Observational Constraints on Secret Neutrino Interactions from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

We investigate possible interactions between neutrinos and massive scalar bosons via $g^{}_{\phi} \overline{\nu} \nu \phi$ (or massive vector bosons via $g^{}_V \overline{\nu} \gamma^\mu \nu V^{}_\mu$) and explore the allowed parameter space of the coupling constant $g^{}_{\phi}$ (or $g^{}_V$) and the scalar (or vector) boson mass $m^{}_\phi$ (or $m^{}_V$) by requiring that these secret neutrino interactions (SNIs) should not spoil the success of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Incorporating the SNIs into the evolution of the early Universe in the BBN era, we numerically solve the Boltzmann equations and compare the predictions for the abundances of light elements with observations. It turns out that the constraint on $g^{}_{\phi}$ and $m^{}_\phi$ in the scalar-boson case is rather weak, due to a small number of degrees of freedom. However, in the vector-boson case, the most stringent bound on the coupling $g^{}_V \lesssim 6\times 10^{-10}$ at $95~\%$ confidence level is obtained for $m^{}_V \simeq 1~{\rm MeV}$, while the bound becomes much weaker $g^{}_V \lesssim 8\times 10^{-6}$ for smaller masses $m^{}_V \lesssim 10^{-4}~{\rm MeV}$. Moreover, we discuss in some detail how the SNIs affect the cosmological evolution and the abundances of the lightest elements.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Renormalization Group Approach to Stability of Two-dimensional Interacting Type-II Dirac Fermions

The type-II Weyl/Dirac fermions are a generalization of conventional or type-I Weyl/Dirac fermions, whose conic spectrum is tilted such that the Fermi surface becomes lines in two dimensions, and surface in three dimensions rather than discrete points of the conventional Weyl/Dirac fermions. The mass-independent renormalization group calculations show that the tilting parameter decreases monotonically with respect to the length scale, which leads to a transition from two dimensional type-II Weyl/Dirac fermions to the type-I ones. Because of the non-trivial Fermi surface, a photon gains a finite mass partially via the chiral anomaly, leading to the strong screening effect of the Weyl/Dirac fermions. Consequently, anisotropic type-II Dirac semimetals become stable against the Coulomb interaction. This work provides deep insight into the interplay between the geometry of Fermi surface and the Coulomb interaction.Comment: Final pulished versio

Topological responses from chiral anomaly in multi-Weyl semimetals

Multi-Weyl semimetals are a kind of topological phase of matter with discrete Weyl nodes characterized by multiple monopole charges, in which the chiral anomaly, the anomalous nonconservation of an axial current, occurs in the presence of electric and magnetic fields. Electronic transport properties related to the chiral anomaly in the presence of both electromagnetic fields and axial electromagnetic fields in multi-Weyl semimetals are systematically studied. It has been found that the anomalous Hall conductivity has a modification linear in the axial vector potential from inhomogeneous strains. The axial electric field leads to an axial Hall current that is proportional to the distance of Weyl nodes in momentum space. This axial current may generate chirality accumulation of Weyl fermions through delicately engineering the axial electromagnetic fields even in the absence of external electromagnetic fields. Therefore, this work provides a nonmagnetic mechanism of generation of chirality accumulation in Weyl semimetals and might shed new light on the application of Weyl semimetals in the emerging field of valleytronics.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures, accepted by Physical Review

The Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein Matter Potential at the One-loop Level in the Standard Model

When neutrinos are propagating in ordinary matter, their coherent forward scattering off background particles results in the so-called Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) matter potential, which plays an important role in neutrino flavor conversions. In this paper, we present a complete one-loop calculation of the MSW matter potential in the Standard Model (SM). First, we carry out the one-loop renormalization of the SM in the on-shell scheme, where the electromagnetic fine-structure constant $\alpha$, the weak gauge-boson masses $m^{}_W$ and $m^{}_Z$, the Higgs-boson mass $m^{}_h$ and the fermion masses $m^{}_f$ are chosen as input parameters. Then, the finite corrections to the scattering amplitudes of neutrinos with the electrons and quarks are calculated, and the one-loop MSW matter potentials are derived. Adopting the latest values of all physical parameters, we find that the relative size of one-loop correction to the charged-current matter potential of electron-type neutrinos or antineutrinos turns out to be $6\%$, whereas that to the neutral-current matter potential of all-flavor neutrinos or antineutrinos can be as large as $8\%$. The calculations are also performed in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme and compared with previous results in the literature.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, more discussions and references added, version accepted by PR

Development of Computer Vision-Enhanced Smart Golf Ball Retriever

An automatic vehicle system was developed to assist golfers in collecting golf balls from a practice field. Computer vision methodology was utilized to enhance the detection of golf balls in shallow and/or deep grass regions. The free software OpenCV was used in this project because of its powerful features and supported repository. The homemade golf ball picker was built with a smart recognition function for golf balls and can lock onto targets by itself. A set of field tests was completed in which the rate of golf ball recognition was as high as 95%. We report that this homemade smart golf ball picker can reduce the tremendous amount of labor associated with having to gather golf balls scattered throughout a practice field

Tentative sensitivity of future 0νββ0\nu \beta\beta-decay experiments to neutrino masses and Majorana CP phases

In the near future, the neutrinoless double-beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay experiments will hopefully reach the sensitivity of a few ${\rm meV}$ to the effective neutrino mass $|m^{}_{\beta\beta}|$. In this paper, we tentatively examine the sensitivity of future $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay experiments to neutrino masses and Majorana CP phases by following the Bayesian statistical approach. Provided experimental setups corresponding to the sensitivity of $|m^{}_{\beta\beta}| \simeq 1~{\rm meV}$, the null observation of $0\nu\beta\beta$ decays in the case of normal neutrino mass ordering leads to a very competitive bound on the lightest neutrino mass $m^{}_1$. Namely, the $95\%$ credible interval turns out to be $1.6~{\rm meV} \lesssim m^{}_1 \lesssim 7.3~{\rm meV}$ or $0.3~{\rm meV} \lesssim m^{}_1 \lesssim 5.6~{\rm meV}$ when the uniform prior on $m^{}_1/{\rm eV}$ or on $\log^{}_{10}(m^{}_1/{\rm eV})$ is adopted. Moreover, one of two Majorana CP phases is strictly constrained, i.e., $140^\circ \lesssim \rho \lesssim 220^\circ$ for both priors of $m^{}_1$. In contrast, if a relatively worse sensitivity of $|m^{}_{\beta\beta}| \simeq 10~{\rm meV}$ is assumed, the constraint becomes accordingly $0.6~{\rm meV} \lesssim m^{}_1 \lesssim 26~{\rm meV}$ or $0 \lesssim m^{}_1 \lesssim 6.1~{\rm meV}$, while two Majorana CP phases will be essentially unconstrained. In the same statistical framework, the prospects for the determination of neutrino mass ordering and the discrimination between Majorana and Dirac nature of massive neutrinos in the $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay experiments are also discussed. Given the experimental sensitivity of $|m^{}_{\beta\beta}| \simeq 10~{\rm meV}$ (or $1~{\rm meV}$), the strength of evidence to exclude the Majorana nature under the null observation of $0\nu\beta\beta$ decays is found to be inconclusive (or strong), no matter which of two priors on $m^{}_1$ is taken.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, more discussions added, matches the published version in JHE