The diffuse neutrino flux from supernovae: upper limit on the electron neutrino component from the non-observation of antineutrinos at SuperKamiokande

I derive an upper bound on the electron neutrino component of the diffuse supernova neutrino flux from the constraint on the antineutrino component at SuperKamiokande. The connection between antineutrino and neutrino channels is due to the similarity of the muon and tau neutrino and antineutrino fluxes produced in a supernova, and to the conversion of these species into electron neutrinos and antineutrinos inside the star. The limit on the electron neutrino flux is 5.5 cm^-2 s^-1 above 19.3 MeV of neutrino energy, and is stronger than the direct limit from Mont Blanc by three orders of magnitude. It represents the minimal sensitivity required at future direct searches, and is intriguingly close to the reach of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and of the ICARUS experiment. The electron neutrino flux will have a lower bound if the electron antineutrino flux is measured. Indicatively, the first can be smaller than the second at most by a factor of 2-3 depending on the details of the neutrino spectra at production.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 1 figure. Paper is modified in the presentation (Fig. 1 was replaced with a different plot and Table 1 was expanded), with unchanged results. References added and correcte

A test of tau neutrino interactions with atmospheric neutrinos and K2K

The presence of a tau component in the flux of atmospheric neutrinos inside the Earth, due to flavor oscillations, makes these neutrinos a valuable probe of interactions of the tau neutrino with matter. We study -- analytically and numerically -- the effects of nonstandard interactions in the nu_e-nu_tau sector on atmospheric neutrino oscillations, and calculate the bounds on the exotic couplings that follow from combining the atmospheric neutrino and K2K data. We find very good agreement between numerical results and analytical predictions derived from the underlying oscillation physics. While improving on existing accelerator bounds, our bounds still allow couplings of the size comparable to the standard weak interaction. The inclusion of new interactions expands the allowed region of the vacuum oscillation parameters towards smaller mixing angles, 0.2 ~< sin^2 theta_{23} ~< 0.7, and slightly larger mass squared splitting, 1.5 * 10^{-3} eV^2 ~< |\Delta m^2_{23}| ~< 4.0 * 10^{-3} eV^2, compared to the standard case. The impact of the K2K data on all these results is significant; further important tests of the nu_e-nu_tau exotic couplings will come from neutrino beams experiments such as MINOS and long baseline projects.Comment: 8 figures, some typos corrected, minor editing in the reference

Turbulent Supernova Shock Waves and the Sterile Neutrino Signature in Megaton Water Detectors

The signatures of sterile neutrinos in the supernova neutrino signal in megaton water Cerenkov detectors are studied. Time dependent modulation of the neutrino signal emerging from the sharp changes in the oscillation probability due to shock waves is shown to be a smoking gun for the existence of sterile neutrinos. These modulations and indeed the entire neutrino oscillation signal is found to be different for the case with just three active neutrinos and the cases where there are additional sterile species mixed with the active neutrinos. The effect of turbulence is taken into account and it is found that the effect of the shock waves, while modifed, remain significant and measurable. Supernova neutrino signals in water detectors can therefore give unambiguous proof for the existence of sterile neutrinos, the sensitivity extending beyond that for terrestial neutrino experiments. In addition the time dependent modulations in the signal due to shock waves can be used to trace the evolution of the shock wave inside the supernova.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure

Large Lepton Asymmetry for Small Baryon Asymmetry and Warm Dark Matter

We propose a resonant leptogenesis scenario in a U(1)_{B-L} gauge extension of the standard model to generate large lepton asymmetries for cosmological baryon asymmetry and dark matter. After B-L number is spontaneously broken, inflaton can pick up a small vacuum expectation value for the mass splits of three pairs of quasi-degenerately heavy Majorana neutrinos and the masses of three sterile neutrinos. With thermal mass effects of sphalerons, the observed small baryon asymmetry can be converted from large lepton asymmetries of individual flavors although total lepton asymmetry is assumed zero. The mixing between sterile and active neutrinos is elegantly suppressed by the heavy Majorana neutrinos. Before the active neutrinos start their strong flavor conversions, the sterile neutrinos as warm dark matter can be produced by resonant active-sterile neutrino oscillations to reconcile X-ray and Lyman-\alpha bounds. Small neutrino masses are naturally realized by seesaw contributions from the heavy Majorana neutrinos and the sterile neutrinos.Comment: 8 pages. Typos and parameter choice are corrected. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Phenomenology in the Zee Model with the A_4 Symmetry

The Zee model generates neutrino masses at the one-loop level by adding charged SU(2)_L-singlet and extra SU(2)_L-doublet scalars to the standard model of particle physics. As the origin of the nontrivial structure of the lepton flavor mixing, we introduce the softly broken A_4 symmetry to the Zee model. This model is compatible with the tribimaximal mixing which agrees well with neutrino oscillation measurements. Then, a sum rule m_1 e^{i alpha_12} + 2 m_2 + 3 m_3 e^{i alpha_32} = 0 is obtained and it results in Delta m^2_31 < 0 and m_3 > 1.8*10^{-2}eV. The effective mass |(M_nu)_{ee}| for the neutrinoless double beta decay is predicted as | (M_\nu)_{ee} | > 1.7*10^{-2}eV. The characteristic particles in this model are SU(2)_L-singlet charged Higgs bosons s^+_alpha (alpha=xi,eta,zeta) which are made from a 3-representation of A_4. Contributions of s^+_alpha to the lepton flavor violating decays of charged leptons are almost forbidden by an approximately remaining Z_3 symmetry; only BR(tau to ebar mu mu) can be sizable by the flavor changing neutral current interaction with SU(2)_L-doublet scalars. Therefore, s^+_alpha can be easily light enough to be discovered at the LHC with satisfying current constraints. The flavor structures of BR(s^-_alpha to ell nu) are also discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, version accepted by PR

Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos in the New Standard Model

The addition of gauge singlet fermions to the Standard Model Lagrangian renders the neutrinos massive and allows one to explain all that is experimentally known about neutrino masses and lepton mixing by varying the values of the Majorana mass parameters M for the gauge singlets and the neutrino Yukawa couplings. Here we explore the region of parameter space where M values are much smaller than the neutrino Dirac masses. In this region, neutrinos are pseudo-Dirac fermions. We find that current solar data constrain M values to be less than at least 1E-9 eV, and discuss the sensitivity of future experiments to tiny gauge singlet fermion masses. We also discuss a useful basis for analyzing pseudo-Dirac neutrino mixing effects. In particular, we identify a simple relationship between elements of M and the induced enlarged mixing matrix and new mass-squared differences. These allow one to directly relate bounds on the new mass-squared differences to bounds on the singlet fermion Majorana masses.Comment: 20 Pages, 9 .eps figures, Updated reference

Neutrino Physics with Dark Matter Experiments and the Signature of New Baryonic Neutral Currents

New neutrino states \nu_b, sterile under the Standard Model interactions, can be coupled to baryons via the isoscalar vector currents that are much stronger than the Standard Model weak interactions. If some fraction of solar neutrinos oscillate into \nu_b on their way to Earth, the coherently enhanced elastic \nu_b-nucleus scattering can generate a strong signal in the dark matter detectors. For the interaction strength a few hundred times stronger than the weak force, the elastic \nu_b-nucleus scattering via new baryonic currents may account for the existing anomalies in the direct detection dark matter experiments at low recoil. We point out that for solar neutrino energies the baryon-current-induced inelastic scattering is suppressed, so that the possible enhancement of new force is not in conflict with signals at dedicated neutrino detectors. We check this explicitly by calculating the \nu_b-induced deuteron breakup, and the excitation of 4.4 MeV \gamma-line in ^{12}C. Stronger-than-weak force coupled to baryonic current implies the existence of new abelian gauge group U(1)_B with a relatively light gauge boson.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures. References added, inconsistent treatment of neutrino oscillations corrected, conclusions unchange

Oscillations of high energy neutrinos in matter: Precise formalism and parametric resonance

We present a formalism for precise description of oscillation phenomena in matter at high energies or high densities, V > \Delta m^2/2E, where V is the matter-induced potential of neutrinos. The accuracy of the approximation is determined by the quantity \sin^2 2\theta_m \Delta V/2\pi V, where \theta_m is the mixing angle in matter and \Delta V is a typical change of the potential over the oscillation length (l \sim 2\pi/V). We derive simple and physically transparent formulas for the oscillation probabilities, which are valid for arbitrary matter density profiles. They can be applied to oscillations of high energy (E > 10 GeV) accelerator, atmospheric and cosmic neutrinos in the matter of the Earth, substantially simplifying numerical calculations and providing an insight into the physics of neutrino oscillations in matter. The effect of parametric enhancement of the oscillations of high energy neutrinos is considered. Future high statistics experiments can provide an unambiguous evidence for this effect.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 1 figure. Linestyles in the figure corrected to match their description in the caption; improved discussion of the accuracy of the results; references added. Results and conclusions unchange

Solar mass-varying neutrino oscillations

We propose that the solar neutrino deficit may be due to oscillations of mass-varying neutrinos (MaVaNs). This scenario elucidates solar neutrino data beautifully while remaining comfortably compatible with atmospheric neutrino and K2K data and with reactor antineutrino data at short and long baselines (from CHOOZ and KamLAND). We find that the survival probability of solar MaVaNs is independent of how the suppression of neutrino mass caused by the acceleron-matter couplings varies with density. Measurements of MeV and lower energy solar neutrinos will provide a rigorous test of the idea.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Version to appear in PR

Neutrino spin oscillations in gravitational fields

We study neutrino spin oscillations in gravitational fields. The quasi-classical approach is used to describe the neutrino spin evolution. First we examine the case of a weak gravitational field. We obtain the effective Hamiltonian for the description of neutrino spin oscillations. We also receive the neutrino transition probability when a particle propagates in the gravitational field of a rotating massive object. Then we apply the general technique to the description of neutrino spin oscillations in the Schwarzschild metric. The neutrino spin evolution equation for the case of the neutrino motion in the vicinity of a black hole is obtained. The effective Hamiltonian and the transition probability are also derived. We examine the neutrino oscillations process on different circular orbits and analyze the frequencies of spin transitions. The validity of the quasi-classical approach is also considered.Comment: RevTeX4, 9 pages, 1 esp figure; article was revised, some misprints were corrected, 6 references added; accepted for publication in Int.J.Mod.Phys.