Low Energy Neutrino Physics after SNO and KamLAND

In the recent years important discoveries in the field of low energy neutrino physics (E$_\nu$ in the $\approx$ MeV range) have been achieved. Results of the solar neutrino experiment SNO show clearly flavor transitions from $\nu_e$ to $\nu_{\mu,\tau}$. In addition, the long standing solar neutrino problem is basically solved. With KamLAND, an experiment measuring neutrinos emitted from nuclear reactors at large distances, evidence for neutrino oscillations has been found. The values for the oscillation parameters, amplitude and phase, have been restricted. In this paper the potential of future projects in low energy neutrino physics is discussed. This encompasses future solar and reactor experiments as well as the direct search for neutrino masses. Finally the potential of a large liquid scintillator detector in an underground laboratory for supernova neutrino detection, solar neutrino detection, and the search for proton decay $p \to K^+ \nu$ is discussed.Comment: Invited brief review, World Scientific Publishing Compan

Photon-Neutrino Interactions

We discuss the interaction of photons with neutrinos including two lepton loops. The parity violation in the gamma-nu to gamma-nu channel due to two lepton loops is substantially enhanced relative to the one lepton loop contribution. However there is no corresponding enhancement in the parity conserving amplitude in either the direct or the cross channel.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

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

Finding Evidence for Massive Neutrinos using 3D Weak Lensing

In this paper we investigate the potential of 3D cosmic shear to constrain massive neutrino parameters. We find that if the total mass is substantial (near the upper limits from LSS, but setting aside the Ly alpha limit for now), then 3D cosmic shear + Planck is very sensitive to neutrino mass and one may expect that a next generation photometric redshift survey could constrain the number of neutrinos N_nu and the sum of their masses m_nu to an accuracy of dN_nu ~ 0.08 and dm_nu ~ 0.03 eV respectively. If in fact the masses are close to zero, then the errors weaken to dN_nu ~ 0.10 and dm_nu~0.07 eV. In either case there is a factor 4 improvement over Planck alone. We use a Bayesian evidence method to predict joint expected evidence for N_nu and m_nu. We find that 3D cosmic shear combined with a Planck prior could provide `substantial' evidence for massive neutrinos and be able to distinguish `decisively' between many competing massive neutrino models. This technique should `decisively' distinguish between models in which there are no massive neutrinos and models in which there are massive neutrinos with |N_nu-3| > 0.35 and m_nu > 0.25 eV. We introduce the notion of marginalised and conditional evidence when considering evidence for individual parameter values within a multi-parameter model.Comment: 9 pages, 2 Figures, 2 Tables, submitted to Physical Review

Neutrinos in a spherical box

In the present paper we study some neutrino properties as they may appear in the low energy neutrinos emitted in triton decay with maximum neutrino energy of 18.6 keV. The technical challenges to this end can be achieved by building a very large TPC capable of detecting low energy recoils, down to a a few tenths of a keV, within the required low background constraints. More specifically We propose the development of a spherical gaseous TPC of about 10-m in radius and a 200 Mcurie triton source in the center of curvature. One can list a number of exciting studies, concerning fundamental physics issues, that could be made using a large volume TPC and low energy antineutrinos: 1) The oscillation length involving the small angle of the neutrino mixing matrix, directly measured in this disappearance experiment, is fully contained inside the detector. Measuring the counting rate of neutrino-electron elastic scattering as a function of the distance of the source will give a precise and unambiguous measurement of the oscillation parameters free of systematic errors. In fact first estimates show that even with a year's data taking a sensitivity of a few percent for the measurement of the above angle will be achieved. 2) The low energy detection threshold offers a unique sensitivity for the neutrino magnetic moment which is about two orders of magnitude beyond the current experimental limit. 3) Scattering at such low neutrino energies has never been studied and any departure from the expected behavior may be an indication of new physics beyond the standard model. In this work we mainly focus on the various theoretical issues involved including a precise determination of the Weinberg angle at very low momentum transfer.Comment: 16 Pages, LaTex, 7 figures, talk given at NANP 2003, Dubna, Russia, June 23, 200

Neutrino mass limits from SDSS, 2dFGRS and WMAP

We investigate whether cosmological data suggest the need for massive neutrinos. We employ galaxy power spectrum measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Two Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), along with cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and 27 other CMB experiments. We also use the measurement of the Hubble parameter from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Key Project. We find the sum of the neutrino masses to be smaller than 0.75 eV at 2\sigma (1.1 eV at 3\sigma).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Only unconstrained bias fit included. References adde

Tests of CPT Invariance at Neutrino Factories

We investigate possible tests of CPT invariance on the level of event rates at neutrino factories. We do not assume any specific model but phenomenological differences in the neutrino-antineutrino masses and mixing angles in a Lorentz invariance preserving context, such as it could be induced by physics beyond the Standard Model. We especially focus on the muon neutrino and antineutrino disappearance channels in order to obtain constraints on the neutrino-antineutrino mass and mixing angle differences; we found, for example, that the sensitivity $|m_3 - \bar{m}_3| \lesssim 1.9 \cdot 10^{-4} \mathrm{eV}$ could be achieved.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX4. Final version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Technique for Direct eV-Scale Measurements of the Mu and Tau Neutrino Masses Using Supernova Neutrinos

Early black hole formation in a core-collapse supernova will abruptly truncate the neutrino fluxes. The sharp cutoff can be used to make model-independent time-of-flight neutrino mass tests. Assuming a neutrino luminosity of $10^{52}$ erg/s per flavor at cutoff and a distance of 10 kpc, SuperKamiokande can detect an electron neutrino mass as small as 1.8 eV, and the proposed OMNIS detector can detect mu and tau neutrino masses as small as 6 eV. This {\it Letter} presents the first technique with direct sensitivity to eV-scale mu and tau neutrino masses.Comment: 4 pages including 3 inline figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter