TeV gravity at neutrino telescopes

Cosmogenic neutrinos reach the Earth with energies around 10^9 GeV, and their interactions with matter will be measured in upcoming experiments (Auger, IceCube). Models with extra dimensions and the fundamental scale at the TeV could imply signals in these experiments. In particular, the production of microscopic black holes by cosmogenic neutrinos has been extensively studied in the literature. Here we make a complete analysis of gravity-mediated interactions at larger distances, where they can be calculated in the eikonal approximation. In these processes a neutrino of energy E_\nu interacts elastically with a parton inside a nucleon, loses a small fraction y of its energy, and starts a hadronic shower of energy y E_\nu << E_\nu. We analyze the ultraviolet dependence and the relevance of graviton emission in these processes, and show that they are negligible. We also study the energy distribution of cosmogenic events in AMANDA and IceCube and the possibility of multiple-bang events. For any neutrino flux, the observation of an enhanced rate of neutral current events above 100 TeV in neutrino telescopes could be explained by TeV-gravity interactions. The values of the fundamental scale of gravity that IceCube could reach are comparable to those to be explored at the LHC.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures; new section on air showers added, version to be publishe

Constraining new physics scenarios in neutrino oscillations from Daya Bay data

We perform for the first time a detailed fit to the $\bar \nu_e \to \bar \nu_e$ disappearance data of the Daya Bay experiment to constrain the parameter space of models where sterile neutrinos can propagate in a large compactified extra dimension (LED) and models where non-standard interactions affect the neutrino production and detection (NSI). We find that the compactification radius $R$ in LED scenarios can be constrained at the level of $0.57 \, \mu m$ for normal ordering and of $0.19\, \mu m$ for inverted ordering, at 2$\sigma$ confidence level. For the NSI model, reactor data put a strong upper bound on the parameter $\varepsilon_{ee}$ at the level of $\sim 10^{-3}$, whereas the main effect of $\varepsilon_{e\mu}$ and $\varepsilon_{e\tau}$ is a worsening of the determination of $\theta_{13}$.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Physical Reach of a Neutrino Factory in the 2+2 and 3+1 Four-Family Scenario

We compare the physical reach of a Neutrino Factory in the 2+2 and 3+1 four-family models, with similar results in the two schemes; in both cases huge CP-violating effects can be observed with a near detector in the $\nu_\mu \to \nu_\tau$ channel. We also study the capability of long baseline experiments (optimized for the study of the three-family mixing parameter space) in distinguishing a three (active) neutrino model from a four-family scenario.Comment: 5 latex2e pages, 2 figures; talk given at NuFact '01, Tsukuba, 24-30 May 200

The 2+2 and 3+1 Four-Family Neutrino Mixing at the Neutrino Factory

We upgrade the study of the physical reach of a Neutrino Factory in the Four Family Neutrino Mixing scenario taking into account the latest LSND results that points out how the 3+1 scheme cannot be completely ruled out within the present experimental data (although the 2+2 scheme is still the preferred choice when four neutrinos are considered). A detailed comparison of the physical reach of the $\nu$-factory in the two schemes is given, with similar results for the sensitivity to the mixing angles. Huge CP-violating effects can be observed in both schemes with a near, O(10) Km, detector of O(10) Kton size in the $\nu_\mu \to \nu_\tau$ channel. A smaller detector of 1 Kton size can still observe very large effects in this channel.Comment: 38 Latex2e pages, 21 figures using epsfig, minor change

Neutrino phenomenology and stable dark matter with A4

We present a model based on the A4 non-abelian discrete symmetry leading to a predictive five-parameter neutrino mass matrix and providing a stable dark matter candidate. We found an interesting correlation among the atmospheric and the reactor angles which predicts theta_23 ~ pi/4 for very small reactor angle and deviation from maximal atmospheric mixing for large theta_13. Only normal neutrino mass spectrum is possible and the effective mass entering the neutrinoless double beta decay rate is constrained to be |m_ee| > 4 10^{-4} eV.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, minor changes to match the version to appear in PL

Fritzsch neutrino mass matrix from S3 symmetry

We present an extension of the Standard Model (SM) based on the discrete flavor symmetry S3 which gives a neutrino mass matrix with two-zero texture of Fritzsch-type and nearly diagonal charged lepton mass matrix. The model is compatible with the normal hierarchy only and predicts the sine squared of the reactor angle to be 0.01 at the best fit values of solar and atmospheric parameters and maximal leptonic CP violation.Comment: 14 pages and 3 figures. Final version to appear in J. Phys

Two-zero Majorana textures in the light of the Planck results

The recent results of the Planck experiment put a stringent constraint on the sum of the light neutrino masses, m1+m2+m3 < 0.23 eV (95 % CL). On the other hand, two-zero Majorana mass matrix textures predict strong correlations among the atmospheric angle and the sum of the masses. We use the Planck result to show that, for the normal hierarchy case, the texture with vanishing (2,2) and (3,3) elements is ruled out at a high confidence level; in addition, we emphasize that a future measurement of the octant of the atmospheric mixing angle (or the one sigma determination of it based on recent fit to neutrino data) will put severe constraint on the possible structure of the Majorana mass matrix. The implication of the above mentioned correlations for neutrinoless double beta-decay are also discussed, for both normal and inverted orderings.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Probing TeV gravity at neutrino telescopes

Models with extra dimensions and the fundamental scale at the TeV could imply sign als in large neutrino telescopes due to gravitational scattering of cosmogenic neu trinos in the detection volume. Apart from the production of microscopic black hol es, extensively studied in the literature, we present gravity-mediated interactions at larger distances, that can be calculated in the e ikonal approximation. In these elastic processes the neutrino loses a small fracti on of energy to a hadronic shower and keeps going. The event rate of these events is higher than that of black hole formation and the signal is distinct: no charged leptons and possibly multiple-bang events.Comment: 5 pages; to appear in the proceedings of the Workshop on Exotic Physics with Neutrino Telesocpes, Uppsala 20-22 September 200