates in SK in a model independent way, by using the rate of the charged current process \nu_e d \to p p e^{-} from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment, with an appropriate choice of the SK and SNO energy thresholds. Under the additional hypothesis of no oscillations into sterile states, we also show how to determine the absolute ^{8}B neutrino flux from the same data set, independently of the \nu_e survival probability.Comment: 14 pages (RevTeX), incl. 3 figures (epsf), submitted to Phys. ReV.

Neutrino Oscillations and Moments of Electron Spectra

We show that the effects of neutrino oscillations on 8B solar neutrinos are described well by the first two moments (the average and the variance) of the energy distribution of scattered or recoil electrons. For the SuperKamiokande and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiments, the differences between the moments calculated with oscillations and the standard, no-oscillation moments are greater than 3 standard deviations for a significant fraction of the neutrino mass-mixing (Delta m^2, sin^2 2 theta) parameter space.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, text+figures. To be published in Physical Review C, January 199

What about a beta-beam facility for low energy neutrinos?

A novel method to produce neutrino beams has recently been proposed : the beta-beams. This method consists in using the beta-decay of boosted radioactive nuclei to obtain an intense, collimated and pure neutrino beam. Here we propose to exploit the beta-beam concept to produce neutrino beams of low energy. We discuss the applications of such a facility as well as its importance for different domains of physics. We focus, in particular, on neutrino-nucleus interaction studies of interest for various open issues in astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics. We suggest possible sites for a low energy beta-beam facility.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Luminescence and formation of alkali-halide ionic excimers in solid Ne and Ar

Transitions from ionic states A²⁺X– of alkalihalides CsF, CsCl and RbF isolated in solid Ne and Ar films recorded under pulsed e-beam excitation are studied. The B(²∑₁/₂)-X(²∑₁/₂) and C(²П₃/₂)-A(²П₃/₂) luminescence bands of Cs2+F– (196.5 nm, 227 nm), Cs²⁺Cl– (220.1 nm, 249.2 nm) and Rb²⁺F– (136 nm) in Ne, and a weakerB–X emission of Cs²⁺F– (211.2 nm) in Ar are identified. For CsF the depopulation of the A²⁺X– state is dominated by the radiative decay. A ratio of the recorded exciplex emission intensities of I(CsF)/I(CsCl)/I(RbF) = 20/5/1 reflects the luminescence efficiency and for RbF and CsCl a competitive emission channel due to predissociation in the A²⁺X⁻(B²∑₁/₂) state is observed. For these molecules an efficient formation of the state X*₂ is confirmed through recording the molecular D`(³П₂g)-A`(³П₂u) transition. A strong dependence of the luminescence intensities on the alkalihalide content reveals quenching at concentrations higher than 0.7%

In-medium meson properties and field transformations

Since the existing calculations of the effective meson mass in nuclear medium involve approximations, it is important to examine whether they satisfy the general requirement of the equivalence theorem that the physical observables should be independent of the choice of field variables. We study here consequences of nucleon field transformations. As an illustrative case we consider the in-medium effective pion mass calculated for the s-wave pion-nucleon interaction in the linear density approximation. We demonstrate that it is necessary to include the Born term explicitly in order that the effective pion mass should obey the equivalence theorem.Comment: 10 pages, using RevTeX4. More detailed discussion, references added. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Sensitivities of Low Energy Reactor Neutrino Experiments

The low energy part of the reactor neutrino spectra has not been experimentally measured. Its uncertainties limit the sensitivities in certain reactor neutrino experiments. The origin of these uncertainties are discussed, and the effects on measurements of neutrino interactions with electrons and nuclei are studied. Comparisons are made with existing results. In particular, the discrepancies between previous measurements with Standard Model expectations can be explained by an under-estimation of the low energy reactor neutrino spectra. To optimize the experimental sensitivities, measurements for \nuebar-e cross-sections should focus on events with large ($>$1.5 MeV) recoil energy while those for neutrino magnetic moment searches should be based on events $<$100 keV. The merits and attainable accuracies for neutrino-electron scattering experiments using artificial neutrino sources are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure

Tests of electron flavor conservation with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

We analyze tests of electron flavor conservation that can be performed at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). These tests, which utilize $^8$B solar neutrinos interacting with deuterium, measure: 1) the shape of the recoil electron spectrum in charged-current (CC) interactions (the CC spectrum shape); and 2) the ratio of the number of charged current to neutral current (NC) events (the CC/NC ratio). We determine standard model predictions for the CC spectral shape and for the CC/NC ratio, together with realistic estimates of their errors and the correlations between errors. We consider systematic uncertainties in the standard neutrino spectrum and in the charged-current and neutral current cross-sections, the SNO energy resolution and absolute energy scale, and the SNO detection efficiencies. Assuming that either matter-enhanced or vacuum neutrino oscillations solve the solar neutrino problems, we calculate the confidence levels with which electron flavor non-conservation can be detected using either the CC spectrum shape or the CC/NC ratio, or both. If the SNO detector works as expected, the neutrino oscillation solutions that best-fit the results of the four operating solar neutrino experiments can be distinguished unambiguously from the standard predictions of electron flavor conservation.Comment: 31 pages (RevTeX) + 10 figures (postscript). Requires epsfig.sty. Gzipped figures also available at ftp://ftp.sns.ias.edu/pub/lisi/snopaper . To appear in Phys. Rev.

Supernova neutrinos in the light of FCNC

We study the effect of including flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC) in the analysis of the neutrino signal of a supernova burst. When we include the effect of the FCNC which are beyond the standard model (SM) in the study of the MSW resonant conversion, we obtain dramatic changes in the \Delta m^2-sin^2(2\theta) probability contours for neutrino detection.Comment: 8 pages in ReVTeX,3 figures. Revised manuscript submitted to Phys. Rev.

Solar neutrino results and Violation of the Equivalence Principle: An analysis of the existing data and predictions for SNO

Violation of the Equivalence Principle (VEP) can lead to neutrino oscillation through the non-diagonal coupling of neutrino flavor eigenstates with the gravitational field. The neutrino energy dependence of this oscillation probability is different from that of the usual mass-mixing neutrino oscillations. In this work we explore, in detail, the viability of the VEP hypothesis as a solution to the solar neutrino problem in a two generation scenario with both the active and sterile neutrino alternatives, choosing these states to be massless. To obtain the best-fit values of the oscillation parameters we perform a chi square analysis for the total rates of solar neutrinos seen at the Chlorine (Homestake), Gallium (Gallex and SAGE), Kamiokande, and SuperKamiokande (SK) experiments. We find that the goodness of these fits is never satisfactory. It markedly improves, especially for VEP transformation to sterile neutrinos, if the Chlorine result is excluded from the analysis. The 1117-day SK data for recoil electron spectrum are also examined for signals of VEP oscillations. For these fits, we consider variations of the Standard Solar Model by allowing the absolute normalizations of the 8B and hep neutrinos to vary. Here the fits are quite good but the best fit values of the parameters are rather different from those from the total rates fits. A combined fit to the total rates and recoil electron spectrum data is also performed. We present the 90% confidence limit contours for all the three analyses mentioned above. The best-fit parameters obtained from the recoil electron spectrum and the combined analysis of rate and spectrum are used to predict the charge current and scattering electron spectrum at SNO.Comment: Latex, minor changes in text and in fig.4 and fig.5, to be published in Phys. Rev.