KamLAND and Solar Antineutrino Spectrum

We use the recent KamLAND observations to predict the solar antineutrino spectrum at some confidence limits. We find that a scaling of the antineutrino probability with respect to the magnetic field profile --in the sense that the same probability function can be reproduced by any profile with a suitable peak field value-- can be utilised to obtain a general shape of the solar antineutrino spectrum. This scaling and the upper bound on the solar antineutrino event rate, that can be derived from the data, lead to: 1) an upper bound on the solar antineutrino flux, 2) the prediction of their energy spectrum, as the normalisation of the spectrum can be obtained from the total number of antineutrino events recorded in the experiment. We get $\phi_{\bar\nu}<3.8\times 10^{-3}\phi(^8B)$ or $\phi_{\bar\nu} <5.5\times 10^{-3}\phi(^8B)$ at 95% CL, assuming Gaussian or Poissonian statistics, respectively. And for 90% CL these become $\phi_{\bar\nu}<3.4 \times 10^{-3}\phi(^8B)$ and $\phi_{\bar\nu}<4.9\times 10^{-3}\phi(^8B)$. It shows an improvement by a factor of 3-5 with respect to existing bounds. These limits are quite general and independent of the detailed structure of the magnetic field in the solar interior.Comment: Based on talk given at NANP'03, JINR Dubna, Russia, June 2003. To be published in "Physics of Atomic Nuclie

Scattering processes could distinguish Majorana from Dirac neutrinos

It is well known that Majorana neutrinos have a pure axial neutral current interaction while Dirac neutrinos have the standard vector-axial interaction. In spite of this crucial difference, usually Dirac neutrino processes differ from Majorana processes by a term proportional to the neutrino mass, resulting in almost unmeasurable observations of this difference. In the present work we show that once the neutrino polarization evolution is considered, there are clear differences between Dirac and Majorana scattering on electrons. The change of polarization can be achieved in astrophysical environments with strong magnetic fields. Furthermore, we show that in the case of unpolarized neutrino scattering onto polarized electrons, this difference can be relevant even for large values of the neutrino energy.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Use of neural networks for the identification of new z>=3.6 QSOs from FIRST-SDSS DR5

We aim to obtain a complete sample of redshift > 3.6 radio QSOs from FIRST sources having star-like counterparts in the SDSS DR5 photometric survey (r<=20.2). We found that simple supervised neural networks, trained on sources with SDSS spectra, and using optical photometry and radio data, are very effective for identifying high-z QSOs without spectra. The technique yields a completeness of 96 per cent and an efficiency of 62 per cent. Applying the trained networks to 4415 sources without DR5 spectra we found 58 z>=3.6 QSO candidates. We obtained spectra of 27 of them, and 17 are confirmed as high-z QSOs. Spectra of 13 additional candidates from the literature and from SDSS DR6 revealed 7 more z>=3.6 QSOs, giving and overall efficiency of 60 per cent. None of the non-candidates with spectra from NED or DR6 is a z>=3.6 QSO, consistently with a high completeness. The initial sample of z>=3.6 QSOs is increased from 52 to 76, i.e. by a factor 1.46. From the new identifications and candidates we estimate an incompleteness of SDSS for the spectroscopic classification of FIRST 3.6<=z<=4.6 QSOs of 15 percent for r<=20.2.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures accepted for publication in MNRA

Muon anomalous magnetic moment in supersymmetric scenarios with an intermediate scale and nonuniversality

We analyze the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (a_{\mu}) in supersymmetric scenarios. First we concentrate on scenarios with universal soft terms. We find that a moderate increase of a_{\mu} can be obtained by lowering the unification scale M_{GUT} to intermediate values 10^{10-12} GeV. However, large values of \tan \beta are still favored. Then we study the case of non-universal soft terms. For the usual value M_{GUT}~10^{16} GeV, we obtain a_{\mu} in the favored experimental range even for moderate \tan \beta regions \tan\beta ~ 5$. Finally, we give an explicit example of these scenarios. In particular, we show that in a D-brane model, where the string scale is naturally of order 10^{10-12} GeV and the soft terms are non universal, a_{\mu} is enhanced with low \tan\beta.Comment: Final version to appear in Phys. Rev. D. Conventions clarified, results in the figures improve

A model for fermion masses and lepton mixing in SO(10) x A4

The discrete flavor symmetry A4 explains very well neutrino data at low energy, but it seems difficult to extend it to grand unified models since in general left-handed and right-handed fields belong to different A4 representations. Recently it has been proposed a model where all the fermions equally transform under A4. We study here a concrete SO(10) realization of such a model providing small neutrino masses through the seesaw mechanism. We fit at tree level the charged fermion masses run up to the unification scale. Some fermion masses properties come from the SO(10) symmetry while lepton mixing angles are consequence of the A4 properties. Moreover, our model predicts the absolute value of the neutrino masses, these ones are in the range $m_\nu\simeq 0.005-0.052 eV$.Comment: 15 pages. V2: Final version to appear in the journa

Initial Scales, Supersymmetric Dark Matter and Variations of Neutralino-Nucleon Cross Sections

The neutralino-nucleon cross section in the context of the MSSM with universal soft supersymmetry-breaking terms is compared with the limits from dark matter detectors. Our analysis is focussed on the stability of the corresponding cross sections with respect to variations of the initial scale for the running of the soft terms, finding that the smaller the scale is, the larger the cross sections become. For example, by taking $10^{10-12}$ GeV rather than $M_{GUT}$, which is a more sensible election, in particular in the context of some superstring models, we find extensive regions in the parameter space with cross sections in the range of $10^{-6}$--$10^{-5}$ pb, i.e. where current dark matter experiments are sensitive. For instance, this can be obtained for \tan\beta\gsim 3