258 research outputs found
Neutrino Experiments: Status, Recent Progress, and Prospects
Neutrino physics has seen an explosion of activity and new results in the
last decade. In this report the current state of the field is summarized, with
a particular focus on progress in the last two years. Prospects for the near
term (roughly 5 years) are also described.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, proceedings of plenary talk at EPS HEP 2007
Conference, Manchester, UK. Updated with citation added to Figure 1
Probing Low Energy Neutrino Backgrounds with Neutrino Capture on Beta Decaying Nuclei
We study the interaction of low energy neutrinos on nuclei that spontaneously
undergo beta decay showing that the product of the cross section times neutrino
velocity takes values as high as 10^{-42} cm^2 c for some specific nuclei that
decay via allowed transitions. The absence of energy threshold and the value of
the cross section single out these processes as a promising though very
demanding approach for future experiments aimed at a direct detection of low
energy neutrino backgrounds such as the cosmological relic neutrinos.Comment: Includes a discussion of local relic neutrino density effect on
neutrino capture rate. Accepted for publication in JCA
Constraining the cosmic radiation density due to lepton number with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
The cosmic energy density in the form of radiation before and during Big Bang
Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is typically parameterized in terms of the effective
number of neutrinos N_eff. This quantity, in case of no extra degrees of
freedom, depends upon the chemical potential and the temperature characterizing
the three active neutrino distributions, as well as by their possible
non-thermal features. In the present analysis we determine the upper bounds
that BBN places on N_eff from primordial neutrino--antineutrino asymmetries,
with a careful treatment of the dynamics of neutrino oscillations. We consider
quite a wide range for the total lepton number in the neutrino sector, eta_nu=
eta_{nu_e}+eta_{nu_mu}+eta_{nu_tau} and the initial electron neutrino asymmetry
eta_{nu_e}^in, solving the corresponding kinetic equations which rule the
dynamics of neutrino (antineutrino) distributions in phase space due to
collisions, pair processes and flavor oscillations. New bounds on both the
total lepton number in the neutrino sector and the nu_e -bar{nu}_e asymmetry at
the onset of BBN are obtained fully exploiting the time evolution of neutrino
distributions, as well as the most recent determinations of primordial 2H/H
density ratio and 4He mass fraction. Note that taking the baryon fraction as
measured by WMAP, the 2H/H abundance plays a relevant role in constraining the
allowed regions in the eta_nu -eta_{nu_e}^in plane. These bounds fix the
maximum contribution of neutrinos with primordial asymmetries to N_eff as a
function of the mixing parameter theta_13, and point out the upper bound N_eff
< 3.4. Comparing these results with the forthcoming measurement of N_eff by the
Planck satellite will likely provide insight on the nature of the radiation
content of the universe.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, version to be published in JCA
Mass hierarchy discrimination with atmospheric neutrinos in large volume ice/water Cherenkov detectors
Large mass ice/water Cherenkov experiments, optimized to detect low energy
(1-20 GeV) atmospheric neutrinos, have the potential to discriminate between
normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchies. The sensitivity depends on
several model and detector parameters, such as the neutrino flux profile and
normalization, the Earth density profile, the oscillation parameter
uncertainties, and the detector effective mass and resolution. A proper
evaluation of the mass hierarchy discrimination power requires a robust
statistical approach. In this work, the Toy Monte Carlo, based on an extended
unbinned likelihood ratio test statistic, was used. The effect of each model
and detector parameter, as well as the required detector exposure, was then
studied. While uncertainties on the Earth density and atmospheric neutrino flux
profiles were found to have a minor impact on the mass hierarchy
discrimination, the flux normalization, as well as some of the oscillation
parameter (\Delta m^2_{31}, \theta_{13}, \theta_{23}, and \delta_{CP})
uncertainties and correlations resulted critical. Finally, the minimum required
detector exposure, the optimization of the low energy threshold, and the
detector resolutions were also investigated.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure
Identifying the Neutrino mass Ordering with INO and NOvA
The relatively large value of established recently by the Daya
Bay reactor experiment opens the possibility to determine the neutrino mass
ordering with experiments currently under construction. We investigate
synergies between the NOvA long-baseline accelerator experiment with
atmospheric neutrino data from the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). We
identify the requirements on energy and direction reconstruction and detector
mass for INO necessary for a significant sensitivity. If neutrino energy and
direction reconstruction at the level of 10% and 10 degree can be achieved by
INO a determination of the neutrino mass ordering seems possible around 2020.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, minor improvements and clarifications, new panel
in fig. 7, version to appear in JHEP, typo in eq. 4 correcte
Status of global fits to neutrino oscillations
We review the present status of global analyses of neutrino oscillations,
taking into account the most recent neutrino data including the latest KamLAND
and K2K updates presented at Neutrino2004, as well as state-of-the-art solar
and atmospheric neutrino flux calculations. We give the two-neutrino solar +
KamLAND results, as well as two-neutrino atmospheric + K2K oscillation regions,
discussing in each case the robustness of the oscillation interpretation
against departures from the Standard Solar Model and the possible existence of
non-standard neutrino physics. Furthermore, we give the best fit values and
allowed ranges of the three-flavour oscillation parameters from the current
worlds' global neutrino data sample and discuss in detail the status of the
small parameters \alpha \equiv \Dms/\Dma as well as ,
which characterize the strength of CP violating effects in neutrino
oscillations. We also update the degree of rejection of four-neutrino
interpretations of the LSND anomaly in view of the most recent developments.Comment: v6: In the last Appendix we provide updated neutrino oscillation
results which take into account the relevant oscillation data released by the
MINOS and KamLAND collaboration
nu_e Disappearance in MiniBooNE
The anomalous excess of low-energy nu_e events measured in the MiniBooNE
experiment is explained through a renormalization of the absolute neutrino flux
and a simultaneous disappearance of the nu_e's in the beam, which is compatible
with that indicated by the results of Gallium radioactive source experiments.
We present the results of the fit of MiniBooNE data (P(nu_e->nu_e) = 0.64 +0.08
-0.07) and the combined fit of MiniBooNE data and the nu_e disappearance
measured in the Gallium radioactive source experiments, which gives
P(nu_e->nu_e) = 0.82 +- 0.04. We show that our interpretation of the data is
also compatible with an old indication in favor of nu_e disappearance found
from the analysis of the results of beam-dump experiments, leading to
P(nu_e->nu_e) = 0.80 +0.03 -0.04.Comment: 17 pages. Final version published in Phys. Rev. D 77, 093002 (2008
Minimal flavour violation extensions of the seesaw
We analyze the most natural formulations of the minimal lepton flavour
violation hypothesis compatible with a type-I seesaw structure with three heavy
singlet neutrinos N, and satisfying the requirement of being predictive, in the
sense that all LFV effects can be expressed in terms of low energy observables.
We find a new interesting realization based on the flavour group (being and respectively the SU(2) singlet and
doublet leptons). An intriguing feature of this realization is that, in the
normal hierarchy scenario for neutrino masses, it allows for sizeable
enhancements of transitions with respect to LFV processes involving
the lepton. We also discuss how the symmetries of the type-I seesaw
allow for a strong suppression of the N mass scale with respect to the scale of
lepton number breaking, without implying a similar suppression for possible
mechanisms of N productionComment: 14 pages, 6 figure
Vanishing Minors in the Neutrino Mass Matrix from Abelian Gauge Symmetries
Augmenting the Standard Model by three right-handed neutrinos allows for an
anomaly-free gauge group extension G_max = U(1)_(B-L) x U(1)_(L_e-L_mu) x
U(1)_(L_mu-L_tau). While simple U(1) subgroups of G_max have already been
discussed in the context of approximate flavor symmetries, we show how two-zero
textures in the right-handed neutrino Majorana mass matrix can be enforced by
the flavor symmetry, which is spontaneously broken very economically by singlet
scalars. These zeros lead to two vanishing minors in the low-energy neutrino
mass matrix after the seesaw mechanism. This study may provide a new testing
ground for a zero-texture approach: the different classes of two-zero textures
with almost identical neutrino oscillation phenomenology can in principle be
distinguished by their different Z' interactions at colliders.Comment: 12 pages; Extended and clarified discussion; comments on finetuning
in the textures; matches published versio
Solar neutrino-electron scattering as background limitation for double beta decay
The background on double beta decay searches due to elastic electron
scattering of solar neutrinos of all double beta emitters with Q-value larger
than 2 MeV is calculated, taking into account survival probability and flux
uncertainties of solar neutrinos. This work determines the background level to
be [1-2]E-7 counts /keV/kg/yr, depending on the precise Q-value of the double
beta emitter. It is also shown that the background level increases dramatically
if going to lower Q-values. Furthermore, studies are done for various detector
systems under consideration for next generation experiments. It was found that
experiments based on loaded liquid scintillator have to expect a higher
background. Within the given nuclear matrix element uncertainties any approach
exploring the normal hierarchy has to face this irreducible background, which
is a limitation on the minimal achievable background for purely calorimetric
approaches. Large scale liquid scintillator experiments might encounter this
problem already while exploring the inverted hierarchy. Potential caveats by
using more sophisticated experimental setups are also discussed
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