Inverted Hierarchy of Neutrino Masses Disfavored by Supernova 1987A

We discuss the flavor conversion of supernova neutrinos in the three-flavor mixing scheme of neutrinos. We point out that by neutrino observation from supernova one can discriminate the inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses from the normal one if s_{13}^2 \gsim a few \times 10^{-4}, irrespective of which oscillation solution to the solar neutrino problem is realized in nature. We perform an analysis of data of SN1987A and obtain a strong indication that the inverted mass hierarchy is disfavored unless s_{13}^2 \lsim a few \times 10^{-4}.Comment: RevTex file, 15 pages, 4 postscript figures, typos corrected, version to appear in Physics Letters

On the robustness of IceCube's bound on sterile neutrinos in the presence of non-standard interactions

The mixing parameters of sterile neutrino(s) preferred by the MiniBooNE and LNSD experiments are in strong tension with the exclusion limit from the IceCube experiment. Recently it has been claimed that by considering the non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) in addition to the sterile neutrino, the IceCube's limit can be relaxed and the tension can be reconciled; a baroque scenario as it has been called. We will show that this claim is just an artifact originating from the energy cuts of the chosen datasets. Contrary to the claim, by turning on the NSI and fixing the NSI parameters to the proposed values, not only the IceCube's limit on sterile neutrino cannot be alleviated, but in fact the tension will be aggravated. The reconciliation, more appropriately, can be called surreal.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; v2: a few clarifications have been adde

NOvA and T2K: The race for the neutrino mass hierarchy

The determination of the ordering of the neutrino masses (the hierarchy) is probably a crucial prerequisite to understand the origin of lepton masses and mixings and to establish their relationship to the analogous properties in the quark sector. Here, we follow an alternative strategy to the usual neutrino--antineutrino comparison in long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments: we exploit the combination of the neutrino-only data from the NOvA and the T2K experiments by performing these two off-axis experiments at different distances but at the same $/L$, where $$ is the mean neutrino energy and $L$ is the baseline. This would require a minor adjustment to the proposed off-axis angle for one or both of the proposed experiments.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, LaTE

Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillations: Parameter Degeneracies and JHF/NuMI Complementarity

A summary of the parameter degeneracy issue for long baseline neutrino oscillations is presented and how a sequence of measurements can be used to resolve all degeneracies. Next, a comparison of the JHF and NuMI Off-Axis proposals is made with emphasis on how both experiments running neutrinos can distinguish between the normal and inverted hierarchies provided the E/L of NuMI is less than or equal to the E/L of JHF. Due to the space limitations of this proceedings only an executive style summary can be presented here, but the references and transparencies of the talk contain the detailed arguments.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, 5 postscript figures. Talk presented by Stephen Parke at NOON 200

CP and T Violation in Neutrino Oscillations

In this short lecture, we discuss some basic phenomenological aspects of CP and T violation in neutrino oscillation. Using CP/T trajectory diagrams in the bi-probability space, we try to sketch out some essential features of the interplay between the effect of CP/T violating phase and that of the matter in neutrino oscillation.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Invited talk given by H. Nunokawa at the 10 th Mexican School of Particles and Fields at Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Oct. 30 - Nov. 6, 200

CP and T Trajectory Diagrams for a Unified Graphical Representation of Neutrino Oscillations

Recently the CP trajectory diagram was introduced to demonstrate the difference between the intrinsic CP violating effects to those induced by matter for neutrino oscillation. In this paper we introduce the T trajectory diagram. In these diagrams the probability for a given oscillation process is plotted versus the probability for the CP- or the T-conjugate processes, which forms an ellipse as the CP or T violating phase is varied. Since the CP and the T conjugate processes are related by CPT symmetry, even in the presence of matter, these two trajectory diagrams are closely related with each other and form a unified description of neutrino oscillations in matter.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, 7 postscript figure

On the Mass Eigenstate Purity of B^8 Solar Neutrinos

We give a brief report on our recent paper, hep-ph/0601198, in which we calculate the nu_2 mass eigenstate purity of B^8 solar neutrinos as 91 +/- 2 %.Comment: 3 pages, 2 postscript figures, latex, AIP conference style. PANIC 2005 proceeding

Non-unitary evolution of neutrinos in matter and the leptonic unitarity test

We present a comprehensive study of the three-active plus $N$ sterile neutrino model as a framework for constraining leptonic unitarity violation induced at energy scales much lower than the electroweak scale. We formulate a perturbation theory with expansion in small unitarity violating matrix element $W$ while keeping (non-$W$ suppressed) matter effect to all orders. We show that under the same condition of sterile state masses $0.1\, \text{eV}^2 \lesssim m^2_{J} \lesssim (1-10)\, \text{GeV}^2$ as in vacuum, assuming typical accelerator based long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, one can derive a very simple form of the oscillation probability which consists only of zeroth-order terms with the unique exception of probability leaking term $\mathcal{C}_{\alpha \beta}$ of $\mathcal{O} (W^4)$. We argue, based on our explicit computation to fourth-order in $W$, that all the other terms are negligibly small after taking into account the suppression due to the mass condition for sterile states, rendering the oscillation probability {\em sterile-sector model independent}. Then, we identify a limited energy region in which this suppression is evaded and the effects of order $W^2$ corrections may be observable. Its detection would provide another way, in addition to detecting $\mathcal{C}_{\alpha \beta}$, to distinguish between low-scale and high-scale unitarity violation. We also solve analytically the zeroth-order system in matter with uniform density to provide a basis for numerical evaluation of non-unitary neutrino evolution.Comment: 35 content pages + 12 appendix pages, 4 figures; Several clarifying modifications to match the published versio