Probing new physics with coherent neutrino scattering off nuclei

The possibility off measuring for the first time neutrino-nuclei coherent scattering has been recently discussed by several experimental collaborations. It is shown that such a measurement may be very sensitive to non-standard interactions of neutrinos with quarks and might set better constraints than those coming from future neutrino factory experiments. We also comment on other types of new physics tests, such as extra heavy neutral gauge bosons, where the sensitivity to some models is slightly better than the Tevatron constraint and, therefore, could give complementary bounds.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures Discussion about Z prime corrected and extended. Final version to be published in JHE

Probing nonstandard interactions with reactor neutrinos

New limits on the weak mixing angle and on the electron neutrino effective charge radius in the low energy regime, below 100 MeV, are obtained from a combined fit of all electron-(anti)neutrino electron elastic scattering measurements. We have included the recent TEXONO measurement with a CsI (Tl) detector. Only statistical error of this measurement has been taken into account. Weak mixing angle is found to be sin^2 theta_W = 0.255 +0.022 -0.023. The electron neutrino effective charge radius squared is bounded to be r^2 = (0.9 +0.9 -1.0) x 10^{-32} cm^2. The sensitivity of future low energy neutrino experiments to nonstandard interactions of neutrinos with quarks is also discussed.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, talk given at the Neutrino Oscillation Workshop (NOW 2008), Otranto, Italy, September 6-13, 2008. Misprints correcte

Neutrino electron scattering and left-right symmetry: future tests

Low-energy high-resolution neutrino-electron scattering experiments may play an important role in testing the gauge structure of the electroweak interaction. We propose the use of radioactive neutrino sources (e.g. $^{51}$Cr) in underground experiments such as BOREXINO and HELLAZ as a probe of the weak neutral current structure. As an illustration, we display the sensitivity of these detectors in testing the possible existence of right-handed weak neutral currents.Comment: 4 pages. Latex. 1 figure. Contributed paper, WIN97, Capri, Italy, June 199

Exploring the potential of short-baseline physics at Fermilab

We study the capabilities of the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab to probe the unitarity of the lepton mixing matrix. We find the sensitivity to be slightly better than the current one. Motivated by the future DUNE experiment, we have also analyzed the potential of an extra liquid Argon near detector in the LBNF beamline. Adding such a near detector to the DUNE setup will substantially improve the current sensitivity on nonunitarity. This would help to remove CP degeneracies due to the new complex phase present in the neutrino mixing matrix. We also study the sensitivity of our proposed setup to light sterile neutrinos for various configurations

Sensitivities to neutrino electromagnetic properties at the TEXONO experiment

The possibility of measuring neutral-current coherent elastic neutrino¿nucleus scattering (CENNS) at the TEXONO experiment has opened high expectations towards probing exotic neutrino properties. Focusing on low threshold Germanium-based targets with kg-scale mass, we find a remarkable efficiency not only for detecting CENNS events due to the weak interaction, but also for probing novel electromagnetic neutrino interactions. Specifically, we demonstrate that such experiments are complementary in performing precision Standard Model tests as well as in shedding light on sub-leading effects due to neutrino magnetic moment and neutrino charge radius. This work employs realistic nuclear structure calculations based on the quasi-particle random phase approximation (QRPA) and takes into consideration the crucial quenching effect corrections. Such a treatment, in conjunction with a simple statistical analysis, shows that the attainable sensitivities are improved by one order of magnitude as compared to previous studies

Constraints on Z1-Z2 Mixing from the Decay Z1→e−e+Z1 \to e-e+ in the left-right Symmetric Model

We examine the decay of $Z_1$ in electrons with recent data from LEP. The partial width $\Gamma(Z_1\to e^-e^+)$ is studied in the framework of a left-right symmetric model with standard electroweak corrections. Processes measured near the resonance has served to measure the neutral coupling constants very precisely, which is useful to set bounds on the parameters of the model. This partial decay occurs in the resonance zone. As a consecuence the process is independent of the mass of the additional $Z_2$ heavy gauge boson which appears in this kind of models and so we have the mixing angle \f between the left and the right bosons as the only additional parameter. In this paper we take advantage of this fact to set a bound for \f: -9\times 10^{-3}\leq\f\leq 4\times 10^{-3}, which is in agreement with other constraints previously reported.Comment: 14 pages in Latex, 3 figures available on reques

Bounds on the tau and muon neutrino vector and axial vector charge radius

A Majorana neutrino is characterized by just one flavor diagonal electromagnetic form factor: the anapole moment, that in the static limit corresponds to the axial vector charge radius . Experimental information on this quantity is scarce, especially in the case of the tau neutrino. We present a comprehensive analysis of the available data on the single photon production process $e^+ e^- -> \nu \bar\nu \gamma$ off Z-resonance, and we discuss the constraints that these measurements can set on for the tau neutrino. We also derive limits for the Dirac case, when the presence of a vector charge radius is allowed. Finally, we comment on additional experimental data on $\nu_\mu$ scattering from the NuTeV, E734, CCFR and CHARM-II collaborations, and estimate the limits implied for and for the muon neutrino.Comment: 20 pages, 2 eps figures. CCFR data included in the analysis. Conclusion unchange

Probing Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions with Neutrino Factories

We discuss the sensitivity reach of a neutrino factory measurement to non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI), which may exist as a low-energy manifestation of physics beyond the Standard Model. We use the muon appearance mode \nu_e --> \nu_\mu and consider two detectors, one at 3000 km and the other at 7000 km. Assuming the effects of NSI at the production and the detection are negligible, we discuss the sensitivities to NSI and the simultaneous determination of \theta_{13} and \delta by examining the effects in the neutrino propagation of various systems in which two NSI parameters \epsilon_{\alpha \beta} are switched on. The sensitivities to off-diagonal \epsilon's are found to be excellent up to small values of \theta_{13}. We demonstrate that the two-detector setting is powerful enough to resolve the \theta_{13}-NSI confusion problem. We believe that the results obtained in this paper open the door to the possibility of using neutrino factory as a discovery machine for NSI while keeping its primary function of performing precision measurements of the lepton mixing parameters.Comment: 47 pages, 22 figures. Color version of Figs. 18, 19 and 22 can be found in the article published in JHE

Comparative Analysis of Super-Kamiokande and SNO Solar-Neutrino Data and the Photospheric Magnetic Field

We analyze Super-Kamiokande, SNO, and photospheric magnetic-field data for the common time interval, namely the SNO D2O phase. Concerning rotational modulation, the magnetic-field power spectrum shows the strongest peaks at the second and sixth harmonics of the solar synodic rotation frequency [3 nu(rot) and 7 nu(rot)]. The restricted Super-Kamiokande dataset shows strong modulation at the second harmonic. The SNO D2O dataset shows weak modulation at that frequency, but strong modulation in the sixth-harmonic frequency band. We estimate the significance level of the correspondence of the Super-Kamiokande second-harmonic peak with the corresponding magnetic-field peak to be 0.0004, and the significance level of the correspondence of the SNO D2O sixth-harmonic peak with the corresponding magnetic-field peak to be 0.009. By estimating the amplitude of the modulation of the solar neutrino flux at the second harmonic from the restricted Super-Kamiokande dataset, we find that the weak power at that frequency in the SNO D2O power spectrum is not particularly surprising. Concerning 9.43 yr-1, we find no peak at this frequency in the power spectrum formed from the restricted Super-Kamiokande dataset, so it is no surprise that this peak does not show up in the SNO D2O dataset, either.Comment: 32 pages, 8 tables, 16 figure

Testing for new physics with low-energy anti-neutrino sources: LAMA as a case study

Some electroweak models with extended neutral currents, such as those based on the E6 group, lead to an increase of the ν¯−e scattering cross section at energies below 100 keV. We propose to search for the heavy Z' boson contribution in an experiment with a high-activity artificial neutrino source and with a large-mass detector. We present the case for the LAMA experiment with a large NaI(Tl) detector located at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The neutrino flux is known to within a one percent accuracy, in contrast to the reactor case and one can reach lower neutrino energies. Both features make our proposed experiment more sensitive to extended gauge models, such as the χ model. For a low enough background the sensitivity to the Zχ boson mass would reach 600 GeV for one year running of the experiment