Neutrino Mass Hierarchy, Vacuum Oscillations, and Vanishing U_e3

Is the relatively isolated member of the neutrino mass spectrum heavier or lighter than the two closely-spaced members? This question - the character of the neutrino mass hierarchy - is of great theoretical interest. All previously identified experiments for addressing it via neutrino oscillations require that the currently unknown size of the U_e3 element of the leptonic mixing matrix (parameterized by the unknown theta_13 mixing angle) be sufficiently large, and will utterly fail in the limit theta_13=0. For this reason, we explore alternative oscillation approaches that would still succeed even if theta_13 vanishes. We identify several alternatives that require neither a nonzero |U_e3| nor the presence of significant matter effects. All include multiple percent-level neutrino oscillation measurements, usually involving muon-neutrino (or antineutrino) disappearance and very long baselines. We comment on the degree of promise that these alternative approaches show.Comment: 15 pages revtex, five eps figures, references and acknowledgments adde

Addressing the Majorana vs. Dirac Question with Neutrino Decays

The Majorana versus Dirac nature of neutrinos remains an open question. This is due, in part, to the fact that virtually all the experimentally accessible neutrinos are ultra-relativistic. Noting that Majorana neutrinos can behave quite differently from Dirac ones when they are non-relativistic, we show that, at leading order, the angular distribution of the daughters in the decay of a heavy neutrino into a lighter one and a self-conjugate boson is isotropic in the parent's rest frame if the neutrinos are Majorana, independent of the parent's polarization. If the neutrinos are Dirac fermions, this is, in general, not the case. This result follows from CPT invariance and is independent of the details of the physics responsible for the decay. We explore the feasibility of using these angular distributions -- or, equivalently, the energy distributions of the daughters in the laboratory frame -- in order to address the Majorana versus Dirac nature of neutrinos if a fourth, heavier neutrino mass eigenstate reveals itself in the current or next-generation of high-energy colliders, intense meson facilities, or neutrino beam experiments.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

CP violation in the lepton sector with Majorana neutrinos

We study CP violation in the lepton sector in extended models with right-handed neutrinos, without and with left-right symmetry, and with arbitrary mass terms. We find the conditions which must be satisfied by the neutrino and charged lepton mass matrices for CP conservation. These constraints, which are independent of the choice of weak basis, are proven to be also sufficient in simple cases. This invariant formulation makes apparent the necessary requirements for CP violation, as well as the size of CP violating effects. As an example, we show that CP violation can be much larger in left-right symmetric models than in models with only additional right-handed neutrinos, {\it i.e.}, without right-handed currents.Comment: 19 page

Constraints on dark and visible mass in galaxies from strong gravitational lensing

We give a non-exhaustive review of the use of strong gravitational lensing in placing constraints on the quantity of dark and visible mass in galaxies. We discuss development of the methodology and summarise some recent results.Comment: To appear in proceedings of IAU Symposium 244, 'Dark Galaxies and Lost Baryons', 25th - 29th June 2007. Nine pages, five figures. Version 2 updates bibliograph

Flavor and chiral oscillations with Dirac wave packets

We report about recent results on Dirac wave packets in the treatment of neutrino flavor oscillation where the initial localization of a spinor state implies an interference between positive and negative energy components of mass-eigenstate wave packets. A satisfactory description of fermionic particles requires the use of the Dirac equation as evolution equation for the mass-eigenstates. In this context, a new flavor conversion formula can be obtained when the effects of chiral oscillation are taken into account. Our study leads to the conclusion that the fermionic nature of the particles, where chiral oscillations and the interference between positive and negative frequency components of mass-eigenstate wave packets are implicitly assumed, modifies the standard oscillation probability. Nevertheless, for ultra-relativistic particles and sharply peaked momentum distributions, we can analytically demonstrate that these modifications introduce correction factors proportional to (m12/p0) square which are practically un-detectable by any experimental analysisComment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Would Relaxation of the Anti-doping Rule Lead to Red Queen Effects?

status: Published onlin

The Physical Range of Majorana Neutrino Mixing Parameters

If neutrinos are Majorana fermions, the lepton mixing parameter space consists of six mixing parameters: three mixing angles and three CP-odd phases. A related issue concerns the physical range of the mixing parameters. What values should these take so that all physically distinguishable mixing scenarios are realized? We present a detailed discussion of the lepton mixing parameter space in the case of two and three active neutrinos, and in the case of three active and N sterile neutrinos. We emphasize that this question, which has been a source of confusion even among "neutrino" physicists, is connected to an unambiguous definition of the neutrino mass eigenstates. We find that all Majorana phases can always be constrained to lie between 0 and pi, and that all mixing angles can be chosen positive and at most less than or equal to pi/2 provided the Dirac phases are allowed to vary between -pi and pi. We illustrate our results with several examples. Finally, we point out that, in the case of new flavor-changing neutrino interactions, the lepton mixing parameter space may need to be enlarged. We properly qualify this statement, and offer concrete examples.Comment: 16 pages, 2 .eps figures, references added, minor typos correcte

Lensing and the Centers of Distant Early-Type Galaxies

Gravitational lensing provides a unique probe of the inner 10-1000 pc of distant galaxies (z=0.2-1). Lens theory predicts that every strong lens system should have a faint image near the center of the lens galaxy, which should be visible in radio lenses but have not been observed. We study these ``core'' images using models derived from the stellar distributions in nearby early-type galaxies. We find that realistic galaxies predict a remarkably wide range of core images, with lensing magnifications spanning some six orders of magnitude. More concentrated galaxies produce fainter core images, although not with any simple, quantitative, model independent relation. Some real galaxies have diffuse cores and predict bright core images (magnification mu>~0.1), but more common are galaxies that predict faint core images (mu<~0.001). Thus, stellar mass distributions alone are probably concentrated enough to explain the lack of observed core images, and may require observational sensitivity to improve by an order of magnitude before detections of core images become common. Two-image lenses will tend to have brighter core images than four-image lenses, so they will be the better targets for finding core images and exploiting these tools for studying the central mass distributions of distant galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, emulateapj; submitted to Ap

An Analytic Approach to the Wave Packet Formalism in Oscillation Phenomena

We introduce an approximation scheme to perform an analytic study of the oscillation phenomena in a pedagogical and comprehensive way. By using Gaussian wave packets, we show that the oscillation is bounded by a time-dependent vanishing function which characterizes the slippage between the mass-eigenstate wave packets. We also demonstrate that the wave packet spreading represents a secondary effect which plays a significant role only in the non-relativistic limit. In our analysis, we note the presence of a new time-dependent phase and calculate how this additional term modifies the oscillating character of the flavor conversion formula. Finally, by considering Box and Sine wave packets we study how the choice of different functions to describe the particle localization changes the oscillation probability.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, AMS-Te