Neutrino oscillation probabilities through the looking glass

In this paper we review different expansions for neutrino oscillation probabilities in matter in the context of long-baseline neutrino experiments. We examine the accuracy and computational efficiency of different exact and approximate expressions. We find that many of the expressions used in the literature are not precise enough for the next generation of long-baseline experiments, but several of them are while maintaining comparable simplicity. The results of this paper can be used as guidance to both phenomenologists and experimentalists when implementing the various oscillation expressions into their analysis tools.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figure

CPT and CP, an entangled couple

Even though it is undoubtedly very appealing to interpret the latest T2K results as evidence of CP violation, this claim assumes CPT conservation in the neutrino sector to an extent that has not been tested yet. As we will show, T2K results are not robust against a CPT-violating explanation. On the contrary, a CPT-violating CP-conserving scenario is in perfect agreement with current neutrino oscillation data. Therefore, to elucidate whether T2K results imply CP or CPT violation is of utter importance. We show that, even after combining with data from NO$\nu$A and from reactor experiments, no claims about CP violation can be made. Finally, we update the bounds on CPT violation in the neutrino sector.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Non-standard neutrino oscillations: perspective from unitarity triangles

We formulate an alternative approach based on unitarity triangles to describe neutrino oscillations in presence of non-standard interactions (NSI). Using perturbation theory, we derive the expression for the oscillation probability in case of NSI and cast it in terms of the three independent parameters of the leptonic unitarity triangle (LUT). The form invariance of the probability expression (even in presence of new physics scenario as long as the mixing matrix is unitary) facilitates a neat geometric view of neutrino oscillations in terms of LUT. We examine the regime of validity of perturbative expansions in the NSI case and make comparisons with approximate expressions existing in literature. We uncover some interesting dependencies on NSI terms while studying the evolution of LUT parameters and the Jarlskog invariant. Interestingly, the geometric approach based on LUT allows us to express the oscillation probabilities for a given pair of neutrino flavours in terms of only three (and not four) degrees of freedom which are related to the geometric properties (sides and angles) of the triangle. Moreover, the LUT parameters are invariant under rephasing transformations and independent of the parameterization adopted.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Combined analysis of neutrino decoherence at reactor experiments

Reactor experiments are well suited to probe the possible loss of coherence of neutrino oscillations due to wave-packets separation. We combine data from the short-baseline experiments Daya Bay and the Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillation (RENO) and from the long baseline reactor experiment KamLAND to obtain the best current limit on the reactor antineutrino wave-packet width, $\sigma > 2.1 \times 10^{-4}$ nm at 90% CL. We also find that the determination of standard oscillation parameters is robust, i.e., it is mostly insensitive to the presence of hypothetical decoherence effects once one combines the results of the different reactor neutrino experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Version matches the one published in JHE

Neutrino oscillation bounds on quantum decoherence

We consider quantum-decoherence effects in neutrino oscillation data. Working in the open quantum system framework we adopt a phenomenological approach that allows to parameterize the energy dependence of the decoherence effects. We consider several phenomenological models. We analyze data from the reactor experiments RENO, Daya Bay and KamLAND and from the accelerator experiments NOvA, MINOS/MINOS+ and T2K. We obtain updated constraints on the decoherence parameters quantifying the strength of damping effects, which can be as low as $\Gamma_{ij} \lesssim 8 \times 10^{-27}$ GeV at 90% confidence level in some cases. We also present sensitivities for the future facilities DUNE and JUNO.Comment: v2: matches published version, v1: 20 pages, 9 figures, 3 table

Neutrino Mass Ordering from Oscillations and Beyond: 2018 Status and Future Prospects

The ordering of the neutrino masses is a crucial input for a deep understanding of flavor physics, and its determination may provide the key to establish the relationship among the lepton masses and mixings and their analogous properties in the quark sector. The extraction of the neutrino mass ordering is a data-driven field expected to evolve very rapidly in the next decade. In this review, we both analyse the present status and describe the physics of subsequent prospects. Firstly, the different current available tools to measure the neutrino mass ordering are described. Namely, reactor, long-baseline (accelerator and atmospheric) neutrino beams, laboratory searches for beta and neutrinoless double beta decays and observations of the cosmic background radiation and the large scale structure of the universe are carefully reviewed. Secondly, the results from an up-to-date comprehensive global fit are reported: the Bayesian analysis to the 2018 publicly available oscillation and cosmological data sets provides strong evidence for the normal neutrino mass ordering vs. the inverted scenario, with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations. This preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering is mostly due to neutrino oscillation measurements. Finally, we shall also emphasize the future perspectives for unveiling the neutrinomass ordering. In this regard, apart from describing the expectations from the aforementioned probes, we also focus on those arising from alternative and novel methods, as 21 cm cosmology, core-collapse supernova neutrinos and the direct detection of relic neutrinos

Neutrino mass and mass ordering: No conclusive evidence for normal ordering

The extraction of the neutrino mass ordering is one of the major challenges in particle physics and cosmology, not only for its implications for a fundamental theory of mass generation in nature, but also for its decisive role in the scale of future neutrinoless double beta decay experimental searches. It has been recently claimed that current oscillation, beta decay and cosmological limits on the different observables describing the neutrino mass parameter space provide robust decisive Bayesian evidence in favor of the normal ordering of the neutrino mass spectrum [arXiv:2203.14247]. We further investigate these strong claims using a rich and wide phenomenology, with different sampling techniques of the neutrino parameter space. Contrary to the findings of Jimenez et al [arXiv:2203.14247], no decisive evidence for the normal mass ordering is found. Neutrino mass ordering analyses must rely on priors and parameterizations that are ordering-agnostic: robust results should be regarded as those in which the preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering is driven exclusively by the data, while we find a difference of up to a factor of 33 in the Bayes factors among the different priors and parameterizations exploited here. An ordering-agnostic prior would be represented by the case of parameterizations sampling over the two mass splittings and a mass scale, or those sampling over the individual neutrino masses via normal prior distributions only. In this regard, we show that the current significance in favor of the normal mass ordering should be taken as $2.7\sigma$ (i.e. moderate evidence), mostly driven by neutrino oscillation data.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Exploring the intrinsic Lorentz-violating parameters at DUNE

Neutrinos can push our search for new physics to a whole new level. What makes them so hard to be detected, what allows them to travel humongous distances without being stopped or deflected allows to amplify Planck suppressed effects (or effects of comparable size) to a level that we can measure or bound in DUNE. In this work we analyze the sensitivity of DUNE to CPT and Lorentz- violating interactions in a framework that allows a straightforward extrapolation of the bounds obtained to any phenomenological modification of the dispersion relation of neutrinos