Field-induced axion decay a→e+e−a \to e^+ e^- in plasma

The axion decay $a \to e^+ e^-$ is investigated in the presence of a plasma and an external magnetic field. The results demonstrate a strong catalyzing influence of medium. The axion lifetime in the magnetic field of order $10^{15}$ G and at the temperature of order 10 MeV is reduced to $10^4$ s.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 2 PS figures, corrected some typo

nuMSM--Predictions for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

We give the prediction on the effective Majorana mass for neutrinoless double $\beta$ decay in a simple extension of the Standard Model (nuMSM). The model adds three right-handed neutrinos with masses smaller than the electroweak scale, and explains dark matter of the Universe. This leads to constraints 1.3meV<m_{bb}^{NH}<3.4meV in normal neutrino mass hierarchy and 13meV<m_{bb}^{IH}<50meV in inverted hierarchy.Comment: 5 page

Familon emission by dense magnetized plasma

Emission of a familon caused by the processes $e^- \to e^- + \phi$, $e^- \to \mu^- + \phi$ in dense magnetized plasma is investigated in the model in which a familon have both direct and no direct coupling to leptons via plasmon. The process probabilities and the integral familon action on plasma are calculated. It is shown that the $P$ odd interference phenomenon in the process $e^- \to \mu^- + \phi$ leads to the familon force acting on plasma along the magnetic field.Comment: 7 pages, LATEX, to appear in Modern Physics Letters

Sensitivity to neutrino mixing parameters with atmospheric neutrinos

We have analyzed the atmospheric neutrino data to study the octant of $\theta_{23}$ and the precision of the oscillation parameters for a large Iron CALorimeter (ICAL) detector. The ICAL being a tracking detector has the ability to measure the energy and the direction of the muon with high resolution. From bending of the track in magnetic field it can also distinguish its charge. We have generated events by Nuance and then considered only the muons (directly measurable quantities) produced in charge current interactions in our analysis. This encounters the main problem of wide resolutions of energy and baseline. The energy-angle correlated two dimensional resolution functions are used to migrate the energy and the zenith angle of the neutrino to those of the muon. A new type of binning has been introduced to get better reflection of the oscillation pattern in chi-square analysis. Then the marginalization of the $\chi^2$ over all parameters has been carried out for neutrinos and anti-neutrinos separately. We find that the measurement of $\theta_{13}$ is possible at a significant precision with atmospheric neutrinos. The precisions of $\Delta m_{32}^2$ and $\sin^2\theta_{23}$ are found $\sim$ 8% and 38%, respectively, at 90% CL. The discrimination of the octant as well as the deviation from maximal mixing of atmospheric neutrinos are also possible for some combinations of ($\theta_{23}, ~\theta_{13}$). We also discuss the impact of the events at near horizon on the precision studies.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, new results added; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Linearized flavor-stability analysis of dense neutrino streams

Neutrino-neutrino interactions in dense neutrino streams, like those emitted by a core-collapse supernova, can lead to self-induced neutrino flavor conversions. While this is a nonlinear phenomenon, the onset of these conversions can be examined through a standard stability analysis of the linearized equations of motion. The problem is reduced to a linear eigenvalue equation that involves the neutrino density, energy spectrum, angular distribution, and matter density. In the single-angle case, we reproduce previous results and use them to identify two generic instabilities: The system is stable above a cutoff density ("cutoff mode"), or can approach an asymptotic instability for increasing density ("saturation mode"). We analyze multi-angle effects on these generic types of instabilities and find that even the saturation mode is suppressed at large densities. For both types of modes, a given multi-angle spectrum typically is unstable when the neutrino and electron densities are comparable, but stable when the neutrino density is much smaller or much larger than the electron density. The role of an instability in the SN context depends on the available growth time and on the range of affected modes. At large matter density, most modes are off-resonance even when the system is unstable.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, revtex4 forma

The diffuse neutrino flux from supernovae: upper limit on the electron neutrino component from the non-observation of antineutrinos at SuperKamiokande

I derive an upper bound on the electron neutrino component of the diffuse supernova neutrino flux from the constraint on the antineutrino component at SuperKamiokande. The connection between antineutrino and neutrino channels is due to the similarity of the muon and tau neutrino and antineutrino fluxes produced in a supernova, and to the conversion of these species into electron neutrinos and antineutrinos inside the star. The limit on the electron neutrino flux is 5.5 cm^-2 s^-1 above 19.3 MeV of neutrino energy, and is stronger than the direct limit from Mont Blanc by three orders of magnitude. It represents the minimal sensitivity required at future direct searches, and is intriguingly close to the reach of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and of the ICARUS experiment. The electron neutrino flux will have a lower bound if the electron antineutrino flux is measured. Indicatively, the first can be smaller than the second at most by a factor of 2-3 depending on the details of the neutrino spectra at production.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 1 figure. Paper is modified in the presentation (Fig. 1 was replaced with a different plot and Table 1 was expanded), with unchanged results. References added and correcte

Flavor stability analysis of dense supernova neutrinos with flavor-dependent angular distributions

Numerical simulations of the supernova (SN) neutrino self-induced flavor conversions, associated with the neutrino-neutrino interactions in the deepest stellar regions, have been typically carried out assuming the "bulb-model". In this approximation, neutrinos are taken to be emitted half-isotropically by a common neutrinosphere. In the recent Ref. \cite{Mirizzi:2011tu} we have removed this assumption by introducing flavor-dependent angular distributions for SN neutrinos, as suggested by core-collapse simulations. We have found that in this case a novel multi-angle instability in the self-induced flavor transitions can arise. In this work we perform an extensive study of this effect, carrying out a linearized flavor stability analysis for different SN neutrino energy fluxes and angular distributions, in both normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. We confirm that spectra of different nu species which cross in angular space (where F_{\nu_e}=F_{\nu_x} and F_{\bar\nu_e}=F_{\bar\nu_x}) present a significant enhancement of the flavor instability, and a shift of the onset of the flavor conversions at smaller radii with respect to the case of an isotropic neutrino emission. We also illustrate how a qualitative (and sometimes quantitative) understanding of the dynamics of these systems follows from a stability analysis.Comment: (v2: revised version. 10 pages, 10 eps figures. References updated. Figures imrproved. Matches the version published in PRD.