Search for exotic neutrino-electron interactions using solar neutrinos in XMASS-I

We have searched for exotic neutrino-electron interactions that could be produced by a neutrino millicharge, by a neutrino magnetic moment, or by dark photons using solar neutrinos in the XMASS-I liquid xenon detector. We observed no significant signals in 711 days of data. We obtain an upper limit for neutrino millicharge of 5.4$\times$10$^{-12} e$ at 90\% confidence level assuming all three species of neutrino have common millicharge. We also set flavor dependent limits assuming the respective neutrino flavor is the only one carrying a millicharge, $7.3 \times 10^{-12} e$ for $\nu_e$, $1.1 \times 10^{-11} e$ for $\nu_{\mu}$, and $1.1 \times 10^{-11} e$ for $\nu_{\tau}$. These limits are the most stringent yet obtained from direct measurements. We also obtain an upper limit for the neutrino magnetic moment of 1.8$\times$10$^{-10}$ Bohr magnetons. In addition, we obtain upper limits for the coupling constant of dark photons in the $U(1)_{B-L}$ model of 1.3$\times$10$^{-6}$ if the dark photon mass is 1$\times 10^{-3}$ MeV$/c^{2}$, and 8.8$\times$10$^{-5}$ if it is 10 MeV$/c^{2}$

Neutrinos from beta processes in a presupernova: probing the isotopic evolution of a massive star

We present a new calculation of the neutrino flux received at Earth from a massive star in the $\sim 24$ hours of evolution prior to its explosion as a supernova (presupernova). Using the stellar evolution code MESA, the neutrino emissivity in each flavor is calculated at many radial zones and time steps. In addition to thermal processes, neutrino production via beta processes is modeled in detail, using a network of 204 isotopes. We find that the total produced $\nu_{e}$ flux has a high energy spectrum tail, at $E \gtrsim 3 - 4$ MeV, which is mostly due to decay and electron capture on isotopes with $A = 50 - 60$. In a tentative window of observability of $E \gtrsim 0.5$ MeV and $t < 2$ hours pre-collapse, the contribution of beta processes to the $\nu_{e}$ flux is at the level of $\sim90\%$ . For a star at $D=1$ kpc distance, a 17 kt liquid scintillator detector would typically observe several tens of events from a presupernova, of which up to $\sim 30\%$ due to beta processes. These processes dominate the signal at a liquid argon detector, thus greatly enhancing its sensitivity to a presupernova.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Measurement of electron-neutrino electron elastic scattering

The cross section for the elastic scattering reaction nu_e+e- -> nu_e+e- was measured by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector using a mu+ decay-at-rest nu_e beam at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The standard model of electroweak physics predicts a large destructive interference between the charge current and neutral current channels for this reaction. The measured cross section, sigma_{nu_e e-}=[10.1 +- 1.1(stat.) +- 1.0(syst.)]x E_{nu_e} (MeV) x 10^{-45} cm^2, agrees well with standard model expectations. The measured value of the interference parameter, I=-1.01 +- 0.13(stat.) +- 0.12(syst.), is in good agreement with the standard model expectation of I^{SM}=-1.09. Limits are placed on neutrino flavor-changing neutral currents. An upper limit on the muon-neutrino magnetic moment of 6.8 x 10^{-10} mu_{Bohr} is obtained using the nu_mu and \bar{nu}_mu fluxes from pi+ and mu+ decay.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure

Testing the wave packet approach to neutrino oscillations in future experiments

When neutrinos propagate over long distances, the mass eigenstate components of a flavor eigenstate will become spatially separated due to their different group velocities. This can happen over terrestrial distance scales if the neutrino energy is of order MeV and if the neutrino is localized (in a quantum mechanical sense) to subatomic scales. For example, if the Heisenberg uncertainty in the neutrino position is below 0.01 Angstrom, neutrino decoherence can be observed in reactor neutrinos using a large liquid scintillator detector.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 3 figures; in v1, we had concluded that wave packet decoherence may be observable in experiments like Hanohano or LENA. As pointed out to us by E. Akhmedov, G. Raffelt, and L. Stodolsky, this conclusion is INCORRECT since it was based on incorrect estimates for the size of the neutrino wave packets. The paper will be revised to explain this problem and to address related question

Heavy Metals found in JUUL\u27s Electronic Cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes better known as e-cigarettes have been consistently rising in popularity with new products entering the market daily. E-cigarettes function by vaporizing a liquid composed of propylene glycol, glycerin, benzoic acid, nicotine, and flavor additives with the use of a metallic heating element. This vapor produced is then inhaled by the user. The composition of this liquid is critical to discovering the possible health effects. This study investigates the presence and concentrations of heavy metals in the e-liquid before and after vaping. An ICP-MS was used because of its ability to scan several metals rapidly and its high sensitivity. In the analysis, it was found that there was a statistically significant increase in the concentration of chromium and nickel. The chromium concentration for JUUL’s Virginia Tobacco flavor increased slightly from 122 to 128 ppb, while the nickel concentration increased from 54 to 97 ppb both of which are statistically significant increases. With very little regulation or oversight of the e-cigarette industry as a whole, and with no reporting requirements for labels of e-liquid content, manufacturers are frequently changing their formulations, even for the same product. JUUL has historically had issues controlling the quality of their product so it was not surprising to discover that while running experiments there was a statistically significant difference between batches of e-liquid purchased almost one year apart. Specifically, there was a decrease in concentrations of magnesium, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, and lead analyzed from the experiments run on November 04, 2020 and December 09, 2019. This is likely due to the fact that Altria, a large tobacco company, bought 30% of JUUL’s stocks, which gave them the power and know how to get their product’s quality under control. For example, the zinc concentration on December 09, 2019 was 195,000 ppb and on November 04, 2020 the concentration dropped to 9,690 ppb

Spin-Flavor Separation and Non-Fermi Liquid Behavior in the Multichannel Kondo Problem: A Large N Approach

We consider a $SU(N)\times SU(M)$ generalization of the multichannel single-impurity Kondo model which we solve analytically in the limit $N\rightarrow \infty$, $M\rightarrow\infty$, with $\gamma=M/N$ fixed. Non-Fermi liquid behavior of the single electron Green function and of the local spin and flavor susceptibilities occurs in both regimes, $N\le M$ and $N > M$, with leading critical exponents {\em identical} to those found in the conformal field theory solution for {\em all} $N$ and $M$ (with $M\ge 2$). We explain this remarkable agreement and connect it to ``spin-flavor separation", the essential feature of the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the multichannel Kondo problem.Comment: 14 pages, 1 Figure (Poscript file attached), Revte

Are There Diquarks in the Nucleon?

This work is devoted to the study of diquark correlations inside the nucleon. We analyze some matrix elements which encode information about the non-perturbative forces, in different color anti-triplet diquark channels. We suggest a lattice calculation to check the quark-diquark picture and clarify the role of instanton-mediated interactions. We study in detail the physical properties of the 0+ diquark, using the Random Instanton Liquid Model. We find that instanton forces are sufficiently strong to form a diquark bound-state, with a mass of ~500 MeV, which is compatible with earlier estimates. We also compute its electro-magnetic form factor and find that the diquark is a broad object, with a size comparable with that of the proton.Comment: Final version, accepted for publication on Phys. Rev.