6 research outputs found
Flavour structure and proton decay in 6D orbifold GUTs
We study proton decay in a supersymmetric {\sf SO(10)} gauge theory in six
dimensions compactified on an orbifold. The dimension-5 proton decay operators
are forbidden by R-symmetry, whereas the dimension-6 operators are enhanced due
to the presence of KK towers. Three sequential quark-lepton families are
localised at the three orbifold fixed points, where {\sf SO(10)} is broken to
its three GUT subgroups. The physical quarks and leptons are mixtures of these
brane states and additional bulk zero modes. This leads to a characteristic
pattern of branching ratios in proton decay, in particular the suppression of
the p\to \m^+K^0 mode.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur
Constraining Supersymmetry
We review constraints on the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard
Model (MSSM) coming from direct searches at accelerators such as LEP, indirect
measurements such as b -> s gamma decay and the anomalous magnetic moment of
the muon. The recently corrected sign of pole light-by-light scattering
contributions to the latter is taken into account. We combine these constraints
with those due to the cosmological density of stable supersymmetric relic
particles. The possible indications on the supersymmetric mass scale provided
by fine-tuning arguments are reviewed critically. We discuss briefly the
prospects for future accelerator searches for supersymmetry.Comment: 21 LaTeX pages, 9 eps figures, Invited Contribution to the New
Journal of Physics Focus Issue on Supersymmetr
Enhanced Sensitivity to Dark Matter Self-annihilations in the Sun using Neutrino Spectral Information
Self-annihilating dark matter gravitationally captured by the Sun could yield
observable neutrino signals at current and next generation neutrino detectors.
By exploiting such signals, neutrino detectors can probe the spin-dependent
scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with nucleons in the
Sun. We describe a method how to convert constraints on neutrino fluxes to a
limit on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section. In this method all neutrino
flavors can be treated in a very similar way. We study the sensitivity of
neutrino telescopes for Solar WIMP signals using vertex contained events and
find that this detection channel is of particular importance in the search for
low mass WIMPs. We obtain highly competitive sensitivities with all neutrino
flavor channels for a Megaton sized detector through the application of basic
spectral selection criteria. Best results are obtained with the electron
neutrino channel. We discuss associated uncertainties and provide a procedure
how to treat them for analyses in a consistent way.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Nucleon Decay Searches with large Liquid Argon TPC Detectors at Shallow Depths: atmospheric neutrinos and cosmogenic backgrounds
Grand Unification of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions into a single unified gauge group is an extremely appealing idea which has been vigorously pursued theoretically and experimentally for many years. The detection of proton or bound-neutron decays would represent its most direct experimental evidence. In this context, we studied the physics potentialities of very large underground Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LAr TPC). We carried out a detailed simulation of signal efficiency and background sources, including atmospheric neutrinos and cosmogenic backgrounds. We point out that a liquid Argon TPC, offering good granularity and energy resolution, low particle detection threshold, and excellent background discrimination, should yield very good signal over background ratios in many possible decay modes, allowing to reach partial lifetime sensitivities in the range of 1034â1035 years with exposures up to 1000 ktonĂyear, often in quasi-background-free conditions optimal for discoveries at the few events level, corresponding to atmospheric neutrino background rejections of the order of 105. Multi-prong decay modes like e.g. pâÎŒâÏ+K+ or pâe+Ï+Ïâ and channels involving kaons like e.g. pâK+ÎœÂŻ, pâe+K0 and pâÎŒ+K0 are particularly suitable, since liquid Argon imaging (...)This work was in part supported by ETH and the Swiss National Foundation. AB, AJM and SN have been supported by CICYT Grants FPA-2002-01835 and FPA-2005-07605-C02-01. SN acknowledges support from the Ramon y Cajal Programme. We thank P. Sala for help with FLUKA while she was an ETH employee
Probing the neutrino mass hierarchy and the 13-mixing with supernovae
We consider in details the effects of the 13-mixing (sin^2 theta_{13}) and of
the type of mass hierarchy/ordering (sign[ Delta m^2_{13}]) on neutrino signals
from the gravitational collapses of stars. The observables (characteristics of
the energy spectra of nu_e and antinu_e events) sensitive to sin^2 theta_{13}
and sign[Delta m^2_{13}] have been calculated. They include the ratio of
average energies of the spectra, r_E = /, the ratio of widths of
the energy distributions, r_Gamma, the ratios of total numbers of nu_e and
antinu_e events at low energies, S, and in the high energy tails, R_{tail}. We
construct and analyze scatter plots which show the predictions for the
observables for different intervals of sin^2 theta_{13} and signs of Delta
m^2_{13}, taking into account uncertainties in the original neutrino spectra,
the star density profile, etc.. Regions in the space of observables r_E,
r_Gamma, S, R_{tail} exist in which certain mass hierarchy and intervals of
sin^2 theta_{13} can be identified or discriminated. We elaborate on the method
of the high energy tails in the spectra of events. The conditions are
formulated for which sin^2 theta_{13} can be (i) measured, (ii) restricted from
below, (iii) restricted from above. We comment on the possibility to determine
sin^2 theta_{13} using the time dependence of the signals due to the
propagation of the shock wave through the resonance layers of the star. We show
that the appearance of the delayed Earth matter effect in one of the channels
(nu_e or antinu_e) in combination with the undelayed effect in the other
channel will allow to identify the shock wave appeareance and determine the
mass hierarchy.Comment: LaTeX, 56 pages, 12 figures; a few clarifications added; typos
corrected. Version to appear in JCA
Neutrino oscillations in magnetically driven supernova explosions
We investigate neutrino oscillations from core-collapse supernovae that
produce magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) explosions. By calculating numerically the
flavor conversion of neutrinos in the highly non-spherical envelope, we study
how the explosion anisotropy has impacts on the emergent neutrino spectra
through the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect. In the case of the inverted
mass hierarchy with a relatively large theta_(13), we show that survival
probabilities of electron type neutrinos and antineutrinos seen from the
rotational axis of the MHD supernovae (i.e., polar direction), can be
significantly different from those along the equatorial direction. The event
numbers of electron type antineutrinos observed from the polar direction are
predicted to show steepest decrease, reflecting the passage of the
magneto-driven shock to the so-called high-resonance regions. Furthermore we
point out that such a shock effect, depending on the original neutrino spectra,
appears also for the low-resonance regions, which leads to a noticeable
decrease in the electron type neutrino signals. This reflects a unique nature
of the magnetic explosion featuring a very early shock-arrival to the resonance
regions, which is in sharp contrast to the neutrino-driven delayed supernova
models. Our results suggest that the two features in the electron type
antineutrinos and neutrinos signals, if visible to the Super-Kamiokande for a
Galactic supernova, could mark an observational signature of the magnetically
driven explosions, presumably linked to the formation of magnetars and/or
long-duration gamma-ray bursts.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures, JCAP in pres