Sample records for neutrinos

  1. Atmospheric neutrinos and discovery of neutrino oscillations

    PubMed Central

    Kajita, Takaaki

    2010-01-01

    Neutrino oscillation was discovered through studies of neutrinos produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. These neutrinos are called atmospheric neutrinos. They are produced as decay products in hadronic showers resulting from collisions of cosmic rays with nuclei in the atmosphere. Electron-neutrinos and muon-neutrinos are produced mainly by the decay chain of charged pions to muons to electrons. Atmospheric neutrino experiments observed zenith-angle and energy dependent deficit of muon-neutrino events. Neutrino oscillations between muon-neutrinos and tau-neutrinos explain these data well. Neutrino oscillations imply that neutrinos have small but non-zero masses. The small neutrino masses have profound implications to our understanding of elementary particle physics and the Universe. This article discusses the experimental discovery of neutrino oscillations. PMID:20431258

  2. Neutrino Oscillations and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wark, David

    2001-04-01

    When the existence of the neutrino was almost apologetically first proposed by Wolfgang Pauli it was intended to explain the mysterious apparent absence of energy and momentum in beta decay. 70 years later the neutrino has indeed solved that mystery, but it has generated still more of its own. Are neutrinos massive? Is it possible to create a neutrino with its spin in the same direction as its momentum? What fraction of the mass of the Universe is made up of neutrinos? Are the flavour labels which we put on neutrinos, like electron and muon, really fixed or can they change? Why does no experiment see the predicted flux of neutrinos from the Sun? Why do there appear to be roughly equal numbers of muon and electron neutrinos created in our atmosphere, rather than the 2:1 ratio we would expect? Many of these questions were coupled when Bruno Pontecorvo first suggested that the shortfall in solar neutrino measurements were caused by neutrino oscillations - neutrinos spontaneously changing flavour as they travel from the Sun. 30 years later we still await definitive proof of that conjecture, and providing that proof is the reason for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The talk will discuss the current state of neutrino oscillations studies, and show how the unique capabilities of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory can provide definitive proof of whether neutrino oscillations are the long-sought answer to the solar neutrino problem.

  3. Neutrino masses, neutrino oscillations, and cosmological implications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecker, F. W.

    1982-01-01

    Theoretical concepts and motivations for considering neutrinos having finite masses are discussed and the experimental situation on searches for neutrino masses and oscillations is summarized. The solar neutrino problem, reactor, deep mine and accelerator data, tri decay experiments and double beta-decay data are considered and cosmological implications and astrophysical data relating to neutrino masses are reviewed. The neutrino oscillation solution to the solar neutrino problem, the missing mass problem in galaxy halos and galaxy cluster galaxy formation and clustering, and radiative neutrino decay and the cosmic ultraviolet background radiation are examined.

  4. Collective neutrino oscillations and neutrino wave packets

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Akhmedov, Evgeny; Lindner, Manfred; Kopp, Joachim, E-mail: akhmedov@mpi-hd.mpg.de, E-mail: jkopp@uni-mainz.de, E-mail: lindner@mpi-hd.mpg.de

    Effects of decoherence by wave packet separation on collective neutrino oscillations in dense neutrino gases are considered. We estimate the length of the wave packets of neutrinos produced in core collapse supernovae and the expected neutrino coherence length, and then proceed to consider the decoherence effects within the density matrix formalism of neutrino flavour transitions. First, we demonstrate that for neutrino oscillations in vacuum the decoherence effects are described by a damping term in the equation of motion of the density matrix of a neutrino as a whole (as contrasted to that of the fixed-momentum components of the neutrino densitymore » matrix). Next, we consider neutrino oscillations in ordinary matter and dense neutrino backgrounds, both in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes. In the latter case we study two specific models of adiabaticity violation—one with short-term and another with extended non-adiabaticity. It is demonstrated that, while in the adiabatic case a damping term is present in the equation of motion of the neutrino density matrix (just like in the vacuum oscillation case), no such term in general appears in the non-adiabatic regime.« less

  5. Solar neutrino detectors as sterile neutrino hunters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pallavicini, Marco; Borexino-SOX Collaboration; Agostini, M.; Altenmüller, K.; Appel, S.; Atroshchenko, V.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Berton, N.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Carlini, M.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; Choi, K.; Cloué, O.; Cribier, M.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Di Noto, L.; Drachnev, I.; Durero, M.; Etenko, A.; Farinon, S.; Fischer, V.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Gaffiot, J.; Galbiati, C.; Gschwender, M.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Goeger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Houdy, Th.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jany, A.; Jedrzejczak, K.; Jeschke, D.; Jonquères, N.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kornoukhov, V.; Kryn, D.; Lachenmaier, T.; Lasserre, T.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Link, J.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Maricic, J.; Mention, G.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Muratova, V.; Musenich, R.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Ortica, F.; Papp, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Reinert, Y.; Romani, A.; Roncin, R.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Scola, L.; Semenov, D.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Thurn, J.; Toropova, M.; Unzhakov, E.; Veyssière, C.; Vishneva, A.; Vivier, M.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Weinz, S.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Yokley, Z.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2017-09-01

    The large size and the very low radioactive background of solar neutrino detectors such as Borexino at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy offer a unique opportunity to probe the existence of neutrino oscillations into new sterile components by means of carefully designed and well calibrated anti-neutrino and neutrino artificial sources. In this paper we briefly summarise the key elements of the SOX experiment, a program for the search of sterile neutrinos (and other short distance effects) by means of a 144Ce-144Pr anti-neutrino source and, possibly in the medium term future, with a 51Cr neutrino source.

  6. Physics of neutrino flavor transformation through matter-neutrino resonances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Meng-Ru; Duan, Huaiyu; Qian, Yong-Zhong

    2016-01-01

    In astrophysical environments such as core-collapse supernovae and neutron star-neutron star or neutron star-black hole mergers where dense neutrino media are present, matter-neutrino resonances (MNRs) can occur when the neutrino propagation potentials due to neutrino-electron and neutrino-neutrino forward scattering nearly cancel each other. We show that neutrino flavor transformation through MNRs can be explained by multiple adiabatic solutions similar to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein mechanism. We find that for the normal neutrino mass hierarchy, neutrino flavor evolution through MNRs can be sensitive to the shape of neutrino spectra and the adiabaticity of the system, but such sensitivity is absent for the inverted hierarchy.

  7. Acquiring information about neutrino parameters by detecting supernova neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Ming-Yang; Guo, Xin-Heng; Young, Bing-Lin

    2010-08-01

    We consider the supernova shock effects, the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects, the collective effects, and the Earth matter effects in the detection of type II supernova neutrinos on the Earth. It is found that the event number of supernova neutrinos depends on the neutrino mass hierarchy, the neutrino mixing angle θ13, and neutrino masses. Therefore, we propose possible methods to identify the mass hierarchy and acquire information about θ13 and neutrino masses by detecting supernova neutrinos. We apply these methods to some current neutrino experiments.

  8. Neutrinos

    Science.gov Websites

    Neutrinos What are they? Neutrinos are members of the Standard Model, belonging to a class of the mass could be and the mass differences between flavors of neutrinos, although there are many current experiments designed to probe this question. The difficulty lies in the fact that neutrinos are

  9. Neutrino Detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    von Feilitzsch, Franz; Lanfranchi, Jean-Côme; Wurm, Michael

    The neutrino was postulated by Wolfgang Pauli in the early 1930s, but could only be detected for the first time in the 1950s. Ever since scientists all around the world have worked on the detection and understanding of this particle which so scarcely interacts with matter. Depending on the origin and nature of the neutrino, various types of experiments have been developed and operated. In this entry, we will review neutrino detectors in terms of neutrino energy and associated detection technique as well as the scientific outcome of some selected examples. After a brief historical introduction, the detection of low-energy neutrinos originating from nuclear reactors or from the Earth is used to illustrate the principles and difficulties which are encountered in detecting neutrinos. In the context of solar neutrino spectroscopy, where the neutrino is used as a probe for astrophysics, three different types of neutrino detectors are presented - water Čerenkov, radiochemical, and liquid-scintillator detectors. Moving to higher neutrino energies, we discuss neutrinos produced by astrophysical sources and from accelerators. The entry concludes with an overview of a selection of future neutrino experiments and their scientific goals.

  10. Physics of neutrino flavor transformation through matter–neutrino resonances

    DOE PAGES

    Wu, Meng -Ru; Duan, Huaiyu; Qian, Yong -Zhong

    2015-11-17

    In astrophysical environments such as core-collapse supernovae and neutron star–neutron star or neutron star–black hole mergers where dense neutrino media are present, matter–neutrino resonances (MNRs) can occur when the neutrino propagation potentials due to neutrino–electron and neutrino–neutrino for-ward scattering nearly cancel each other. We show that neutrino flavor transformation through MNRs can be explained by multiple adiabatic solutions similar to the Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein mecha-nism. As a result, we find that for the normal neutrino mass hierarchy, neutrino flavor evolution through MNRs can be sensitive to the shape of neutrino spectra and the adiabaticity of the system, but such sensitivity is absentmore » for the inverted hierarchy.« less

  11. Probing Neutrino Properties with Long-Baseline Neutrino Beams

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Marino, Alysia

    2015-06-29

    This final report on an Early Career Award grant began in April 15, 2010 and concluded on April 14, 2015. Alysia Marino's research is focussed on making precise measurements of neutrino properties using intense accelerator-generated neutrino beams. As a part of this grant, she is collaborating on the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) long-baseline neutrino experiment, currently taking data in Japan, and on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) design effort for a future Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) in the US. She is also a member of the NA61/SHINE particle production experiment at CERN, but as that effort is supported by other funds,more » it will not be discussed further here. T2K was designed to search for the disappearance of muon neutrinos (ν μ) and the appearance of electron neutrinos (ν e), using a beam of muon neutrino beam that travels 295 km across Japan towards the Super-Kamiokande detector. In 2011 T2K first reported indications of ν e appearance, a previously unobserved mode of neutrino oscillations. In the past year, T2K has published a combined analysis of ν μ disappearance and ν e appearance, and began collecting taking data with a beam of anti-neutrinos, instead of neutrinos, to search for hints of violation of the CP symmetry of the universe. The proposed DUNE experiment has similar physics goals to T2K, but will be much more sensitive due to its more massive detectors and new higher-intensity neutrino beam. This effort will be very high-priority particle physics project in the US over the next decade.« less

  12. From Atmospheric Neutrinos to the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kappes, A.

    2015-08-01

    After a brief introduction to neutrino oscillation, the article discusses how proposed detectors like PINGU and ORCA can use atmospheric neutrinos in the GeV range to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, one of the crucial unknowns in the neutrino sector of particle physics, and what uncertainties on external input parameters have to be taken into account.

  13. Neutrino astronomy with supernova neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brdar, Vedran; Lindner, Manfred; Xu, Xun-Jie

    2018-04-01

    Modern neutrino facilities will be able to detect a large number of neutrinos from the next Galactic supernova. We investigate the viability of the triangulation method to locate a core-collapse supernova by employing the neutrino arrival time differences at various detectors. We perform detailed numerical fits in order to determine the uncertainties of these time differences for the cases when the core collapses into a neutron star or a black hole. We provide a global picture by combining all the relevant current and future neutrino detectors. Our findings indicate that in the scenario of a neutron star formation, supernova can be located with precision of 1.5 and 3.5 degrees in declination and right ascension, respectively. For the black hole scenario, sub-degree precision can be reached.

  14. Supernova Neutrino-Process and Implication in Neutrino Oscillation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kajino, T.; Aoki, W.; Fujiya, W.; Mathews, G. J.; Yoshida, T.; Shaku, K.; Nakamura, K.; Hayakawa, T.

    2012-08-01

    We studied the supernova nucleosynthesis induced by neutrino interactions and found that several isotopes of rare elements like 7Li, 11B, 138La, 180Ta and many others are predominantly produced by the neutrino-process in core-collapse supernovae. These isotopes are strongly affected by the neutrino flavor oscillation due to the MSW (Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein) effect. We here propose a new novel method to determine the unknown neutrino oscillation parameters, θ13 and mass hierarchy simultaneously from the supernova neutrino-process, combined with the r-process for heavy-element synthsis and the Galactic chemical evolution on light nuclei.

  15. Neutrino Observations from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Q. R. Ahmad, R. C. Allen, T. C. Andersen, J. D. Anglin, G. B?hler, J. C. Barton, E. W. Beier, M. Bercovitch, J. Bigu, S. Biller, R. A. Black, I. Blevis, R. J. Boardman, J. Boger, E. Bonvin, M. G. Boulay, M. G. Bowler, T. J. Bowles, S. J. Brice, M. C. Browne, T. V. Bullard, T. H. Burritt, K. Cameron, J. Cameron, Y. D. Chan, M. Chen, H. H. Chen, X. Chen, M. C. Chon, B. T. Cleveland, E. T. H. Clifford, J. H. M. Cowan, D. F. Cowen, G. A. Cox, Y. Dai, X. Dai, F. Dalnoki-Veress, W. F. Davidson, P. J. Doe, G. Doucas, M. R. Dragowsky, C. A. Duba, F. A. Duncan, J. Dunmore, E. D. Earle, S. R. Elliott, H. C. Evans, G. T. Ewan, J. Farine, H. Fergani, A. P. Ferraris, R. J. Ford, M. M. Fowler, K. Frame, E. D. Frank, W. Frati, J. V. Germani, S. Gil, A. Goldschmidt, D. R. Grant, R. L. Hahn, A. L. Hallin, E. D. Hallman, A. Hamer, A. A. Hamian, R. U. Haq, C. K. Hargrove, P. J. Harvey, R. Hazama, R. Heaton, K. M. Heeger, W. J. Heintzelman, J. Heise, R. L. Helmer, J. D. Hepburn, H. Heron, J. Hewett, A. Hime, M. Howe, J. G. Hykawy, M. C. P. Isaac, P. Jagam, N. A. Jelley, C. Jillings, G. Jonkmans, J. Karn, P. T. Keener, K. Kirch, J. R. Klein, A. B. Knox, R. J. Komar, R. Kouzes, T. Kutter, C. C. M. Kyba, J. Law, I. T. Lawson, M. Lay, H. W. Lee, K. T. Lesko, J. R. Leslie, I. Levine, W. Locke, M. M. Lowry, S. Luoma, J. Lyon, S. Majerus, H. B. Mak, A. D. Marino, N. McCauley, A. B. McDonald, D. S. McDonald, K. McFarlane, G. McGregor, W. McLatchie, R. Meijer Drees, H. Mes, C. Mifflin, G. G. Miller, G. Milton, B. A. Moffat, M. Moorhead, C. W. Nally, M. S. Neubauer, F. M. Newcomer, H. S. Ng, A. J. Noble, E. B. Norman, V. M. Novikov, M. O'Neill, C. E. Okada, R. W. Ollerhead, M. Omori, J. L. Orrell, S. M. Oser, A. W. P. Poon, T. J. Radcliffe, A. Roberge, B. C. Robertson, R. G. H. Robertson, J. K. Rowley, V. L. Rusu, E. Saettler, K. K. Schaffer, A. Schuelke, M. H. Schwendener, H. Seifert, M. Shatkay, J. J. Simpson, D. Sinclair, P. Skensved, A. R. Smith, M. W. E. Smith, N. Starinsky, T. D. Steiger, R. G. Stokstad, R. S. Storey, B. Sur, R. Tafirout, N. Tagg, N. W. Tanner, R. K. Taplin, M. Thorman, P. Thornewell, P. T. Trent, Y. I. Tserkovnyak, R. Van Berg, R. G. Van de Water, C. J. Virtue, C. E. Waltham, J.-X. Wang, D. L. Wark, N. West, J. B. Wilhelmy, J. F. Wilkerson, J. Wilson, P. Wittich, J. M. Wouters, and M. Yeh

    2001-09-24

    The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a water imaging Cherenkov detector. Its usage of 1000 metric tons of D{sub 2}O as target allows the SNO detector to make a solar-model independent test of the neutrino oscillation hypothesis by simultaneously measuring the solar {nu}{sub e} flux and the total flux of all active neutrino species. Solar neutrinos from the decay of {sup 8}B have been detected at SNO by the charged-current (CC) interaction on the deuteron and by the elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. While the CC reaction is sensitive exclusively to {nu}{sub e}, the ES reaction also has a small sensitivity to {nu}{sub {mu}} and {nu}{sub {tau}}. In this paper, recent solar neutrino results from the SNO experiment are presented. It is demonstrated that the solar flux from {sup 8}B decay as measured from the ES reaction rate under the no-oscillation assumption is consistent with the high precision ES measurement by the Super-Kamiokande experiment. The {nu}{sub e} flux deduced from the CC reaction rate in SNO differs from the Super-Kamiokande ES results by 3.3{sigma}. This is evidence for an active neutrino component, in additional to {nu}{sub e}, in the solar neutrino flux. These results also allow the first experimental determination of the total active {sup 8}B neutrino flux from the Sun, and is found to be in good agreement with solar model predictions.

  16. Neutrino experiments

    DOE PAGES

    Lesko, K. T.

    2004-02-24

    This review examines a wide variety of experiments investigating neutrino interactions and neutrino properties from a variety of neutrino sources. We have witnessed remarkable progress in the past two years in settling long standing problems in neutrino physics and uncovering the first evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model in nearly 30 years. Here this paper briefly reviews this recent progress in the field of neutrino physics and highlights several significant experimental arenas and topics for the coming decade of particular interest. These highlighted experiments include the precision determination of oscillation parameters including θ 13, θ 12, Δm 12 2more » and Δm 23 2 as well as a number of fundamental properties are likely to be probed included nature of the neutrino (Majorana versus Dirac), the number of neutrino families and the neutrino’s absolute mass.« less

  17. Neutrino factory

    DOE PAGES

    Bogomilov, M.; Matev, R.; Tsenov, R.; ...

    2014-12-08

    The properties of the neutrino provide a unique window on physics beyond that described by the standard model. The study of subleading effects in neutrino oscillations, and the race to discover CP-invariance violation in the lepton sector, has begun with the recent discovery that theta(13) > 0. The measured value of theta(13) is large, emphasizing the need for a facility at which the systematic uncertainties can be reduced to the percent level. The neutrino factory, in which intense neutrino beams are produced from the decay of muons, has been shown to outperform all realistic alternatives and to be capable ofmore » making measurements of the requisite precision. Its unique discovery potential arises from the fact that only at the neutrino factory is it practical to produce high-energy electron (anti) neutrino beams of the required intensity. This paper presents the conceptual design of the neutrino factory accelerator facility developed by the European Commission Framework Programme 7 EURO nu. Design Study consortium. EURO nu coordinated the European contributions to the International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory (the IDS-NF) collaboration. The EURO nu baseline accelerator facility will provide 10(21) muon decays per year from 12.6 GeV stored muon beams serving a single neutrino detector situated at a source-detector distance of between 1 500 km and 2 500 km. A suite of near detectors will allow definitive neutrino-scattering experiments to be performed.« less

  18. Low-energy neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ludhova, Livia

    2016-05-01

    There exist several kinds of sources emitting neutrinos in the MeV energy range. These low-energy neutrinos from different sources can be often detected by the same multipurpose detectors. The status-of-art of the field of solar neutrinos, geoneutrinos, and the search for sterile neutrino with artificial neutrino sources is provided here; other neutrino sources, as for example reactor or high-energy neutrinos, are described elsewhere. For each of these three fields, the present-day motivation and open questions, as well as the latest experimental results and future perspectives are discussed.

  19. Neutrino Oscillation Physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kayser, Boris

    2012-06-01

    To complement the neutrino-physics lectures given at the 2011 International School on Astro Particle Physics devoted to Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics (ISAPP 2011; Varenna, Italy), at the 2011 European School of High Energy Physics (ESHEP 2011; Cheila Gradistei, Romania), and, in modified form, at other summer schools, we present here a written description of the physics of neutrino oscillation. This description is centered on a new way of deriving the oscillation probability. We also provide a brief guide to references relevant to topics other than neutrino oscillation that were covered in the lectures. Neutrinos and photons are by far themore » most abundant elementary particles in the universe. Thus, if we would like to comprehend the universe, we must understand the neutrinos. Of course, studying the neutrinos is challenging, since the only known forces through which these electrically-neutral leptons interact are the weak force and gravity. Consequently, interactions of neutrinos in a detector are very rare events, so that very large detectors and intense neutrino sources are needed to make experiments feasible. Nevertheless, we have confirmed that the weak interactions of neutrinos are correctly described by the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particle physics. Moreover, in the last 14 years, we have discovered that neutrinos have nonzero masses, and that leptons mix. These discoveries have been based on the observation that neutrinos can change from one 'flavor' to another - the phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. We shall explain the physics of neutrino oscillation, deriving the probability of oscillation in a new way. We shall also provide a very brief guide to references that can be used to study some major neutrino-physics topics other than neutrino oscillation.« less

  20. Neutrino Physics

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Lederman, L. M.

    1963-01-09

    The prediction and verification of the neutrino are reviewed, together with the V A theory for its interactions (particularly the difficulties with the apparent existence of two neutrinos and the high energy cross section). The Brookhaven experiment confirming the existence of two neutrinos and the cross section increase with momentum is then described, and future neutrino experiments are considered. (D.C.W.)

  1. Matter-neutrino resonance in a multiangle neutrino bulb model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vlasenko, Alexey; McLaughlin, G. C.

    2018-04-01

    Simulations of neutrino flavor evolution in compact merger environments have shown that neutrino flavor, and hence nucleosynthesis, can be strongly affected by the presence of matter-neutrino resonances (MNRs), where there is a cancelation between the matter and the neutrino potential. Simulations performed thus far follow flavor evolution along a single neutrino trajectory, but self-consistency requires all trajectories to be treated simultaneously, and it has not been known whether MNR phenomena would still occur in multiangle models. In this paper, we present the first fully multi-angle calculations of MNR. We find that familiar MNR phenomena, where neutrinos transform to a greater extent than anti-neutrinos and a feedback mechanism maintains the cancellation between the matter and neutrino potential, still occurs for a subset of angular bins, although the flavor transformation is not as efficient as in the single-angle case. In addition, we find other types of flavor transformation that are not seen in single-angle simulations. These flavor transformation phenomena appear to be robust and are present for a wide range of model parameters, as long as an MNR is present. Although computational constraints currently limit us to models with spherical symmetry, our results suggest that the presence of an MNR generally leads to large-scale neutrino flavor evolution in multiangle systems.

  2. Non-unitarity, sterile neutrinos, and non-standard neutrino interactions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Blennow, Mattias; Coloma, Pilar; Fernandez-Martinez, Enrique

    The simplest Standard Model extension to explain neutrino masses involves the addition of right-handed neutrinos. At some level, this extension will impact neutrino oscillation searches. In this work we explore the differences and similarities between the case in which these neutrinos are kinematically accessible (sterile neutrinos) or not (mixing matrix non-unitarity). We clarify apparent inconsistencies in the present literature when using different parametrizations to describe these effects and recast both limits in the popular neutrino non-standard interaction (NSI) formalism. We find that, in the limit in which sterile oscillations are averaged out at the near detector, their effects at themore » far detector coincide with non-unitarity at leading order, even in presence of a matter potential. We also summarize the present bounds existing in both limits and compare them with the expected sensitivities of near future facilities taking the DUNE proposal as a benchmark. We conclude that non-unitarity effects are too constrained to impact present or near future neutrino oscillation facilities but that sterile neutrinos can play an important role at long baseline experiments. As a result, the role of the near detector is also discussed in detail.« less

  3. Non-unitarity, sterile neutrinos, and non-standard neutrino interactions

    DOE PAGES

    Blennow, Mattias; Coloma, Pilar; Fernandez-Martinez, Enrique; ...

    2017-04-27

    The simplest Standard Model extension to explain neutrino masses involves the addition of right-handed neutrinos. At some level, this extension will impact neutrino oscillation searches. In this work we explore the differences and similarities between the case in which these neutrinos are kinematically accessible (sterile neutrinos) or not (mixing matrix non-unitarity). We clarify apparent inconsistencies in the present literature when using different parametrizations to describe these effects and recast both limits in the popular neutrino non-standard interaction (NSI) formalism. We find that, in the limit in which sterile oscillations are averaged out at the near detector, their effects at themore » far detector coincide with non-unitarity at leading order, even in presence of a matter potential. We also summarize the present bounds existing in both limits and compare them with the expected sensitivities of near future facilities taking the DUNE proposal as a benchmark. We conclude that non-unitarity effects are too constrained to impact present or near future neutrino oscillation facilities but that sterile neutrinos can play an important role at long baseline experiments. As a result, the role of the near detector is also discussed in detail.« less

  4. New neutrino physics and the altered shapes of solar neutrino spectra

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lopes, Ilídio

    2017-01-01

    Neutrinos coming from the Sun's core have been measured with high precision, and fundamental neutrino oscillation parameters have been determined with good accuracy. In this work, we estimate the impact that a new neutrino physics model, the so-called generalized Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) oscillation mechanism, has on the shape of some of leading solar neutrino spectra, some of which will be partially tested by the next generation of solar neutrino experiments. In these calculations, we use a high-precision standard solar model in good agreement with helioseismology data. We found that the neutrino spectra of the different solar nuclear reactions of the pp chains and carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle have quite distinct sensitivities to the new neutrino physics. The He P and 8B neutrino spectra are the ones in which their shapes are more affected when neutrinos interact with quarks in addition to electrons. The shapes of the 15O and 17F neutrino spectra are also modified, although in these cases the impact is much smaller. Finally, the impact in the shapes of the P P and 13N neutrino spectra is practically negligible.

  5. Limiting neutrino magnetic moments with Borexino Phase-II solar neutrino data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Agostini, M.; Altenmüller, K.; Appel, S.; Atroshchenko, V.; Bagdasarian, Z.; Basilico, D.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Caprioli, S.; Carlini, M.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; Choi, K.; Collica, L.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Ding, X. F.; Di Ludovico, A.; Di Noto, L.; Drachnev, I.; Fomenko, K.; Formozov, A.; Franco, D.; Froborg, F.; Gabriele, F.; Galbiati, C.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Guffanti, D.; Hagner, C.; Houdy, T.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jany, A.; Jeschke, D.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Laubenstein, M.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Lukyanchenko, L.; Machulin, I.; Manuzio, G.; Marcocci, S.; Martyn, J.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Muratova, V.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Opitz, B.; Orekhov, V.; Ortica, F.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Penek, Ã.-.; Pilipenko, N.; Pocar, A.; Porcelli, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Redchuk, M.; Romani, A.; Roncin, R.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Semenov, D.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Stokes, L. F. F.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Thurn, J.; Toropova, M.; Unzhakov, E.; Vishneva, A.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Weinz, S.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Yokley, Z.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.; Borexino Collaboration

    2017-11-01

    A search for the solar neutrino effective magnetic moment has been performed using data from 1291.5 days exposure during the second phase of the Borexino experiment. No significant deviations from the expected shape of the electron recoil spectrum from solar neutrinos have been found, and a new upper limit on the effective neutrino magnetic moment of μνeff<2.8×10 -11 μB at 90% C.L. has been set using constraints on the sum of the solar neutrino fluxes implied by the radiochemical gallium experiments. Using the limit for the effective neutrino moment, new limits for the magnetic moments of the neutrino flavor states, and for the elements of the neutrino magnetic moments matrix for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos, are derived.

  6. Search for sterile neutrino oscillations in muon neutrino disappearance at MINOS/MINOS+

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Todd, Jacob; Minos+ Collaboration

    2017-01-01

    A wide variety of neutrino oscillation phenomena are well-described by the standard three-flavour neutrino model, but some anomalies exist. The LSND and MiniBooNE experiments have measured electron antineutrino appearance in excess of standard oscillation predictions, which points to the possibility of a sterile neutrino with higher mass than the presently known states. MINOS, a two-detector, long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, was optimized for the measurement of muon neutrino disappearance in the NuMI neutrino beam. A sterile neutrino responsible for the LSND and MiniBooNE excesses would cause distortions in the charged current and neutral current MINOS spectra, which permits the search for sterile neutrinos at MINOS. In close collaboration with the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment, MINOS has placed strong constraints on the sterile neutrino parameter space for a model with one additional sterile neutrino. Further, the extension of data collection with MINOS+, which samples the NuMI beam in a medium energy configuration, markedly increases the sensitivity of the combined MINOS and MINOS+ sample to a 3+1-flavour sterile neutrino model.

  7. A search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillation mediated by sterile neutrinos in MINOS+

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Germani, Stefano; Schreckenberger, Adam P.

    2017-09-01

    The MINOS experiment made precision measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters that are governed by the atmospheric mass-squared splitting. These measurements were made with data that were collected while the NuMI muon neutrino beam operated in a low energy mode that peaks around 3 GeV. Today the NuMI beam is running with a higher energy mode that produces a neutrino energy spectrum that peaks around 7 GeV, allowing the MINOS+ experiment to probe neutrino oscillation phenomena that could potentially be governed by a fourth mass-squared splitting. If observed, the presence of a fourth mass-squared splitting would be compelling evidence for a sterile neutrino state. In this analysis, we will present the results of a search for νµ → νe oscillation mediated by sterile neutrinos in MINOS+. The results will be contrasted against the measurements made by the LSND experiment.

  8. Neutrino Physics at Drexel

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lane, Charles; Dolinski, Michelle; Neilson, Russell

    Our primary goal is to improve the understanding of the properties and interactions of neutrinos. We are pursuing this by means of the DUNE long-baseline and PROSPECT short-baseline neutrino experiments. For DUNE, a neutrino beam from Fermilab will be detected at the SURF facility in South Dakota, with the aim of determining the neutrino mass hierarchy (the mass ordering of neutrino flavors), and a measurement or limit on CP-violation via neutrinos. Our near-term experimental goal is to improve the characterization of the neutrino beam by measurements of muons produced as a byproduct of neutrino beam generation, to quantify the beammore » composition and flux. The short-range neutrino program has the aim of using the HFIR reactor at Oak Ridge as a neutrino source, with a detector placed nearby to find if there are short-distance oscillations to sterile neutrino flavors, and to resolve the 'reactor neutrino spectral anomaly' which has shown up as an unexplained 'bump' in the neutrino energy spectrum in recent experiments.« less

  9. Solar atmospheric neutrinos: A new neutrino floor for dark matter searches

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ng, Kenny C. Y.; Beacom, John F.; Peter, Annika H. G.; Rott, Carsten

    2017-11-01

    As is well known, dark matter direct detection experiments will ultimately be limited by a "neutrino floor," due to the scattering of nuclei by MeV neutrinos from, e.g., nuclear fusion in the Sun. Here we point out the existence of a new neutrino floor that will similarly limit indirect detection with the Sun, due to high-energy neutrinos from cosmic-ray interactions with the solar atmosphere. We have two key findings. First, solar atmospheric neutrinos ≲1 TeV cause a sensitivity floor for standard weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) scenarios, for which higher-energy neutrinos are absorbed in the Sun. This floor will be reached once the present sensitivity is improved by just 1 order of magnitude. Second, for neutrinos ≳1 TeV , which can be isolated by muon energy loss rate, solar atmospheric neutrinos should soon be detectable in IceCube. Discovery will help probe the complicated effects of solar magnetic fields on cosmic rays. These events will be backgrounds to WIMP scenarios with long-lived mediators, for which higher-energy neutrinos can escape from the Sun.

  10. Geometric phase of neutrinos: Differences between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Capolupo, A.; Giampaolo, S. M.; Hiesmayr, B. C.; Vitiello, G.

    2018-05-01

    We analyze the non-cyclic geometric phase for neutrinos. We find that the geometric phase and the total phase associated to the mixing phenomenon provide a theoretical tool to distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos. Our results hold for neutrinos propagating in vacuum and through the matter. We feed the values of the experimental parameters in our formulas in order to make contact with experiments. Although it remains an open question how the geometric phase of neutrinos could be detected, our theoretical results may open new scenarios in the investigation of the neutrino nature.

  11. Solar Neutrinos

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Davis, R. Jr.; Harmer, D. S.

    1964-12-01

    The prospect of studying the solar energy generation process directly by observing the solar neutrino radiation has been discussed for many years. The main difficulty with this approach is that the sun emits predominantly low energy neutrinos, and detectors for observing low fluxes of low energy neutrinos have not been developed. However, experimental techniques have been developed for observing neutrinos, and one can foresee that in the near future these techniques will be improved sufficiently in sensitivity to observe solar neutrinos. At the present several experiments are being designed and hopefully will be operating in the next year or so. We will discuss an experiment based upon a neutrino capture reaction that is the inverse of the electron-capture radioactive decay of argon-37. The method depends upon exposing a large volume of a chlorine compound, removing the radioactive argon-37 and observing the characteristic decay in a small low-level counter.

  12. Oscillation properties of active and sterile neutrinos and neutrino anomalies at short distances

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Khruschov, V. V., E-mail: khruschov-vv@nrcki.ru; Fomichev, S. V., E-mail: fomichev-sv@nrcki.ru; Titov, O. A., E-mail: titov-oa@nrcki.ru

    2016-09-15

    A generalized phenomenological (3 + 2 + 1) model featuring three active and three sterile neutrinos that is intended for calculating oscillation properties of neutrinos for the case of a normal active neutrino mass hierarchy and a large splitting between the mass of one sterile neutrino and the masses of the other two sterile neutrinos is considered. A new parametrization and a specific form of the general mixing matrix are proposed for active and sterile neutrinos with allowance for possible CP violation in the lepton sector, and test values are chosen for the neutrino masses and mixing parameters. The probabilitiesmore » for the transitions between different neutrino flavors are calculated, and graphs representing the probabilities for the disappearance of muon neutrinos/antineutrinos and the appearance of electron neutrinos/antineutrinos in a beam of muon neutrinos/antineutrinos versus the distance from the neutrino source for various values of admissible model parameters at neutrino energies not higher than 50 MeV, as well as versus the ratio of this distance to the neutrino energy, are plotted. It is shown that the short-distance accelerator anomaly in neutrino data (LNSD anomaly) can be explained in the case of a specific mixing matrix for active and sterile neutrinos (which belongs to the a{sub 2} type) at the chosen parameter values. The same applies to the short-distance reactor and gallium anomalies. The theoretical results obtained in the present study can be used to interpret and predict the results of ground-based neutrino experiments aimed at searches for sterile neutrinos, as well as to analyze some astrophysical observational data.« less

  13. Oscillation properties of active and sterile neutrinos and neutrino anomalies at short distances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khruschov, V. V.; Fomichev, S. V.; Titov, O. A.

    2016-09-01

    A generalized phenomenological (3 + 2 + 1) model featuring three active and three sterile neutrinos that is intended for calculating oscillation properties of neutrinos for the case of a normal activeneutrino mass hierarchy and a large splitting between the mass of one sterile neutrino and the masses of the other two sterile neutrinos is considered. A new parametrization and a specific form of the general mixing matrix are proposed for active and sterile neutrinos with allowance for possible CP violation in the lepton sector, and test values are chosen for the neutrino masses and mixing parameters. The probabilities for the transitions between different neutrino flavors are calculated, and graphs representing the probabilities for the disappearance of muon neutrinos/antineutrinos and the appearance of electron neutrinos/antineutrinos in a beam of muon neutrinos/antineutrinos versus the distance from the neutrino source for various values of admissible model parameters at neutrino energies not higher than 50 MeV, as well as versus the ratio of this distance to the neutrino energy, are plotted. It is shown that the short-distance accelerator anomaly in neutrino data (LNSD anomaly) can be explained in the case of a specific mixing matrix for active and sterile neutrinos (which belongs to the a 2 type) at the chosen parameter values. The same applies to the short-distance reactor and gallium anomalies. The theoretical results obtained in the present study can be used to interpret and predict the results of ground-based neutrino experiments aimed at searches for sterile neutrinos, as well as to analyze some astrophysical observational data.

  14. The Intermediate Neutrino Program

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Adams, C.; Alonso, J. R.; Ankowski, A. M.

    2017-04-03

    The US neutrino community gathered at the Workshop on the Intermediate Neutrino Program (WINP) at Brookhaven National Laboratory February 4-6, 2015 to explore opportunities in neutrino physics over the next five to ten years. Scientists from particle, astroparticle and nuclear physics participated in the workshop. The workshop examined promising opportunities for neutrino physics in the intermediate term, including possible new small to mid-scale experiments, US contributions to large experiments, upgrades to existing experiments, R&D plans and theory. The workshop was organized into two sets of parallel working group sessions, divided by physics topics and technology. Physics working groups covered topicsmore » on Sterile Neutrinos, Neutrino Mixing, Neutrino Interactions, Neutrino Properties and Astrophysical Neutrinos. Technology sessions were organized into Theory, Short-Baseline Accelerator Neutrinos, Reactor Neutrinos, Detector R&D and Source, Cyclotron and Meson Decay at Rest sessions.This report summarizes discussion and conclusions from the workshop.« less

  15. Toroidal magnetized iron neutrino detector for a neutrino factory

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bross, A.; Wands, R.; Bayes, R.

    2013-08-01

    A neutrino factory has unparalleled physics reach for the discovery and measurement of CP violation in the neutrino sector. A far detector for a neutrino factory must have good charge identification with excellent background rejection and a large mass. An elegant solution is to construct a magnetized iron neutrino detector (MIND) along the lines of MINOS, where iron plates provide a toroidal magnetic field and scintillator planes provide 3D space points. In this report, the current status of a simulation of a toroidal MIND for a neutrino factory is discussed in light of the recent measurements of largemore » $$\\theta_{13}$$. The response and performance using the 10 GeV neutrino factory configuration are presented. It is shown that this setup has equivalent $$\\delta_{CP}$$ reach to a MIND with a dipole field and is sensitive to the discovery of CP violation over 85% of the values of $$\\delta_{CP}$$.« less

  16. Neutrino Telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Marzo, C. N.

    2002-06-01

    Neutrino astronomy is one of the frontier of the high energy astrophysics. I discuss how to build a neutrino telescope and which requirements such a detector must fulfil. A measurable flux of astrophysical neutrinos is predicted by several models for a detector at the cubic kilometer scale. The way pursued until now in building such huge apparatuses is Cherenkov light detection in water or in ice. There have been attempts to build neutrino telescopes and also some projects are yet under construction or under way to start. This situation is reviewed and also techniques alternatives to the Cherenkov light detection are mentioned.

  17. Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiments

    DOE PAGES

    Diwan, M. V.; Galymov, V.; Qian, X.; ...

    2016-10-19

    We review long-baseline neutrino experiments in which neutrinos are detected after traversing macroscopic distances. Over such distances neutrinos have been found to oscillate among flavor states. Experiments with solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator neutrinos have resulted in a coherent picture of neutrino masses and mixing of the three known flavor states. We will summarize the current best knowledge of neutrino parameters and phenomenology with our focus on the evolution of the experimental technique. We will proceed from the rst evidence produced by astrophysical neutrino sources to the current open questions and the goals of future research

  18. Sterile neutrinos in cosmology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abazajian, Kevork N.

    2017-11-01

    Sterile neutrinos are natural extensions to the standard model of particle physics in neutrino mass generation mechanisms. If they are relatively light, less than approximately 10 keV, they can alter cosmology significantly, from the early Universe to the matter and radiation energy density today. Here, we review the cosmological role such light sterile neutrinos can play from the early Universe, including production of keV-scale sterile neutrinos as dark matter candidates, and dynamics of light eV-scale sterile neutrinos during the weakly-coupled active neutrino era. We review proposed signatures of light sterile neutrinos in cosmic microwave background and large scale structure data. We also discuss keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter decay signatures in X-ray observations, including recent candidate ∼3.5 keV X-ray line detections consistent with the decay of a ∼7 keV sterile neutrino dark matter particle.

  19. Neutrino phenomenology

    DOE PAGES

    Coloma, Pilar

    2016-11-21

    Neutrino oscillations have demonstrated that neutrinos have mass and, by now, oscillation experiments have been able to determine most of the parameters in the leptonic mixing matrix with a very good accuracy. Nevertheless, there are still many open questions in the neutrino sector. As a result, I will briefly discuss some of these questions, pointing out possible experimental avenues to address them.

  20. Solar neutrino spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wurm, Michael

    2017-04-01

    More than forty years after the first detection of neutrinos from the Sun, the spectroscopy of solar neutrinos has proven to be an on-going success story. The long-standing puzzle about the observed solar neutrino deficit has been resolved by the discovery of neutrino flavor oscillations. Today's experiments have been able to solidify the standard MSW-LMA oscillation scenario by performing precise measurements over the whole energy range of the solar neutrino spectrum. This article reviews the enabling experimental technologies: On the one hand multi-kiloton-scale water Cherenkov detectors performing measurements in the high-energy regime of the spectrum, on the other end ultrapure liquid-scintillator detectors that allow for a low-threshold analysis. The current experimental results on the fluxes, spectra and time variation of the different components of the solar neutrino spectrum will be presented, setting them in the context of both neutrino oscillation physics and the hydrogen fusion processes embedded in the Standard Solar Model. Finally, the physics potential of state-of-the-art detectors and a next generation of experiments based on novel techniques will be assessed in the context of the most interesting open questions in solar neutrino physics: a precise measurement of the vacuum-matter transition curve of electron-neutrino oscillation probability that offers a definitive test of the basic MSW-LMA scenario or the appearance of new physics; and a first detection of neutrinos from the CNO cycle that will provide new information on solar metallicity and stellar physics.

  1. Sterile Neutrinos and Seesaws

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lincoln, Don

    Time and again, the study of neutrinos has confounded scientists. One very peculiar property of neutrinos is that only neutrinos with a specific spin configuration have been observed. In this video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln talks about this and lays out the possibility that other types of neutrinos might exist, called right handed or sterile neutrinos.

  2. Pseudoscalar—sterile neutrino interactions: reconciling the cosmos with neutrino oscillations

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Archidiacono, Maria; Gariazzo, Stefano; Giunti, Carlo

    2016-08-01

    The Short BaseLine (SBL) neutrino oscillation anomalies hint at the presence of a sterile neutrino with a mass of around 1 eV. However, such a neutrino is incompatible with cosmological data, in particular observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. However, this conclusion can change by invoking new physics. One possibility is to introduce a secret interaction in the sterile neutrino sector mediated by a light pseudoscalar. In this pseudoscalar model, CMB data prefer a sterile neutrino mass that is fully compatible with the mass ranges suggested by SBL anomalies. In addition, this model predicts a value of themore » Hubble parameter which is completely consistent with local measurements.« less

  3. Neutrinos from AGN

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kazanas, Demosthenes; White, Nicholas E. (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    The great penetrating power of neutrinos makes them ideal probe of astrophysical sites and conditions inaccessible to other forms of radiation. These are the centers of stars (collapsing or not) and the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). It has been suggested that AGN presented a very promising source of high energy neutrinos, possibly detectable by underwater neutrino detectors. This paper reviews the evolution of ideas concerning the emission of neutrinos from AGN in view of the more recent developments in gamma-ray astronomy and their implications for the neutrino emission from these class of objects.

  4. Homestake result, sterile neutrinos, and low energy solar neutrino experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Holanda, P. C.; Smirnov, A. Yu.

    2004-06-01

    The Homestake result is about ˜2σ lower than the Ar-production rate, QAr, predicted by the large mixing angle (LMA) Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein solution of the solar neutrino problem. Also there is no apparent upturn of the energy spectrum (R≡Nobs/NSSM) at low energies in SNO and Super-Kamiokande. Both these facts can be explained if a light, Δm201˜(0.2 2)×10-5 eV2, sterile neutrino exists which mixes very weakly with active neutrinos: sin2 2α˜(10-5 10-3). We perform both the analytical and numerical study of the conversion effects in the system of two active neutrinos with the LMA parameters and one weakly mixed sterile neutrino. The presence of sterile neutrino leads to a dip in the survival probability in the intermediate energy range E=(0.5 5) MeV thus suppressing the Be, or/and pep, CNO, as well as B electron neutrino fluxes. Apart from diminishing QAr it leads to decrease of the Ge-production rate and may lead to the decrease of the BOREXINO signal as well as the CC/NC ratio at SNO. Future studies of the solar neutrinos by SNO, SK, BOREXINO, and KamLAND as well as by the new low energy experiments will allow us to check this possibility.

  5. Upper bound on neutrino mass based on T2K neutrino timing measurements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Adam, J.; Aihara, H.; Akiri, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Assylbekov, S.; Autiero, D.; Barbi, M.; Barker, G. J.; Barr, G.; Bartet-Friburg, P.; Bass, M.; Batkiewicz, M.; Bay, F.; Berardi, V.; Berger, B. E.; Berkman, S.; Bhadra, S.; Blaszczyk, F. d. M.; Blondel, A.; Bojechko, C.; Bolognesi, S.; Bordoni, S.; Boyd, S. B.; Brailsford, D.; Bravar, A.; Bronner, C.; Buchanan, N.; Calland, R. G.; Caravaca Rodríguez, J.; Cartwright, S. L.; Castillo, R.; Catanesi, M. G.; Cervera, A.; Cherdack, D.; Chikuma, N.; Christodoulou, G.; Clifton, A.; Coleman, J.; Coleman, S. J.; Collazuol, G.; Connolly, K.; Cremonesi, L.; Dabrowska, A.; Danko, I.; Das, R.; Davis, S.; de Perio, P.; De Rosa, G.; Dealtry, T.; Dennis, S. R.; Densham, C.; Dewhurst, D.; Di Lodovico, F.; Di Luise, S.; Dolan, S.; Drapier, O.; Duboyski, T.; Duffy, K.; Dumarchez, J.; Dytman, S.; Dziewiecki, M.; Emery-Schrenk, S.; Ereditato, A.; Escudero, L.; Feusels, T.; Finch, A. J.; Fiorentini, G. A.; Friend, M.; Fujii, Y.; Fukuda, Y.; Furmanski, A. P.; Galymov, V.; Garcia, A.; Giffin, S.; Giganti, C.; Gilje, K.; Goeldi, D.; Golan, T.; Gonin, M.; Grant, N.; Gudin, D.; Hadley, D. R.; Haegel, L.; Haesler, A.; Haigh, M. D.; Hamilton, P.; Hansen, D.; Hara, T.; Hartz, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Hastings, N. C.; Hayashino, T.; Hayato, Y.; Hearty, C.; Helmer, R. L.; Hierholzer, M.; Hignight, J.; Hillairet, A.; Himmel, A.; Hiraki, T.; Hirota, S.; Holeczek, J.; Horikawa, S.; Hosomi, F.; Huang, K.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Ieki, K.; Ieva, M.; Ikeda, M.; Imber, J.; Insler, J.; Irvine, T. J.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Iwai, E.; Iwamoto, K.; Iyogi, K.; Izmaylov, A.; Jacob, A.; Jamieson, B.; Jiang, M.; Johnson, R. A.; Johnson, S.; Jo, J. H.; Jonsson, P.; Jung, C. K.; Kabirnezhad, M.; Kaboth, A. C.; Kajita, T.; Kakuno, H.; Kameda, J.; Kanazawa, Y.; Karlen, D.; Karpikov, I.; Katori, T.; Kearns, E.; Khabibullin, M.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kielczewska, D.; Kikawa, T.; Kilinski, A.; Kim, J.; King, S.; Kisiel, J.; Kitching, P.; Kobayashi, T.; Koch, L.; Koga, T.; Kolaceke, A.; Konaka, A.; Kopylov, A.; Kormos, L. L.; Korzenev, A.; Koshio, Y.; Kropp, W.; Kubo, H.; Kudenko, Y.; Kurjata, R.; Kutter, T.; Lagoda, J.; Lamont, I.; Larkin, E.; Laveder, M.; Lawe, M.; Lazos, M.; Lindner, T.; Lister, C.; Litchfield, R. P.; Longhin, A.; Lopez, J. P.; Ludovici, L.; Magaletti, L.; Mahn, K.; Malek, M.; Manly, S.; Marino, A. D.; Marteau, J.; Martin, J. F.; Martins, P.; Martynenko, S.; Maruyama, T.; Matveev, V.; Mavrokoridis, K.; Mazzucato, E.; McCarthy, M.; McCauley, N.; McFarland, K. S.; McGrew, C.; Mefodiev, A.; Metelko, C.; Mezzetto, M.; Mijakowski, P.; Miller, C. A.; Minamino, A.; Mineev, O.; Missert, A.; Miura, M.; Moriyama, S.; Mueller, Th. A.; Murakami, A.; Murdoch, M.; Murphy, S.; Myslik, J.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakahata, M.; Nakamura, K. G.; Nakamura, K.; Nakayama, S.; Nakaya, T.; Nakayoshi, K.; Nantais, C.; Nielsen, C.; Nirkko, M.; Nishikawa, K.; Nishimura, Y.; Nowak, J.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Ohta, R.; Okumura, K.; Okusawa, T.; Oryszczak, W.; Oser, S. M.; Ovsyannikova, T.; Owen, R. A.; Oyama, Y.; Palladino, V.; Palomino, J. L.; Paolone, V.; Payne, D.; Perevozchikov, O.; Perkin, J. D.; Petrov, Y.; Pickard, L.; Pinzon Guerra, E. S.; Pistillo, C.; Plonski, P.; Poplawska, E.; Popov, B.; Posiadala-Zezula, M.; Poutissou, J.-M.; Poutissou, R.; Przewlocki, P.; Quilain, B.; Radicioni, E.; Ratoff, P. N.; Ravonel, M.; Rayner, M. A. M.; Redij, A.; Reeves, M.; Reinherz-Aronis, E.; Riccio, C.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Rojas, P.; Rondio, E.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Ruterbories, D.; Rychter, A.; Sacco, R.; Sakashita, K.; Sánchez, F.; Sato, F.; Scantamburlo, E.; Scholberg, K.; Schoppmann, S.; Schwehr, J.; Scott, M.; Seiya, Y.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekiya, H.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shah, R.; Shaker, F.; Shaw, D.; Shiozawa, M.; Short, S.; Shustrov, Y.; Sinclair, P.; Smith, B.; Smy, M.; Sobczyk, J. T.; Sobel, H.; Sorel, M.; Southwell, L.; Stamoulis, P.; Steinmann, J.; Still, B.; Suda, Y.; Suzuki, A.; Suzuki, K.; Suzuki, S. Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Tacik, R.; Tada, M.; Takahashi, S.; Takeda, A.; Takeuchi, Y.; Tanaka, H. K.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tanaka, M. M.; Terhorst, D.; Terri, R.; Thompson, L. F.; Thorley, A.; Tobayama, S.; Toki, W.; Tomura, T.; Totsuka, Y.; Touramanis, C.; Tsukamoto, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Vacheret, A.; Vagins, M.; Vasseur, G.; Wachala, T.; Wakamatsu, K.; Walter, C. W.; Wark, D.; Warzycha, W.; Wascko, M. O.; Weber, A.; Wendell, R.; Wilkes, R. J.; Wilking, M. J.; Wilkinson, C.; Williamson, Z.; Wilson, J. R.; Wilson, R. J.; Wongjirad, T.; Yamada, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Yano, T.; Yen, S.; Yershov, N.; Yokoyama, M.; Yoo, J.; Yoshida, K.; Yuan, T.; Yu, M.; Zalewska, A.; Zalipska, J.; Zambelli, L.; Zaremba, K.; Ziembicki, M.; Zimmerman, E. D.; Zito, M.; Żmuda, J.; T2K Collaboration

    2016-01-01

    The Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) long-baseline neutrino experiment consists of a muon neutrino beam, produced at the J-PARC accelerator, a near detector complex and a large 295-km-distant far detector. The present work utilizes the T2K event timing measurements at the near and far detectors to study neutrino time of flight as a function of derived neutrino energy. Under the assumption of a relativistic relation between energy and time of flight, constraints on the neutrino rest mass can be derived. The sub-GeV neutrino beam in conjunction with timing precision of order tens of ns provide sensitivity to neutrino mass in the few MeV /c2 range. We study the distribution of relative arrival times of muon and electron neutrino candidate events at the T2K far detector as a function of neutrino energy. The 90% C.L. upper limit on the mixture of neutrino mass eigenstates represented in the data sample is found to be mν2<5.6 MeV2/c4 .

  6. Search for muon neutrino disappearance due to sterile neutrino oscillations with the MINOS/MINOS+ experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Todd, J.; Chen, R.; Huang, J.; ">MINOS, neutrino oscillations have successfully explained a wide range of neutrino oscillation data. However, anomalous results, such as the electron antineutrino appearance excesses seen by LSND and MiniBooNE, can be explained by the addition of a sterile neutrino at a larger mass scale than the existing three neutrino mass states. MINOS is a two-detector, long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment optimized to measure muon neutrino disappearance in the NuMI neutrino beam. MINOS+ is the continuation of the MINOS experiment with the NuMI beam in a medium energy configuration. In the model with one sterile neutrino flavor added to the three active neutrino flavors, a sterile neutrino causing electron antineutrino appearance at LSND and MiniBooNE would also cause muon neutrino disappearance at MINOS. The sterile neutrino signature would be seen as modulations at high energy in the charged-current muon neutrino spectrum and a depletion of events in the neutral current spectrum. These proceedings show new results from fitting neutral-current and charged-current energy spectra from MINOS and MINOS+ data to a neutrino oscillation model assuming one sterile neutrino.

  7. Big World of Small Neutrinos

    Science.gov Websites

    electron neutrino, muon neutrino, or tau neutrino. The three different neutrinos are complemented by anti of the neutrinos we detect will look different (have a different flavor) compared to the time they Big World of Small Neutrinos Neutrinos will find you! Fig 1: Hubble image of the deep field

  8. Neutrino Cross Sections

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fields, Laura

    2014-03-01

    The next generation of neutrino oscillation experiments aims to answer many interesting questions such as whether there is CP violation in the neutrino sector and whether sterile neutrinos exist. These esperiments will require high precision cross section measurements of various neutrino and antineutrino channels. Results and prosepects for such measurements from the MINERvA, MiniBooNE, T2K and ArgoNeuT collaborations will be reviewed.

  9. Astroparticle physics with solar neutrinos

    PubMed Central

    NAKAHATA, Masayuki

    2011-01-01

    Solar neutrino experiments observed fluxes smaller than the expectations from the standard solar model. This discrepancy is known as the “solar neutrino problem”. Flux measurements by Super-Kamiokande and SNO have demonstrated that the solar neutrino problem is due to neutrino oscillations. Combining the results of all solar neutrino experiments, parameters for solar neutrino oscillations are obtained. Correcting for the effect of neutrino oscillations, the observed neutrino fluxes are consistent with the prediction from the standard solar model. In this article, results of solar neutrino experiments are reviewed with detailed descriptions of what Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande have contributed to the history of astroparticle physics with solar neutrino measurements. PMID:21558758

  10. Astroparticle physics with solar neutrinos.

    PubMed

    Nakahata, Masayuki

    2011-01-01

    Solar neutrino experiments observed fluxes smaller than the expectations from the standard solar model. This discrepancy is known as the "solar neutrino problem". Flux measurements by Super-Kamiokande and SNO have demonstrated that the solar neutrino problem is due to neutrino oscillations. Combining the results of all solar neutrino experiments, parameters for solar neutrino oscillations are obtained. Correcting for the effect of neutrino oscillations, the observed neutrino fluxes are consistent with the prediction from the standard solar model. In this article, results of solar neutrino experiments are reviewed with detailed descriptions of what Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande have contributed to the history of astroparticle physics with solar neutrino measurements. (Communicated by Toshimitsu Yamazaki, M.J.A.).

  11. A measurement of neutrino oscillations with muon neutrinos in the MINOS experiment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Coleman, Stephen James

    2011-05-01

    Experimental evidence has established that neutrino flavor states evolve over time. A neutrino of a particular flavor that travels some distance can be detected in a different neutrino flavor state. The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) is a long-baseline experiment that is designed to study this phenomenon, called neutrino oscillations. MINOS is based at Fermilab near Chicago, IL, and consists of two detectors: the Near Detector located at Fermilab, and the Far Detector, which is located in an old iron mine in Soudan, MN. Both detectors are exposed to a beam of muon neutrinos from the NuMI beamline, andmore » MINOS measures the fraction of muon neutrinos that disappear after traveling the 734 km between the two detectors. One can measure the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting and mixing angle by observing the energy-dependence of this muon neutrino disappearance. MINOS has made several prior measurements of these parameters. Here I describe recently-developed techniques used to enhance our sensitivity to the oscillation parameters, and I present the results obtained when they are applied to a dataset that is twice as large as has been previously analyzed. We measure the mass splitting Δm 23 2 = (2.32 -0.08 +0.12) x 10 -3 eV 2/c 4 and the mixing angle sin 2(2θ 32) > 0.90 at 90% C.L. These results comprise the world's best measurement of the atmospheric neutrino mass splitting. Alternative disappearance models are also tested. The neutrino decay hypothesis is disfavored at 7.2σ and the neutrino quantum decoherence hypothesis is disfavored at 9.0σ.« less

  12. Neutrino physics with JUNO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    An, Fengpeng; An, Guangpeng; An, Qi; Antonelli, Vito; Baussan, Eric; Beacom, John; Bezrukov, Leonid; Blyth, Simon; Brugnera, Riccardo; Buizza Avanzini, Margherita; Busto, Jose; Cabrera, Anatael; Cai, Hao; Cai, Xiao; Cammi, Antonio; Cao, Guofu; Cao, Jun; Chang, Yun; Chen, Shaomin; Chen, Shenjian; Chen, Yixue; Chiesa, Davide; Clemenza, Massimiliano; Clerbaux, Barbara; Conrad, Janet; D'Angelo, Davide; De Kerret, Hervé; Deng, Zhi; Deng, Ziyan; Ding, Yayun; Djurcic, Zelimir; Dornic, Damien; Dracos, Marcos; Drapier, Olivier; Dusini, Stefano; Dye, Stephen; Enqvist, Timo; Fan, Donghua; Fang, Jian; Favart, Laurent; Ford, Richard; Göger-Neff, Marianne; Gan, Haonan; Garfagnini, Alberto; Giammarchi, Marco; Gonchar, Maxim; Gong, Guanghua; Gong, Hui; Gonin, Michel; Grassi, Marco; Grewing, Christian; Guan, Mengyun; Guarino, Vic; Guo, Gang; Guo, Wanlei; Guo, Xin-Heng; Hagner, Caren; Han, Ran; He, Miao; Heng, Yuekun; Hsiung, Yee; Hu, Jun; Hu, Shouyang; Hu, Tao; Huang, Hanxiong; Huang, Xingtao; Huo, Lei; Ioannisian, Ara; Jeitler, Manfred; Ji, Xiangdong; Jiang, Xiaoshan; Jollet, Cécile; Kang, Li; Karagounis, Michael; Kazarian, Narine; Krumshteyn, Zinovy; Kruth, Andre; Kuusiniemi, Pasi; Lachenmaier, Tobias; Leitner, Rupert; Li, Chao; Li, Jiaxing; Li, Weidong; Li, Weiguo; Li, Xiaomei; Li, Xiaonan; Li, Yi; Li, Yufeng; Li, Zhi-Bing; Liang, Hao; Lin, Guey-Lin; Lin, Tao; Lin, Yen-Hsun; Ling, Jiajie; Lippi, Ivano; Liu, Dawei; Liu, Hongbang; Liu, Hu; Liu, Jianglai; Liu, Jianli; Liu, Jinchang; Liu, Qian; Liu, Shubin; Liu, Shulin; Lombardi, Paolo; Long, Yongbing; Lu, Haoqi; Lu, Jiashu; Lu, Jingbin; Lu, Junguang; Lubsandorzhiev, Bayarto; Ludhova, Livia; Luo, Shu; Lyashuk, Vladimir; Möllenberg, Randolph; Ma, Xubo; Mantovani, Fabio; Mao, Yajun; Mari, Stefano M.; McDonough, William F.; Meng, Guang; Meregaglia, Anselmo; Meroni, Emanuela; Mezzetto, Mauro; Miramonti, Lino; Mueller, Thomas; Naumov, Dmitry; Oberauer, Lothar; Ochoa-Ricoux, Juan Pedro; Olshevskiy, Alexander; Ortica, Fausto; Paoloni, Alessandro; Peng, Haiping; Peng, Jen-Chieh; Previtali, Ezio; Qi, Ming; Qian, Sen; Qian, Xin; Qian, Yongzhong; Qin, Zhonghua; Raffelt, Georg; Ranucci, Gioacchino; Ricci, Barbara; Robens, Markus; Romani, Aldo; Ruan, Xiangdong; Ruan, Xichao; Salamanna, Giuseppe; Shaevitz, Mike; Sinev, Valery; Sirignano, Chiara; Sisti, Monica; Smirnov, Oleg; Soiron, Michael; Stahl, Achim; Stanco, Luca; Steinmann, Jochen; Sun, Xilei; Sun, Yongjie; Taichenachev, Dmitriy; Tang, Jian; Tkachev, Igor; Trzaska, Wladyslaw; van Waasen, Stefan; Volpe, Cristina; Vorobel, Vit; Votano, Lucia; Wang, Chung-Hsiang; Wang, Guoli; Wang, Hao; Wang, Meng; Wang, Ruiguang; Wang, Siguang; Wang, Wei; Wang, Yi; Wang, Yi; Wang, Yifang; Wang, Zhe; Wang, Zheng; Wang, Zhigang; Wang, Zhimin; Wei, Wei; Wen, Liangjian; Wiebusch, Christopher; Wonsak, Björn; Wu, Qun; Wulz, Claudia-Elisabeth; Wurm, Michael; Xi, Yufei; Xia, Dongmei; Xie, Yuguang; Xing, Zhi-zhong; Xu, Jilei; Yan, Baojun; Yang, Changgen; Yang, Chaowen; Yang, Guang; Yang, Lei; Yang, Yifan; Yao, Yu; Yegin, Ugur; Yermia, Frédéric; You, Zhengyun; Yu, Boxiang; Yu, Chunxu; Yu, Zeyuan; Zavatarelli, Sandra; Zhan, Liang; Zhang, Chao; Zhang, Hong-Hao; Zhang, Jiawen; Zhang, Jingbo; Zhang, Qingmin; Zhang, Yu-Mei; Zhang, Zhenyu; Zhao, Zhenghua; Zheng, Yangheng; Zhong, Weili; Zhou, Guorong; Zhou, Jing; Zhou, Li; Zhou, Rong; Zhou, Shun; Zhou, Wenxiong; Zhou, Xiang; Zhou, Yeling; Zhou, Yufeng; Zou, Jiaheng

    2016-03-01

    The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purpose underground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) as a primary physics goal. The excellent energy resolution and the large fiducial volume anticipated for the JUNO detector offer exciting opportunities for addressing many important topics in neutrino and astro-particle physics. In this document, we present the physics motivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for various proposed measurements. Following an introduction summarizing the current status and open issues in neutrino physics, we discuss how the detection of antineutrinos generated by a cluster of nuclear power plants allows the determination of the neutrino MH at a 3-4σ significance with six years of running of JUNO. The measurement of antineutrino spectrum with excellent energy resolution will also lead to the precise determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters {{sin}}2{θ }12, {{Δ }}{m}212, and | {{Δ }}{m}{ee}2| to an accuracy of better than 1%, which will play a crucial role in the future unitarity test of the MNSP matrix. The JUNO detector is capable of observing not only antineutrinos from the power plants, but also neutrinos/antineutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, including supernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, and solar neutrinos. As a result of JUNO's large size, excellent energy resolution, and vertex reconstruction capability, interesting new data on these topics can be collected. For example, a neutrino burst from a typical core-collapse supernova at a distance of 10 kpc would lead to ˜5000 inverse-beta-decay events and ˜2000 all-flavor neutrino-proton ES events in JUNO, which are of crucial importance for understanding the mechanism of supernova explosion and for exploring novel phenomena such as collective neutrino oscillations

  13. Neutrino Oscillations Physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fogli, Gianluigi

    2005-06-01

    We review the status of the neutrino oscillations physics, with a particular emphasis on the present knowledge of the neutrino mass-mixing parameters. We consider first the νμ → ντ flavor transitions of atmospheric neutrinos. It is found that standard oscillations provide the best description of the SK+K2K data, and that the associated mass-mixing parameters are determined at ±1σ (and NDF = 1) as: Δm2 = (2.6 ± 0.4) × 10-3 eV2 and sin 2 2θ = 1.00{ - 0.05}{ + 0.00} . Such indications, presently dominated by SK, could be strengthened by further K2K data. Then we point out that the recent data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, together with other relevant measurements from solar and reactor neutrino experiments, in particular the KamLAND data, convincingly show that the flavor transitions of solar neutrinos are affected by Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effects. Finally, we perform an updated analysis of two-family active oscillations of solar and reactor neutrinos in the standard MSW case.

  14. A New Neutrino Oscillation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Parke, Stephen J.; /Fermilab

    2011-07-01

    Starting in the late 1960s, neutrino detectors began to see signs that neutrinos, now known to come in the flavors electron ({nu}{sub e}), muon ({nu}{sub {mu}}), and tau ({nu}{sub {tau}}), could transform from one flavor to another. The findings implied that neutrinos must have mass, since massless particles travel at the speed of light and their clocks, so to speak, don't tick, thus they cannot change. What has since been discovered is that neutrinos oscillate at two distinct scales, 500 km/GeV and 15,000 km/GeV, which are defined by the baseline (L) of the experiment (the distance the neutrino travels) dividedmore » by the neutrino energy (E). Neutrinos of one flavor can oscillate into neutrinos of another flavor at both L/E scales, but the amplitude of these oscillations is different for the two scales and depends on the initial and final flavor of the neutrinos. The neutrino states that propogate unchanged in time, the mass eigenstates {nu}1, {nu}2, {nu}3, are quantum mechanical mixtures of the electron, muon, and tau neutrino flavors, and the fraction of each flavor in a given mass eigenstate is controlled by three mixing angles and a complex phase. Two of these mixing angles are known with reasonable precision. An upper bound exists for the third angle, called {theta}{sub 13}, which controls the size of the muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillation at an L/E of 500 km/GeV. The phase is completely unknown. The existence of this phase has important implications for the asymmetry between matter and antimatter we observe in the universe today. Experiments around the world have steadily assembled this picture of neutrino oscillation, but evidence of muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillation at 500 km/GeV has remained elusive. Now, a paper from the T2K (Tokai to Kamioka) experiment in Japan, reports the first possible observation of muon neutrinos oscillating into electron neutrinos at 500 km/GeV. They see 6 candidate signal events, above an expected

  15. Measurement of neutrino flux from neutrino-electron elastic scattering

    DOE PAGES

    Park, J.; Aliaga, L.; Altinok, O.; ...

    2016-06-10

    Muon-neutrino elastic scattering on electrons is an observable neutrino process whose cross section is precisely known. Consequently, a measurement of this process in an accelerator-based ν μ beam can improve the knowledge of the absolute neutrino flux impinging upon the detector; typically this knowledge is limited to ~10% due to uncertainties in hadron production and focusing. We also isolated a sample of 135±17 neutrino-electron elastic scattering candidates in the segmented scintillator detector of MINERvA, after subtracting backgrounds and correcting for efficiency. We show how this sample can be used to reduce the total uncertainty on the NuMI ν μ fluxmore » from 9% to 6%. Finally, our measurement provides a flux constraint that is useful to other experiments using the NuMI beam, and this technique is applicable to future neutrino beams operating at multi-GeV energies.« less

  16. Measurement of neutrino flux from neutrino-electron elastic scattering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, J.; Aliaga, L.; Altinok, O.; Bellantoni, L.; Bercellie, A.; Betancourt, M.; Bodek, A.; Bravar, A.; Budd, H.; Cai, T.; Carneiro, M. F.; Christy, M. E.; Chvojka, J.; da Motta, H.; Dytman, S. A.; Díaz, G. A.; Eberly, B.; Felix, J.; Fields, L.; Fine, R.; Gago, A. M.; Galindo, R.; Ghosh, A.; Golan, T.; Gran, R.; Harris, D. A.; Higuera, A.; Kleykamp, J.; Kordosky, M.; Le, T.; Maher, E.; Manly, S.; Mann, W. A.; Marshall, C. M.; Martinez Caicedo, D. A.; McFarland, K. S.; McGivern, C. L.; McGowan, A. M.; Messerly, B.; Miller, J.; Mislivec, A.; Morfín, J. G.; Mousseau, J.; Naples, D.; Nelson, J. K.; Norrick, A.; Nuruzzaman; Osta, J.; Paolone, V.; Patrick, C. E.; Perdue, G. N.; Rakotondravohitra, L.; Ramirez, M. A.; Ray, H.; Ren, L.; Rimal, D.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Ruterbories, D.; Schellman, H.; Solano Salinas, C. J.; Tagg, N.; Tice, B. G.; Valencia, E.; Walton, T.; Wolcott, J.; Wospakrik, M.; Zavala, G.; Zhang, D.; Miner ν A Collaboration

    2016-06-01

    Muon-neutrino elastic scattering on electrons is an observable neutrino process whose cross section is precisely known. Consequently a measurement of this process in an accelerator-based νμ beam can improve the knowledge of the absolute neutrino flux impinging upon the detector; typically this knowledge is limited to ˜10 % due to uncertainties in hadron production and focusing. We have isolated a sample of 135 ±17 neutrino-electron elastic scattering candidates in the segmented scintillator detector of MINERvA, after subtracting backgrounds and correcting for efficiency. We show how this sample can be used to reduce the total uncertainty on the NuMI νμ flux from 9% to 6%. Our measurement provides a flux constraint that is useful to other experiments using the NuMI beam, and this technique is applicable to future neutrino beams operating at multi-GeV energies.

  17. Search for sterile neutrino mixing in the muon neutrino to tau neutrino appearance channel with the OPERA detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Di Crescenzo, A.; OPERA Collaboration

    2016-05-01

    The OPERA experiment observed ν μ → ν τ oscillations in the atmospheric sector. To this purpose the hybrid OPERA detector was exposed to the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso beam from 2008 to 2012, at a distance of 730 km from the neutrino source. Charged-current interactions of ν τ were searched for through the identification of τ lepton decay topologies. The five observed ν τ interactions are consistent with the expected number of events in the standard three neutrino framework. Based on this result, new limits on the mixing parameters of a massive sterile neutrino may be set. Preliminary results of the analysis performed in the 3+1 neutrino framework are here presented.

  18. Effect of collisions on neutrino flavor inhomogeneity in a dense neutrino gas

    DOE PAGES

    Cirigliano, Vincenzo; Paris, Mark W.; Shalgar, Shashank

    2017-09-25

    We investigate the stability, with respect to spatial inhomogeneity, of a two-dimensional dense neutrino gas. The system exhibits growth of seed inhomogeneity due to nonlinear coherent neutrino self-interactions. In the absence of incoherent collisional effects, we also observe a dependence of this instability growth rate on the neutrino mass spectrum: the normal neutrino mass hierarchy exhibits spatial instability over a larger range of neutrino number density compared to that of the inverted case. Furthermore, we consider the effect of elastic incoherent collisions of the neutrinos with a static background of heavy, nucleon-like scatterers. At small scales, the growth of flavormore » instability can be suppressed by collisions. At large length scales we find, perhaps surprisingly, that for inverted neutrino mass hierarchy incoherent collisions fail to suppress flavor instabilities, independent of the coupling strength.« less

  19. Neutrino-oscillation search with cosmic-ray neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ayres, D. S.; Cortez, B.; Gaisser, T. K.; Mann, A. K.; Shrock, R. E.; Sulak, L. R.

    1984-03-01

    A sensitive search for neutrino oscillations involving νe, νμ, and ντ may be provided by measurements of the ratio of the total interaction rates of upward- and downward-going cosmic-ray neutrinos within a massive (~10 kton) detector. Assuming mixing between all pairs of νe, νμ, and ντ, the experiment is capable of observing time-averaged probabilities t and t of magnitude set by mixing strengths corresponding to, e.g., the d- to s-quark mixing strength, and of reaching the limit Δm2ij≡|mi2-mj2|~10-4 eV2, where mi, and mj are neutrino mass eigenstates, and Peτ and Pμτ are the probabilities for νe and νμ, respectively, to oscillate into ντ after traversing a distance L~ diameter of the Earth. Possible ambiguities may be resolved through comparison of the ratios NeNμ for the upward- and downward-going neutrinos.

  20. Neutrino Physics at Fermilab

    ScienceCinema

    Saoulidou, Niki

    2017-12-09

    Neutrino oscillations provide the first evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. I will briefly overview the neutrino "hi-story", describing key discoveries over the past decades that shaped our understanding of neutrinos and their behavior. Fermilab was, is and hopefully will be at the forefront of the accelerator neutrino experiments.  NuMI, the most powerful accelerator neutrino beam in the world has ushered us into the era of precise measurements. Its further upgrades may give a chance to tackle the remaining mysteries of the neutrino mass hierarchy and possible CP violation.

  1. Search for sterile neutrinos in gallium experiments with artificial neutrino sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gavrin, V. N.; Cleveland, B. T.; Gorbachev, V. V.; Ibragimova, T. V.; Kalikhov, A. V.; Kozlova, Yu. P.; Mirmov, I. N.; Shikhin, A. A.; Veretenkin, E. P.

    2017-11-01

    The possibility of the BEST experiment on electron neutrino disappearance with intense artificial sources of electron neutrino 51Cr is considered. BEST has the great potential to search for transitions of active neutrinos to sterile states with Δ m 2 ˜ 1 eV2 and to set the limits on short baseline electron neutrino disappearance oscillation parameters. The possibility of the further constraints the oscillation parameters region with using 65Zn source is discussed.

  2. Neutrino physics with JUNO

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    An, Fengpeng; An, Guangpeng; An, Qi

    The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purpose underground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) as a primary physics goal. The excellent energy resolution and the large fiducial volume anticipated for the JUNO detector offer exciting opportunities for addressing many important topics in neutrino and astro-particle physics. In this document, we present the physics motivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for various proposed measurements. Following an introduction summarizing the current status and open issues in neutrino physics, we discuss how the detection of antineutrinos generated by a cluster of nuclear power plants allows the determination of the neutrino MH at a 3–4σ significance with six years of running of JUNO. The measurement of antineutrino spectrum with excellent energy resolution will also lead to the precise determination of the neutrino oscillation parametersmore » $${\\mathrm{sin}}^{2}{\\theta }_{12}$$, $${\\rm{\\Delta }}{m}_{21}^{2}$$, and $$| {\\rm{\\Delta }}{m}_{{ee}}^{2}| $$ to an accuracy of better than 1%, which will play a crucial role in the future unitarity test of the MNSP matrix. The JUNO detector is capable of observing not only antineutrinos from the power plants, but also neutrinos/antineutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, including supernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, and solar neutrinos. As a result of JUNO's large size, excellent energy resolution, and vertex reconstruction capability, interesting new data on these topics can be collected. For example, a neutrino burst from a typical core-collapse supernova at a distance of 10 kpc would lead to ~5000 inverse-beta-decay events and ~2000 all-flavor neutrino–proton ES events in JUNO, which are of crucial importance for understanding the mechanism of supernova explosion and

  3. Neutrino physics with JUNO

    DOE PAGES

    An, Fengpeng; An, Guangpeng; An, Qi; ...

    2016-02-10

    The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 kton multi-purpose underground liquid scintillator detector, was proposed with the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) as a primary physics goal. The excellent energy resolution and the large fiducial volume anticipated for the JUNO detector offer exciting opportunities for addressing many important topics in neutrino and astro-particle physics. In this document, we present the physics motivations and the anticipated performance of the JUNO detector for various proposed measurements. Following an introduction summarizing the current status and open issues in neutrino physics, we discuss how the detection of antineutrinos generated by a cluster of nuclear power plants allows the determination of the neutrino MH at a 3–4σ significance with six years of running of JUNO. The measurement of antineutrino spectrum with excellent energy resolution will also lead to the precise determination of the neutrino oscillation parametersmore » $${\\mathrm{sin}}^{2}{\\theta }_{12}$$, $${\\rm{\\Delta }}{m}_{21}^{2}$$, and $$| {\\rm{\\Delta }}{m}_{{ee}}^{2}| $$ to an accuracy of better than 1%, which will play a crucial role in the future unitarity test of the MNSP matrix. The JUNO detector is capable of observing not only antineutrinos from the power plants, but also neutrinos/antineutrinos from terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources, including supernova burst neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, geoneutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, and solar neutrinos. As a result of JUNO's large size, excellent energy resolution, and vertex reconstruction capability, interesting new data on these topics can be collected. For example, a neutrino burst from a typical core-collapse supernova at a distance of 10 kpc would lead to ~5000 inverse-beta-decay events and ~2000 all-flavor neutrino–proton ES events in JUNO, which are of crucial importance for understanding the mechanism of supernova explosion and

  4. The ideal neutrino beams

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lindroos, Mats

    2009-06-01

    The advance in neutrino oscillation physics is driven by the availability of well characterized and high flux neutrino beams. The three present options for the next generation neutrino oscillation facility are super beams, neutrino factories and beta-beams. A super-beam is a very high intensity classical neutrino beam generated by protons impinging on a target where the neutrinos are generated by the secondary particles decaying in a tunnel down streams of the target. In a neutrino factory the neutrinos are generated from muons decaying in a storage ring with long straight sections pointing towards the detectors. In a beta-beam the neutrinos are also originating from decay in a storage ring but the decaying particles are radioactive ions rather than muons. I will in this presentation review the three options and discuss the pros and cons of each. The present joint design effort for a future high intensity neutrino oscillation in Europe within a common EU supported design study, EURONU, will also be presented. The design study will explore the physics reach, the detectors, the feasibility, the safety issues and the cost for each of the options so that the the community can take a decision on what to build when the facilities presently under exploitation and construction have to be replaced.

  5. Evidence for neutrino oscillations in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Marino, Alysia Diane

    2004-01-01

    The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a large-volume heavy water Cerenkov detector designed to resolve the solar neutrino problem. SNO observes charged-current interactions with electron neutrinos, neutral-current interactions with all active neutrinos, and elastic-scattering interactions primarily with electron neutrinos with some sensitivity to other flavors. This dissertation presents an analysis of the solar neutrino flux observed in SNO in the second phase of operation, while ~2 tonnes of salt (NaCl) were dissolved in the heavy water. The dataset here represents 391 live days of data. Only the events above a visible energy threshold of 5.5 MeV and inside a fiducial volume within 550 cm of the center of the detector are studied. The neutrino flux observed via the charged-current interaction is [1.71 ± 0.065(stat.)±more » $$0.065\\atop{0.068}$$(sys.)±0.02(theor.)] x 10 6cm -2s -1, via the elastic-scattering interaction is [2.21±0.22(stat.)±$$0.12\\atop{0.11}$$(sys.)±0.01(theor.)] x 10 6cm -2s -1, and via the neutral-current interaction is [5.05±0.23(stat.)±$$0.31\\atop{0.37}$$(sys.)±0.06(theor.)] x 10 6cm -2s -1. The electron-only flux seen via the charged-current interaction is more than 7σ below the total active flux seen via the neutral-current interaction, providing strong evidence that neutrinos are undergoing flavor transformation as they travel from the core of the Sun to the Earth. The most likely origin of the flavor transformation is matter-induced flavor oscillation.« less

  6. Experimental Neutrino Physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wilkes, Richard Jeffrey

    The University of Washington (UW) HEP neutrino group performed experimental research on the physics of neutrinos, using the capabilities offered by the T2K Experiment and the Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Observatory. The UW group included senior investigator R. J. Wilkes, two PhD students, four MS degree students, and a research engineer, all of whom are members of the international scientific collaborations for T2K and Super-Kamiokande. During the period of support, within T2K we pursued new precision studies sensitive to new physics, going beyond the limits of current measurements of the fundamental neutrino oscillation parameters (mass differences and mixing angles). We began effortsmore » to measure (or significantly determine the absence of) 1 the CP-violating phase parameter δCP and determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. Using the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector we pursued newly increased precision in measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters with atmospheric neutrinos, and extended the current reach in searches for proton decay, in addition to running the most sensitive supernova watch instrument [Scholberg 2012], performing other astrophysical neutrino studies, and analyzing beam-induced events from T2K. Overall, the research addressed central questions in the field of particle physics. It included the training of graduate students (both PhD and professional MS degree students), and postdoctoral researchers. Undergraduate students also participated as laboratory assistants.« less

  7. Neutrino oscillation studies with reactors

    PubMed Central

    Vogel, P.; Wen, L.J.; Zhang, C.

    2015-01-01

    Nuclear reactors are one of the most intense, pure, controllable, cost-effective and well-understood sources of neutrinos. Reactors have played a major role in the study of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon that indicates that neutrinos have mass and that neutrino flavours are quantum mechanical mixtures. Over the past several decades, reactors were used in the discovery of neutrinos, were crucial in solving the solar neutrino puzzle, and allowed the determination of the smallest mixing angle θ13. In the near future, reactors will help to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to solve the puzzling issue of sterile neutrinos. PMID:25913819

  8. Neutrino oscillation studies with reactors

    DOE PAGES

    Vogel, P.; Wen, L.J.; Zhang, C.

    2015-04-27

    Nuclear reactors are one of the most intense, pure, controllable, cost-effective and well-understood sources of neutrinos. Reactors have played a major role in the study of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon that indicates that neutrinos have mass and that neutrino flavours are quantum mechanical mixtures. Over the past several decades, reactors were used in the discovery of neutrinos, were crucial in solving the solar neutrino puzzle, and allowed the determination of the smallest mixing angle θ 13. In the near future, reactors will help to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to solve the puzzling issue of sterile neutrinos.

  9. Neutrino oscillation studies with reactors.

    PubMed

    Vogel, P; Wen, L J; Zhang, C

    2015-04-27

    Nuclear reactors are one of the most intense, pure, controllable, cost-effective and well-understood sources of neutrinos. Reactors have played a major role in the study of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon that indicates that neutrinos have mass and that neutrino flavours are quantum mechanical mixtures. Over the past several decades, reactors were used in the discovery of neutrinos, were crucial in solving the solar neutrino puzzle, and allowed the determination of the smallest mixing angle θ13. In the near future, reactors will help to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to solve the puzzling issue of sterile neutrinos.

  10. Home - Deep Underground Neutrino ExperimentDeep Underground Neutrino

    Science.gov Websites

    understanding of neutrinos and their role in the universe. DUNE prototype detectors are under construction at understanding of neutrinos and their role in the universe. DUNE_Forces_011116_FINAL Unification of Forces With

  11. Relation between the neutrino flux from Centaurus A and the associated diffuse neutrino flux

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Koers, Hylke B. J.; Tinyakov, Peter; Institute for Nuclear Research, 60th October Anniversary Prospect 7a, 117312, Moscow

    2008-10-15

    Based on recent results obtained by the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO), it has been hypothesized that Centaurus A (Cen A) is a source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and associated neutrinos. We point out that the diffuse neutrino flux may be used to constrain the source model if one assumes that the ratio between the UHECR and neutrino fluxes outputted by Cen A is representative for other sources. Under this assumption we investigate the relation between the neutrino flux from Cen A and the diffuse neutrino flux. Assuming furthermore that Cen A is the source of two UHECR events observedmore » by PAO, we estimate the all-sky diffuse neutrino flux to be {approx}200-5000 times larger than the neutrino flux from Cen A. As a result, the diffuse neutrino fluxes associated with some of the recently proposed models of UHECR-related neutrino production in Cen A are above existing limits. Regardless of the underlying source model, our results indicate that the detection of neutrinos from Cen A without the accompanying diffuse flux would mean that Cen A is an exceptionally efficient neutrino source.« less

  12. Experimental Neutrino Physics: Final Report

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lane, Charles E.; Maricic, Jelena

    2012-09-05

    Experimental studies of neutrino properties, with particular emphasis on neutrino oscillation, mass and mixing parameters. This research was pursued by means of underground detectors for reactor anti-neutrinos, measuring the flux and energy spectra of the neutrinos. More recent investigations have been aimed and developing detector technologies for a long-baseline neutrino experiment (LBNE) using a neutrino beam from Fermilab.

  13. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment: The precision era of neutrino physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kemp, E.

    The last decade was remarkable for neutrino physics. In particular, the phenomenon of neutrino flavor oscillations has been firmly established by a series of independent measurements. All parameters of the neutrino mixing are now known, and we have the elements to plan a judicious exploration of new scenarios that are opened by these recent advances. With precise measurements, we can test the three-neutrino paradigm, neutrino mass hierarchy, and charge conjugation parity (CP) asymmetry in the lepton sector. The future long-baseline experiments are considered to be a fundamental tool to deepen our knowledge of electroweak interactions. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experimentmore » (DUNE) will detect a broadband neutrino beam from Fermilab in an underground massive liquid argon time-projection chamber at an L/E of about 103 km GeV-1 to reach good sensitivity for CP-phase measurements and the determination of the mass hierarchy. The dimensions and the depth of the far detector also create an excellent opportunity to look for rare signals like proton decay to study violation of the baryonic number, as well as supernova neutrino bursts, broadening the scope of the experiment to astrophysics and associated impacts in cosmology. In this paper, we discuss the physics motivations and the main experimental features of the DUNE project required to reach its scientific goals.« less

  14. Muons and neutrinos

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stanev, T.

    1986-01-01

    The first generation of large and precise detectors, some initially dedicated to search for nucleon decay has accumulated significant statistics on neutrinos and high-energy muons. A second generation of even better and bigger detectors are already in operation or in advanced construction stage. The present set of experimental data on muon groups and neutrinos is qualitatively better than several years ago and the expectations for the following years are high. Composition studies with underground muon groups, neutrino detection, and expected extraterrestrial neutrino fluxes are discussed.

  15. Sterile neutrino dark matter production

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gorbunov, Dmitry

    2017-10-01

    Sterile neutrinos provide active neutrinos with masses and mixing, and hence is one of the well-motivated candidate for dark matter. We discuss the sterile neutrino production mechanisms operating in the early Universe and show that additional scalar coupled to sterile neutrino can significantly change the situation, making moderate sterile-neutrino mixing and small sterile neutrino masses consistent with current cosmological and astrophysical bounds. Further searches for a narrow line in galactic X-rays and even direct searches for keV-scale sterile neutrinos in particle physics experiments can probe the suggested setup.

  16. Charged Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kachelrieß, M.

    2013-04-01

    High-energy neutrino astronomy has grown up, with IceCube as one of its main experiments having sufficient sensitivity to test "vanilla" models of astrophysical neutrinos. I review predictions of neutrino fluxes as well as the status of cosmic ray physics. I comment also briefly on an improvement of the Fermi-LAT limit for cosmogenic neutrinos and on the two neutrino events presented by IceCube first at "Neutrino 2012".

  17. DEEP UNDERGROUND NEUTRINO EXPERIMENT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wilson, Robert J.

    2016-03-03

    The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) collaboration will perform an experiment centered on accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino studies along with nucleon decay and topics in neutrino astrophysics. It will consist of a modular 40-kt (fiducial) mass liquid argon TPC detector located deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota and a high-resolution near detector at Fermilab in Illinois. This conguration provides a 1300-km baseline in a megawatt-scale neutrino beam provided by the Fermilab- hosted international Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility.

  18. Active-sterile neutrino conversion: consequences for the r-process and supernova neutrino detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fetter, J.; McLaughlin, G. C.; Balantekin, A. B.; Fuller, G. M.

    2003-02-01

    We examine active-sterile neutrino conversion in the late time post-core-bounce supernova environment. By including the effect of feedback on the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) conversion potential, we obtain a large range of neutrino mixing parameters which produce a favorable environment for the r-process. We look at the signature of this effect in the current generation of neutrino detectors now coming on line. We also investigate the impact of the neutrino-neutrino forward-scattering-induced potential on the MSW conversion.

  19. Resolving neutrino mass hierarchy from supernova (anti)neutrino-nucleus reactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vale, Deni; Paar, Nils

    2015-10-01

    Recently a hybrid method has been introduced to determine neutrino mass hierarchy by simultaneous measurements of detector responses induced by antineutrino and neutrino fluxes from accretion and cooling phase of type II supernova. The (anti)neutrino-nucleus cross sections for 12C, 16O, 56Fe and 208Pb are calculated in the framework of relativistic nuclear energy density functional and weak interaction Hamiltonian, while the cross sections for inelastic scattering on free protons in mineral oil and water, p (v¯e,e+)n are obtained using heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. The simulations of (anti)neutrino fluxes emitted from a proto-neutron star in a core-collapse supernova include collective and Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects inside star. It is shown that simultaneous use of ve/v¯e detectors with different target material allow to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy from the ratios of ve/v¯e induced particle emissions. The hybrid method favors detectors with heavier target nuclei (208Pb) for the neutrino sector, while for antineutrinos the use of free protons in mineral oil and water is more appropriate.

  20. Supernovae neutrino pasta interaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Zidu; Horowitz, Charles; Caplan, Matthew; Berry, Donald; Roberts, Luke

    2017-01-01

    In core-collapse supernovae, the neutron rich matter is believed to have complex structures, such as spherical, slablike, and rodlike shapes. They are collectively called ``nuclear pasta''. Supernovae neutrinos may scatter coherently on the ``nuclear pasta'' since the wavelength of the supernovae neutrinos are comparable to the nuclear pasta scale. Consequently, the neutrino pasta scattering is important to understand the neutrino opacity in the supernovae. In this work we simulated the ``nuclear pasta'' at different temperatures and densities using our semi-classical molecular dynamics and calculated the corresponding static structure factor that describes ν-pasta scattering. We found the neutrino opacities are greatly modified when the ``pasta'' exist and may have influence on the supernovae neutrino flux and average energy. Our neutrino-pasta scattering effect can finally be involved in the current supernovae simulations and we present preliminary proto neutron star cooling simulations including our pasta opacities.

  1. Effects of neutrino oscillations on nucleosynthesis and neutrino signals for an 18 M⊙ supernova model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Meng-Ru; Qian, Yong-Zhong; Martínez-Pinedo, Gabriel; Fischer, Tobias; Huther, Lutz

    2015-03-01

    In this paper, we explore the effects of neutrino flavor oscillations on supernova nucleosynthesis and on the neutrino signals. Our study is based on detailed information about the neutrino spectra and their time evolution from a spherically symmetric supernova model for an 18 M⊙ progenitor. We find that collective neutrino oscillations are not only sensitive to the detailed neutrino energy and angular distributions at emission, but also to the time evolution of both the neutrino spectra and the electron density profile. We apply the results of neutrino oscillations to study the impact on supernova nucleosynthesis and on the neutrino signals from a Galactic supernova. We show that in our supernova model, collective neutrino oscillations enhance the production of rare isotopes 138La and 180Ta but have little impact on the ν p -process nucleosynthesis. In addition, the adiabatic Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein flavor transformation, which occurs in the C /O and He shells of the supernova, may affect the production of light nuclei such as 7Li and 11B. For the neutrino signals, we calculate the rate of neutrino events in the Super-Kamiokande detector and in a hypothetical liquid argon detector. Our results suggest the possibility of using the time profiles of the events in both detectors, along with the spectral information of the detected neutrinos, to infer the neutrino mass hierarchy.

  2. Search for sterile neutrinos in muon neutrino disappearance mode at FNAL

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anokhina, A.; Bagulya, A.; Benettoni, M.; Bernardini, P.; Brugnera, R.; Calabrese, M.; Cecchetti, A.; Cecchini, S.; Chernyavskiy, M.; Dal Corso, F.; Dalkarov, O.; Del Prete, A.; De Robertis, G.; De Serio, M.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Dusini, S.; Dzhatdoev, T.; Fini, R. A.; Fiore, G.; Garfagnini, A.; Guerzoni, M.; Klicek, B.; Kose, U.; Jakovcic, K.; Laurenti, G.; Lippi, I.; Loddo, F.; Longhin, A.; Malenica, M.; Mancarella, G.; Mandrioli, G.; Margiotta, A.; Marsella, G.; Mauri, N.; Medinaceli, E.; Mingazheva, R.; Morgunova, O.; Muciaccia, M. T.; Nessi, M.; Orecchini, D.; Paoloni, A.; Papadia, G.; Paparella, L.; Pasqualini, L.; Pastore, A.; Patrizii, L.; Polukhina, N.; Pozzato, M.; Roda, M.; Roganova, T.; Rosa, G.; Sahnoun, Z.; Shchedrina, T.; Simone, S.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Spurio, M.; Stanco, L.; Starkov, N.; Stipcevic, M.; Surdo, A.; Tenti, M.; Togo, V.; Vladymyrov, M.

    2017-01-01

    The NESSiE Collaboration has been setup to undertake a conclusive experiment to clarify the muon-neutrino disappearance measurements at short baselines in order to put severe constraints to models with more than the three-standard neutrinos. To this aim the current FNAL-Booster neutrino beam for a Short-Baseline experiment was carefully evaluated by considering the use of magnetic spectrometers at two sites, near and far ones. The detector locations were studied, together with the achievable performances of two OPERA-like spectrometers. The study was constrained by the availability of existing hardware and a time-schedule compatible with the undergoing project of multi-site Liquid-Argon detectors at FNAL. The settled physics case and the kind of proposed experiment on the Booster neutrino beam would definitively clarify the existing tension between the ν _{μ } disappearance and the ν e appearance/disappearance at the eV mass scale. In the context of neutrino oscillations the measurement of ν _{μ } disappearance is a robust and fast approach to either reject or discover new neutrino states at the eV mass scale. We discuss an experimental program able to extend by more than one order of magnitude (for neutrino disappearance) and by almost one order of magnitude (for antineutrino disappearance) the present range of sensitivity for the mixing angle between standard and sterile neutrinos. These extensions are larger than those achieved in any other proposal presented so far.

  3. Neutrino-Driven Explosions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Janka, Hans-Thomas

    The question why and how core-collapse supernovae (SNe) explode is one of the central and most long-standing riddles of stellar astrophysics. Solving this problem is crucial for deciphering the supernova (SN) phenomenon; for predicting its observable signals such as light curves and spectra, nucleosynthesis yields, neutrinos, and gravitational waves; for defining the role of SNe in the dynamical and chemo-dynamical evolution of galaxies; and for explaining the birth conditions and properties of neutron stars (NSs) and stellar-mass black holes. Since the formation of such compact remnants releases over hundred times more energy in neutrinos than the kinetic energy of the SN explosion, neutrinos can be the decisive agents for powering the SN outburst. According to the standard paradigm of the neutrino-driven mechanism, the energy transfer by the intense neutrino flux to the medium behind the stagnating core bounce shock, assisted by violent hydrodynamic mass motions (sometimes subsumed by the term "turbulence"), revives the outward shock motion and thus initiates the SN explosion. Because of the weak coupling of neutrinos in the region of this energy deposition, detailed, multidimensional hydrodynamic models including neutrino transport and a wide variety of physics are needed to assess the viability of the mechanism. Owing to advanced numerical codes and increasing supercomputer power, considerable progress has been achieved in our understanding of the physical processes that have to act in concert for the success of neutrino-driven explosions. First studies begin to reveal observational implications and avenues to test the theoretical picture by data from individual SNe and SN remnants but also from population-integrated observables. While models will be further refined, a real breakthrough is expected through the next galactic core-collapse SN, when neutrinos and gravitational waves can be used to probe the conditions deep inside the dying star.

  4. Dark matter, baryogenesis and neutrino oscillations from right-handed neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Canetti, Laurent; Drewes, Marco; Frossard, Tibor; Shaposhnikov, Mikhail

    2013-05-01

    We show that, leaving aside accelerated cosmic expansion, all experimental data in high energy physics that are commonly agreed to require physics beyond the Standard Model can be explained when completing the model by three right-handed neutrinos that can be searched for using present-day experimental techniques. The model that realizes this scenario is known as the Neutrino Minimal Standard Model (νMSM). In this article we give a comprehensive summary of all known constraints in the νMSM, along with a pedagogical introduction to the model. We present the first complete quantitative study of the parameter space of the model where no physics beyond the νMSM is needed to simultaneously explain neutrino oscillations, dark matter, and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. The key new point of our analysis is leptogenesis after sphaleron freeze-out, which leads to resonant dark matter production, thus evading the constraints on sterile neutrino dark matter from structure formation and x-ray searches. This requires one to track the time evolution of left- and right-handed neutrino abundances from hot big bang initial conditions down to temperatures below the QCD scale. We find that the interplay of resonant amplifications, CP-violating flavor oscillations, scatterings, and decays leads to a number of previously unknown constraints on the sterile neutrino properties. We furthermore reanalyze bounds from past collider experiments and big bang nucleosynthesis in the face of recent evidence for a nonzero neutrino mixing angle θ13. We combine all our results with existing constraints on dark matter properties from astrophysics and cosmology. Our results provide a guideline for future experimental searches for sterile neutrinos. A summary of the constraints on sterile neutrino masses and mixings has appeared in Canetti et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 061801 (2013)PRLTAO0031-9007]. In this article we provide all details of our calculations and give constraints on other model

  5. Sterile neutrinos or flux uncertainties? — Status of the reactor anti-neutrino anomaly

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dentler, Mona; Hernández-Cabezudo, Álvaro; Kopp, Joachim; Maltoni, Michele; Schwetz, Thomas

    2017-11-01

    The ˜ 3 σ discrepancy between the predicted and observed reactor anti-neutrino flux, known as the reactor anti-neutrino anomaly, continues to intrigue. The recent discovery of an unexpected bump in the reactor anti-neutrino spectrum, as well as indications that the flux deficit is different for different fission isotopes seems to disfavour the explanation of the anomaly in terms of sterile neutrino oscillations. We critically review this conclusion in view of all available data on electron (anti)neutrino disappearance. We find that the sterile neutrino hypothesis cannot be rejected based on global data and is only mildly disfavored compared to an individual rescaling of neutrino fluxes from different fission isotopes. The main reason for this is the presence of spectral features in recent data from the NEOS and DANSS experiments. If state-of-the-art predictions for reactor fluxes are taken at face value, sterile neutrino oscillations allow a consistent description of global data with a significance close to 3 σ relative to the no-oscillation case. Even if reactor fluxes and spectra are left free in the fit, a 2 σ hint in favour of sterile neutrinos remains, with allowed parameter regions consistent with an explanation of the anomaly in terms of oscillations.

  6. Solar neutrinos as a probe of dark matter-neutrino interactions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Capozzi, Francesco; Vecchi, Luca; Shoemaker, Ian M., E-mail: capozzi.12@osu.edu, E-mail: ian.shoemaker@usd.edu, E-mail: vecchi@infn.pd.it

    2017-07-01

    Sterile neutrinos at the eV scale have long been studied in the context of anomalies in short baseline neutrino experiments. Their cosmology can be made compatible with our understanding of the early Universe provided the sterile neutrino sector enjoys a nontrivial dynamics with exotic interactions, possibly providing a link to the Dark Matter (DM) puzzle. Interactions between DM and neutrinos have also been proposed to address the long-standing 'missing satellites' problem in the field of large scale structure formation. Motivated by these considerations, in this paper we discuss realistic scenarios with light steriles coupled to DM . We point outmore » that within this framework active neutrinos acquire an effective coupling to DM that manifests itself as a new matter potential in the propagation within a medium of asymmetric DM . Assuming that at least a small fraction of asymmetric DM has been captured by the Sun, we show that a sizable region of the parameter space of these scenarios can be probed by solar neutrino experiments, especially in the regime of small couplings and light mediators where all other probes become inefficient. In the latter regime these scenarios behave as familiar 3+1 models in all channels except for solar data, where a Solar Dark MSW effect takes place. Solar Dark MSW is characterized by modifications of the most energetic {sup 8}B and CNO neutrinos, whereas the other fluxes remain largely unaffected.« less

  7. Solar neutrinos as a probe of dark matter-neutrino interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Capozzi, Francesco; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Vecchi, Luca

    2017-07-01

    Sterile neutrinos at the eV scale have long been studied in the context of anomalies in short baseline neutrino experiments. Their cosmology can be made compatible with our understanding of the early Universe provided the sterile neutrino sector enjoys a nontrivial dynamics with exotic interactions, possibly providing a link to the Dark Matter (DM) puzzle. Interactions between DM and neutrinos have also been proposed to address the long-standing "missing satellites" problem in the field of large scale structure formation. Motivated by these considerations, in this paper we discuss realistic scenarios with light steriles coupled to DM . We point out that within this framework active neutrinos acquire an effective coupling to DM that manifests itself as a new matter potential in the propagation within a medium of asymmetric DM . Assuming that at least a small fraction of asymmetric DM has been captured by the Sun, we show that a sizable region of the parameter space of these scenarios can be probed by solar neutrino experiments, especially in the regime of small couplings and light mediators where all other probes become inefficient. In the latter regime these scenarios behave as familiar 3+1 models in all channels except for solar data, where a Solar Dark MSW effect takes place. Solar Dark MSW is characterized by modifications of the most energetic 8B and CNO neutrinos, whereas the other fluxes remain largely unaffected.

  8. Salt Neutrino Detector for Ultrahigh-Energy Neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chiba, M.; Yasuda, O.; Kamijo, T.

    2004-11-01

    Rock salt and limestone are studied to determine their suitability for use as a radio-wave transmission medium in an ultrahigh energy (UHE) cosmic neutrino detector. A sensible radio wave would be emitted by the coherent Cherenkov radiation from negative excess charges inside an electromagnetic shower upon interaction of a UHE neutrino in a high-density medium (Askar'yan effect). If the attenuation length for the radio wave in the material is large, a relatively small number of radio-wave sensors could detect the interaction occurring in the massive material. We measured the complex permittivity of the rock salt and limestone by the perturbedmore » cavity resonator method at 9.4 and 1 GHz to good precision. We obtained new results of measurements at the frequency at 1.0 GHz. The measured value of the radio-wave attenuation length of synthetic rock salt samples is 1080 m. The samples from the Hockley salt mine in the United States show attenuation length of 180 m at 1 GHz, and then we estimate it by extrapolation to be as long as 900 m at 200 MHz. The results show that there is a possibility of utilizing natural massive deposits of rock salt for a UHE neutrino detector. A salt neutrino detector with a size of 2 x 2 x 2 km would detect 10 UHE neutrino/yr generated through the GZK process.« less

  9. Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters from Muon Neutrino Disappearance with an Off-Axis Beam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Adam, J.; Aihara, H.; Akiri, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Assylbekov, S.; Autiero, D.; Barbi, M.; Barker, G. J.; Barr, G.; Bass, M.; Batkiewicz, M.; Bay, F.; Bentham, S. W.; Berardi, V.; Berger, B. E.; Berkman, S.; Bertram, I.; Bhadra, S.; Blaszczyk, F. d. M.; Blondel, A.; Bojechko, C.; Bordoni, S.; Boyd, S. B.; Brailsford, D.; Bravar, A.; Bronner, C.; Buchanan, N.; Calland, R. G.; Caravaca Rodríguez, J.; Cartwright, S. L.; Castillo, R.; Catanesi, M. G.; Cervera, A.; Cherdack, D.; Christodoulou, G.; Clifton, A.; Coleman, J.; Coleman, S. J.; Collazuol, G.; Connolly, K.; Cremonesi, L.; Curioni, A.; Dabrowska, A.; Danko, I.; Das, R.; Davis, S.; de Perio, P.; De Rosa, G.; Dealtry, T.; Dennis, S. R.; Densham, C.; Di Lodovico, F.; Di Luise, S.; Drapier, O.; Duboyski, T.; Duffy, K.; Dufour, F.; Dumarchez, J.; Dytman, S.; Dziewiecki, M.; Emery, S.; Ereditato, A.; Escudero, L.; Finch, A. J.; Frank, E.; Friend, M.; Fujii, Y.; Fukuda, Y.; Furmanski, A. P.; Galymov, V.; Gaudin, A.; Giffin, S.; Giganti, C.; Gilje, K.; Golan, T.; Gomez-Cadenas, J. J.; Gonin, M.; Grant, N.; Gudin, D.; Hadley, D. R.; Haesler, A.; Haigh, M. D.; Hamilton, P.; Hansen, D.; Hara, T.; Hartz, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Hastings, N. C.; Hayato, Y.; Hearty, C.; Helmer, R. L.; Hierholzer, M.; Hignight, J.; Hillairet, A.; Himmel, A.; Hiraki, T.; Hirota, S.; Holeczek, J.; Horikawa, S.; Huang, K.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Ieki, K.; Ieva, M.; Ikeda, M.; Imber, J.; Insler, J.; Irvine, T. J.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Ives, S. J.; Iyogi, K.; Izmaylov, A.; Jacob, A.; Jamieson, B.; Johnson, R. A.; Jo, J. H.; Jonsson, P.; Joo, K. K.; Jung, C. K.; Kaboth, A. C.; Kajita, T.; Kakuno, H.; Kameda, J.; Kanazawa, Y.; Karlen, D.; Karpikov, I.; Kearns, E.; Khabibullin, M.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kielczewska, D.; Kikawa, T.; Kilinski, A.; Kim, J.; Kim, S. B.; Kisiel, J.; Kitching, P.; Kobayashi, T.; Kogan, G.; Kolaceke, A.; Konaka, A.; Kormos, L. L.; Korzenev, A.; Koseki, K.; Koshio, Y.; Kreslo, I.; Kropp, W.; Kubo, H.; Kudenko, Y.; Kumaratunga, S.; Kurjata, R.; Kutter, T.; Lagoda, J.; Laihem, K.; Laveder, M.; Lawe, M.; Lazos, M.; Lee, K. P.; Licciardi, C.; Lim, I. T.; Lindner, T.; Lister, C.; Litchfield, R. P.; Longhin, A.; Lopez, G. D.; Ludovici, L.; Macaire, M.; Magaletti, L.; Mahn, K.; Malek, M.; Manly, S.; Marino, A. D.; Marteau, J.; Martin, J. F.; Maruyama, T.; Marzec, J.; Masliah, P.; Mathie, E. L.; Matveev, V.; Mavrokoridis, K.; Mazzucato, E.; McCarthy, M.; McCauley, N.; McFarland, K. S.; McGrew, C.; Metelko, C.; Mijakowski, P.; Miller, C. A.; Minamino, A.; Mineev, O.; Mine, S.; Missert, A.; Miura, M.; Monfregola, L.; Moriyama, S.; Mueller, Th. A.; Murakami, A.; Murdoch, M.; Murphy, S.; Myslik, J.; Nagasaki, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakahata, M.; Nakai, T.; Nakamura, K.; Nakayama, S.; Nakaya, T.; Nakayoshi, K.; Naples, D.; Nielsen, C.; Nirkko, M.; Nishikawa, K.; Nishimura, Y.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Ohta, R.; Okumura, K.; Okusawa, T.; Oryszczak, W.; Oser, S. M.; Otani, M.; Owen, R. A.; Oyama, Y.; Pac, M. Y.; Palladino, V.; Paolone, V.; Payne, D.; Pearce, G. F.; Perevozchikov, O.; Perkin, J. D.; Petrov, Y.; Pinzon Guerra, E. S.; Pistillo, C.; Plonski, P.; Poplawska, E.; Popov, B.; Posiadala, M.; Poutissou, J.-M.; Poutissou, R.; Przewlocki, P.; Quilain, B.; Radicioni, E.; Ratoff, P. N.; Ravonel, M.; Rayner, M. A. M.; Redij, A.; Reeves, M.; Reinherz-Aronis, E.; Retiere, F.; Robert, A.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Rondio, E.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Ruterbories, D.; Sacco, R.; Sakashita, K.; Sánchez, F.; Sato, F.; Scantamburlo, E.; Scholberg, K.; Schwehr, J.; Scott, M.; Seiya, Y.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekiya, H.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shiozawa, M.; Short, S.; Shustrov, Y.; Sinclair, P.; Smith, B.; Smith, R. J.; Smy, M.; Sobczyk, J. T.; Sobel, H.; Sorel, M.; Southwell, L.; Stamoulis, P.; Steinmann, J.; Still, B.; Suda, Y.; Suzuki, A.; Suzuki, K.; Suzuki, S. Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Szeglowski, T.; Tacik, R.; Tada, M.; Takahashi, S.; Takeda, A.; Takeuchi, Y.; Tanaka, H. K.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tanaka, M. M.; Taylor, I. J.; Terhorst, D.; Terri, R.; Thompson, L. F.; Thorley, A.; Tobayama, S.; Toki, W.; Tomura, T.; Totsuka, Y.; Touramanis, C.; Tsukamoto, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Ueno, K.; Vacheret, A.; Vagins, M.; Vasseur, G.; Wachala, T.; Waldron, A. V.; Walter, C. W.; Wark, D.; Wascko, M. O.; Weber, A.; Wendell, R.; Wilkes, R. J.; Wilking, M. J.; Wilkinson, C.; Williamson, Z.; Wilson, J. R.; Wilson, R. J.; Wongjirad, T.; Yamada, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Yen, S.; Yershov, N.; Yokoyama, M.; Yuan, T.; Zalewska, A.; Zalipska, J.; Zambelli, L.; Zaremba, K.; Ziembicki, M.; Zimmerman, E. D.; Zito, M.; Żmuda, J.

    2013-11-01

    The T2K Collaboration reports a precision measurement of muon neutrino disappearance with an off-axis neutrino beam with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV. Near detector measurements are used to constrain the neutrino flux and cross section parameters. The Super-Kamiokande far detector, which is 295 km downstream of the neutrino production target, collected data corresponding to 3.01×1020 protons on target. In the absence of neutrino oscillations, 205±17 (syst) events are expected to be detected while only 58 muon neutrino event candidates are observed. A fit to the neutrino rate and energy spectrum, assuming three neutrino flavors and normal mass hierarchy yields a best-fit mixing angle sin⁡2(θ23)=0.514±0.082 and mass splitting |Δm322|=2.44-0.15+0.17×10-3eV2/c4. Our result corresponds to the maximal oscillation disappearance probability.

  10. Neutrino conversion in a neutrino flux: towards an effective theory of collective oscillations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hansen, Rasmus S. L.; Smirnov, Alexei Yu.

    2018-04-01

    Collective oscillations of supernova neutrinos above the neutrino sphere can be completely described by the propagation of individual neutrinos in external potentials and are in this sense a linear phenomenon. An effective theory of collective oscillations can be developed based on certain assumptions about time dependence of these potentials. General conditions for strong flavor transformations are formulated and these transformations can be interpreted as parametric resonance effects induced by periodic modulations of the potentials. We study a simplified and solvable example, where a probe neutrino is propagating in a flux of collinear neutrinos, such that ν ν‑ interactions in the flux are absent. Still, this example retains the main feature—the coherent flavor exchange. Properties of the parametric resonance are studied, and it is shown that integrations over energies and emission points of the flux neutrinos suppress modulations of the potentials and therefore strong transformations. The transformations are also suppressed by changes in densities of background neutrinos and electrons.

  11. Neutrino Astronomy with IceCube

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meagher, Kevin J.

    The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometer neutrino telescope located at the Geographic South Pole. Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged secondary particles from neutrino interactions is observed by IceCube using an array of 5160 photomultiplier tubes embedded between a depth of 1.5 km to 2.5 km in the Antarctic glacial ice. The detection of astrophysical neutrinos is a primary goal of IceCube and has now been realized with the discovery of a diffuse, high-energy flux consisting of neutrino events from tens of TeV up to several PeV. Many analyses have been performed to identify the source of these neutrinos: correlations with active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and the galactic plane. IceCube also conducts multi-messenger campaigns to alert other observatories of possible neutrino transients in real-time. However, the source of these neutrinos remains elusive as no corresponding electromagnetic counterparts have been identified. This proceeding will give an overview of the detection principles of IceCube, the properties of the observed astrophysical neutrinos, the search for corresponding sources (including real-time searches), and plans for a next-generation neutrino detector, IceCube-Gen2.

  12. Simulation of coherent nonlinear neutrino flavor transformation in the supernova environment: Correlated neutrino trajectories

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duan, Huaiyu; Fuller, George M.; Carlson, J.; Qian, Yong-Zhong

    2006-11-01

    We present results of large-scale numerical simulations of the evolution of neutrino and antineutrino flavors in the region above the late-time post-supernova-explosion proto-neutron star. Our calculations are the first to allow explicit flavor evolution histories on different neutrino trajectories and to self-consistently couple flavor development on these trajectories through forward scattering-induced quantum coupling. Employing the atmospheric-scale neutrino mass-squared difference (|δm2|≃3×10-3eV2) and values of θ13 allowed by current bounds, we find transformation of neutrino and antineutrino flavors over broad ranges of energy and luminosity in roughly the “bi-polar” collective mode. We find that this large-scale flavor conversion, largely driven by the flavor off-diagonal neutrino-neutrino forward scattering potential, sets in much closer to the proto-neutron star than simple estimates based on flavor-diagonal potentials and Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein evolution would indicate. In turn, this suggests that models of r-process nucleosynthesis sited in the neutrino-driven wind could be affected substantially by active-active neutrino flavor mixing, even with the small measured neutrino mass-squared differences.

  13. An Experimentalist's Overview of Solar Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oser, Scott M.

    2012-02-01

    Four decades of solar neutrino research have demonstrated that solar models do a remarkable job of predicting the neutrino fluxes from the Sun, to the extent that solar neutrinos can now serve as a calibrated neutrino source for experiments to understand neutrino oscillations and mixing. In this review article I will highlight the most significant experimental results, with emphasis on the latest model-independent measurements from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The solar neutrino fluxes are seen to be generally well-determined experimentally, with no indications of time variability, while future experiments will elucidate the lower energy part of the neutrino spectrum, especially pep and CNO neutrinos.

  14. Probing light sterile neutrino signatures at reactor and Spallation Neutron Source neutrino experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kosmas, T. S.; Papoulias, D. K.; Tórtola, M.; Valle, J. W. F.

    2017-09-01

    We investigate the impact of a fourth sterile neutrino at reactor and Spallation Neutron Source neutrino detectors. Specifically, we explore the discovery potential of the TEXONO and COHERENT experiments to subleading sterile neutrino effects through the measurement of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering event rate. Our dedicated χ2-sensitivity analysis employs realistic nuclear structure calculations adequate for high purity sub-keV threshold Germanium detectors.

  15. A search for hep solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winchester, Timothy J.

    Solar neutrinos from the fusion hep reaction, (helium-3 fusing with a proton to become helium-4, releasing a positron and neutrino), have previously remained undetected due to their flux being about one one-thousandth that of boron-8 neutrinos. These neutrinos are interesting theoretically because they are less dependent on solar composition than other solar neutrinos, and therefore provide a somewhat independent test of the Standard Solar Model. In this analysis, we develop a new event fitter for existing data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. We also use the fitter to remove backgrounds that previously limited the fiducial volume, which we increase by 30%. We use a modified Wald-Wolfowitz test to increase the amount of live time by 200 days (18%) and show that this data is consistent with the previously-used data. Finally, we develop a Bayesian analysis technique to make full use of the posterior distributions of energy returned by the event fitter. In the first significant detection of hep neutrinos, we find that the most-probable rate of hep events is 3.5 x 10. 4 /cm. 2/s, which is significantly higher than the theoretical prediction. We find that the 95% credible region extends from 1.0 to 7.2 x 10. 4 /cm. 2/s, and that we can therefore exclude a rate of 0 hep events at greater than 95% probability.

  16. A search for matter enhanced neutrino oscillations through measurements of day and night solar neutrino fluxes at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miknaitis, Kathryn Kelly Schaffer

    The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a heavy-water Cherenkov detector designed to study 8B neutrinos from the sun. Through the charged-current (CC) and neutral-current (NC) reactions of neutrinos on deuterium, SNO separately determines the flux of electron neutrinos and the flux of all active flavors of solar 8B neutrinos. SNO is also sensitive to the elastic scattering (ES) of neutrinos on electrons in the heavy water. Measurements of the CC and NC rates in SNO have conclusively demonstrated solar neutrino flavor change. This flavor change is believed to be caused by matter-enhanced oscillations in the sun, through the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect. Matter effects could also change the flavor composition of neutrinos that traverse the earth. A comparison of the day and night measured CC flux at SNO directly tests for the MSW effect and contributes to constraints on neutrino oscillation parameters in the MSW model. We perform measurements of the day and night neutrino fluxes using data from the second phase of SNO, in which salt (NaCl) was added to the heavy water to enhance sensitivity to the NC reaction. Better discrimination between CC and NC events in the salt phase allows the fluxes to be determined without constraining the neutrino energy spectrum. The day-night asymmetry in the CC flux measured in this model-independent analysis is ACC = [-5.6 +/- 7.4(stat.) +/- 5.3(syst.)]%, where the asymmetry is defined as the difference between the night and day values divided by their average. The asymmetries in the NC and ES fluxes are ANC = [4.2 +/- 8.6(stat.) +/- 7.2(syst.)]%, and AES = (14.6 +/- 19.8(stat.) +/- 3.3(syst.)]%. The neutral current asymmetry is expected to be zero assuming standard neutrino oscillations. When we constrain it to be zero, we obtain ACC = [-3.7 +/- 6.3(stat.) +/- 3.2(syst.)]% and AES = [15.3 +/- 19.8(stat.) +/- 3.0(syst.)]%. The day and night energy spectra from the CC reaction have been measured and show no evidence for

  17. Probing secret interactions of eV-scale sterile neutrinos with the diffuse supernova neutrino background

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jeong, Yu Seon; Palomares-Ruiz, Sergio; Hall Reno, Mary; Sarcevic, Ina

    2018-06-01

    Sterile neutrinos with mass in the eV-scale and large mixings of order θ0simeq 0.1 could explain some anomalies found in short-baseline neutrino oscillation data. Here, we revisit a neutrino portal scenario in which eV-scale sterile neutrinos have self-interactions via a new gauge vector boson phi. Their production in the early Universe via mixing with active neutrinos can be suppressed by the induced effective potential in the sterile sector. We study how different cosmological observations can constrain this model, in terms of the mass of the new gauge boson, Mphi, and its coupling to sterile neutrinos, gs. Then, we explore how to probe part of the allowed parameter space of this particular model with future observations of the diffuse supernova neutrino background by the Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE detectors. For Mphi ~ 5‑10 keV and gs ~ 10‑4‑10‑2, as allowed by cosmological constraints, we find that interactions of diffuse supernova neutrinos with relic sterile neutrinos on their way to the Earth would result in significant dips in the neutrino spectrum which would produce unique features in the event spectra observed in these detectors.

  18. Hardron production and neutrino beams

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guglielmi, A.

    2006-11-01

    The precise measurements of the neutrino mixing parameters in the oscillation experiments at accelerators require new high-intensity and high-purity neutrino beams. Ancillary hadron-production measurements are then needed as inputs to precise calculation of neutrino beams and of atmospheric neutrino fluxes.

  19. Neutrino mixing and big bang nucleosynthesis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bell, Nicole

    2003-04-01

    We analyse active-active neutrino mixing in the early universe and show that transformation of neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries between flavours is unavoidable when neutrino mixing angles are large. This process is a standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein flavour transformation, modified by the synchronisation of momentum states which results from neutrino-neutrino forward scattering. The new constraints placed on neutrino asymmetries eliminate the possibility of degenerate big bang nucleosynthesis.Implications of active-sterile neutrino mixing will also be reviewed.

  20. Probing neutrino coupling to a light scalar with coherent neutrino scattering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Farzan, Yasaman; Lindner, Manfred; Rodejohann, Werner; Xu, Xun-Jie

    2018-05-01

    Large neutrino event numbers in future experiments measuring coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering allow precision measurements of standard and new physics. We analyze the current and prospective limits of a light scalar particle coupling to neutrinos and quarks, using COHERENT and CONUS as examples. Both lepton number conserving and violating interactions are considered. It is shown that current (future) experiments can probe for scalar masses of a few MeV couplings down to the level of 10-4 (10-6). Scalars with masses around the neutrino energy allow to determine their mass via a characteristic spectrum shape distortion. Our present and future limits are compared with constraints from supernova evolution, Big Bang nucleosynthesis and neutrinoless double beta decay. We also outline UV-complete underlying models that include a light scalar with coupling to quarks for both lepton number violating and conserving coupling to neutrinos.

  1. Evidence of electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Abgrall, N.; Aihara, H.; Akiri, T.; Albert, J. B.; Andreopoulos, C.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Assylbekov, S.; Autiero, D.; Barbi, M.; Barker, G. J.; Barr, G.; Bass, M.; Batkiewicz, M.; Bay, F.; Bentham, S. W.; Berardi, V.; Berger, B. E.; Berkman, S.; Bertram, I.; Beznosko, D.; Bhadra, S.; Blaszczyk, F. d. M.; Blondel, A.; Bojechko, C.; Boyd, S.; Brailsford, D.; Bravar, A.; Bronner, C.; Brook-Roberge, D. G.; Buchanan, N.; Calland, R. G.; Caravaca Rodríguez, J.; Cartwright, S. L.; Castillo, R.; Catanesi, M. G.; Cervera, A.; Cherdack, D.; Christodoulou, G.; Clifton, A.; Coleman, J.; Coleman, S. J.; Collazuol, G.; Connolly, K.; Cremonesi, L.; Curioni, A.; Dabrowska, A.; Danko, I.; Das, R.; Davis, S.; Day, M.; de André, J. P. A. M.; de Perio, P.; De Rosa, G.; Dealtry, T.; Dennis, S.; Densham, C.; Di Lodovico, F.; Di Luise, S.; Dobson, J.; Drapier, O.; Duboyski, T.; Dufour, F.; Dumarchez, J.; Dytman, S.; Dziewiecki, M.; Dziomba, M.; Emery, S.; Ereditato, A.; Escudero, L.; Finch, A. J.; Frank, E.; Friend, M.; Fujii, Y.; Fukuda, Y.; Furmanski, A.; Galymov, V.; Gaudin, A.; Giffin, S.; Giganti, C.; Gilje, K.; Golan, T.; Gomez-Cadenas, J. J.; Gonin, M.; Grant, N.; Gudin, D.; Hadley, D. R.; Haesler, A.; Haigh, M. D.; Hamilton, P.; Hansen, D.; Hara, T.; Hartz, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Hastings, N. C.; Hayato, Y.; Hearty, C.; Helmer, R. L.; Hierholzer, M.; Hignight, J.; Hillairet, A.; Himmel, A.; Hiraki, T.; Hirota, S.; Holeczek, J.; Horikawa, S.; Huang, K.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Ieki, K.; Ieva, M.; Ikeda, M.; Imber, J.; Insler, J.; Irvine, T. J.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Ives, S. J.; Iyogi, K.; Izmaylov, A.; Jacob, A.; Jamieson, B.; Johnson, R. A.; Jo, J. H.; Jonsson, P.; Joo, K. K.; Jung, C. K.; Kaboth, A.; Kaji, H.; Kajita, T.; Kakuno, H.; Kameda, J.; Kanazawa, Y.; Karlen, D.; Karpikov, I.; Kearns, E.; Khabibullin, M.; Khanam, F.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kielczewska, D.; Kikawa, T.; Kilinski, A.; Kim, J. Y.; Kim, J.; Kim, S. B.; Kirby, B.; Kisiel, J.; Kitching, P.; Kobayashi, T.; Kogan, G.; Kolaceke, A.; Konaka, A.; Kormos, L. L.; Korzenev, A.; Koseki, K.; Koshio, Y.; Kowalik, K.; Kreslo, I.; Kropp, W.; Kubo, H.; Kudenko, Y.; Kumaratunga, S.; Kurjata, R.; Kutter, T.; Lagoda, J.; Laihem, K.; Laing, A.; Laveder, M.; Lawe, M.; Lazos, M.; Lee, K. P.; Licciardi, C.; Lim, I. T.; Lindner, T.; Lister, C.; Litchfield, R. P.; Longhin, A.; Lopez, G. D.; Ludovici, L.; Macaire, M.; Magaletti, L.; Mahn, K.; Malek, M.; Manly, S.; Marchionni, A.; Marino, A. D.; Marteau, J.; Martin, J. F.; Maruyama, T.; Marzec, J.; Masliah, P.; Mathie, E. L.; Matveev, V.; Mavrokoridis, K.; Mazzucato, E.; McCauley, N.; McFarland, K. S.; McGrew, C.; McLachlan, T.; Messina, M.; Metelko, C.; Mezzetto, M.; Mijakowski, P.; Miller, C. A.; Minamino, A.; Mineev, O.; Mine, S.; Missert, A.; Miura, M.; Monfregola, L.; Moriyama, S.; Mueller, Th. A.; Murakami, A.; Murdoch, M.; Murphy, S.; Myslik, J.; Nagasaki, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakahata, M.; Nakai, T.; Nakajima, K.; Nakamura, K.; Nakayama, S.; Nakaya, T.; Nakayoshi, K.; Naples, D.; Nicholls, T. C.; Nielsen, C.; Nirkko, M.; Nishikawa, K.; Nishimura, Y.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Obayashi, Y.; Ohta, R.; Okumura, K.; Okusawa, T.; Oryszczak, W.; Oser, S. M.; Otani, M.; Owen, R. A.; Oyama, Y.; Pac, M. Y.; Palladino, V.; Paolone, V.; Payne, D.; Pearce, G. F.; Perevozchikov, O.; Perkin, J. D.; Petrov, Y.; Pinzon Guerra, E. S.; Plonski, P.; Poplawska, E.; Popov, B.; Posiadala, M.; Poutissou, J.-M.; Poutissou, R.; Przewlocki, P.; Quilain, B.; Radicioni, E.; Ratoff, P. N.; Ravonel, M.; Rayner, M. A. M.; Reeves, M.; Reinherz-Aronis, E.; Retiere, F.; Robert, A.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Rondio, E.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Ruterbories, D.; Sacco, R.; Sakashita, K.; Sánchez, F.; Scantamburlo, E.; Scholberg, K.; Schwehr, J.; Scott, M.; Scully, D. I.; Seiya, Y.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekiya, H.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shibata, M.; Shiozawa, M.; Short, S.; Shustrov, Y.; Sinclair, P.; Smith, B.; Smith, R. J.; Smy, M.; Sobczyk, J. T.; Sobel, H.; Sorel, M.; Southwell, L.; Stamoulis, P.; Steinmann, J.; Still, B.; Suzuki, A.; Suzuki, K.; Suzuki, S. Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Szeglowski, T.; Szeptycka, M.; Tacik, R.; Tada, M.; Takahashi, S.; Takeda, A.; Takeuchi, Y.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tanaka, M. M.; Tanaka, M.; Taylor, I. J.; Terhorst, D.; Terri, R.; Thompson, L. F.; Thorley, A.; Tobayama, S.; Toki, W.; Tomura, T.; Totsuka, Y.; Touramanis, C.; Tsukamoto, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Ueno, K.; Vacheret, A.; Vagins, M.; Vasseur, G.; Wachala, T.; Waldron, A. V.; Walter, C. W.; Wark, D.; Wascko, M. O.; Weber, A.; Wendell, R.; Wilkes, R. J.; Wilking, M. J.; Wilkinson, C.; Williamson, Z.; Wilson, J. R.; Wilson, R. J.; Wongjirad, T.; Yamada, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Yen, S.; Yershov, N.; Yokoyama, M.; Yuan, T.; Zalewska, A.; Zambelli, L.; Zaremba, K.; Ziembicki, M.; Zimmerman, E. D.; Zito, M.; Żmuda, J.

    2013-08-01

    The T2K Collaboration reports evidence for electron neutrino appearance at the atmospheric mass splitting, |Δm322|≈2.4×10-3eV2. An excess of electron neutrino interactions over background is observed from a muon neutrino beam with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV at the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector 295 km from the beam’s origin. Signal and background predictions are constrained by data from near detectors located 280 m from the neutrino production target. We observe 11 electron neutrino candidate events at the SK detector when a background of 3.3±0.4(syst) events is expected. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with a p value of 0.0009 (3.1σ), and a fit assuming νμ→νe oscillations with sin⁡22θ23=1, δCP=0 and |Δm322|=2.4×10-3eV2 yields sin⁡22θ13=0.088-0.039+0.049(stat+syst).

  2. Sterile Neutrinos in Cold Climates

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jones, Benjamin J.P.

    Measurements of neutrino oscillations at short baselines contain an intriguing set of experimental anomalies that may be suggestive of new physics such as the existence of sterile neutrinos. This three-part thesis presents research directed towards understanding these anomalies and searching for sterile neutrino oscillations. Part I contains a theoretical discussion of neutrino coherence properties. The open-quantum-system picture of neutrino beams, which allows a rigorous prediction of coherence distances for accelerator neutrinos, is presented. Validity of the standard treatment of active and sterile neutrino oscillations at short baselines is verified, and non-standard coherence loss effects at longer baselines are predicted. Partmore » II concerns liquid argon detector development for the MicroBooNE experiment, which will search for short-baseline oscillations in the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab. Topics include characterization and installation of the MicroBooNE optical system; test-stand measurements of liquid argon optical properties with dissolved impurities; optimization of wavelength-shifting coatings for liquid argon scintillation light detection; testing and deployment of high-voltage surge arrestors to protect TPC field cages; and software development for optical and TPC simulation and reconstruction. Part III presents a search for sterile neutrinos using the IceCube neutrino telescope, which has collected a large sample of atmospheric-neutrino-induced events in the 1-10 TeV energy range. Sterile neutrinos would modify the detected neutrino flux shape via MSW-resonant oscillations. Following a careful treatment of systematic uncertainties in the sample, no evidence for MSW-resonant oscillations is observed, and exclusion limits on 3+1 model parameter space are derived. Under the mixing assumptions made, the 90% confidence level exclusion limit extends to sin 22θ 24 ≤ 0.02 at m 2 ~ 0.3 eV 2, and the LSND and MiniBooNE allowed regions are

  3. BEAMING NEUTRINOS AND ANTI-NEUTRINOS ACROSS THE EARTH TO DISENTANGLE NEUTRINO MIXING PARAMETERS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Fargion, Daniele; D'Armiento, Daniele; Paggi, Paolo

    2012-10-10

    A result from MINOS seemed to indicate that the mass splitting and mixing angle of anti-neutrinos is different from that of neutrinos, suggesting a charge-parity-time (CPT) violation in the lepton sector. However, more recent MINOS data reduced the {nu}{sub {mu}}-{nu}-bar{sub {mu}} differences leading to a narrow discrepancy nearly compatible with no CPT violation. However, the last few years of OPERA activity on the appearance of a tau lepton (one unique event) still has not been probed and more tools may be required to disentangle a list of parameters ({mu}-{tau} flavor mixing, tau appearance, any eventual CPT violation, {theta}{sub 13} anglemore » value, and any hierarchy neutrino mass). Atmospheric anisotropy in muon neutrino spectra in the DeepCore, at ten to tens of GeV (unpublished), can hardly reveal asymmetry in the eventual {nu}{sub {mu}}-{nu}-bar{sub {mu}} oscillation parameters. Here we considered how the longest baseline neutrino oscillation available, crossing most of Earth's diameter, may improve the measurement and at best disentangle any hypothetical CPT violation occurring between the earliest (2010) and the present (2012) MINOS bounds (with 6{sigma} a year), while testing {tau} and even the appearance of {tau}-bar at the highest rate. The {nu}{sub {mu}} and {nu}-bar{sub {mu}} disappearance correlated with the tau appearance is considered for those events at the largest distances. We thus propose a beam of {nu}{sub {mu}} and {nu}-bar{sub {mu}} crossing through the Earth, within an OPERA-like experiment from CERN (or Fermilab), in the direction of the IceCube-DeepCore {nu} detector at the South Pole. The ideal energy lies at 21 GeV to test the disappearance or (for any tiny CPT violation) the partial {nu}-bar{sub {mu}} appearance. Such a tuned detection experiment may lead to a strong signature of {tau} or {tau}-bar generation even within its neutral current noise background events: nearly one {tau}-bar or two {tau} a day. The tau appearance

  4. Hybrid method to resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy by supernova (anti)neutrino induced reactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vale, D.; Rauscher, T.; Paar, N.

    2016-02-01

    We introduce a hybrid method to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy by simultaneous measurements of responses of at least two detectors to antineutrino and neutrino fluxes from accretion and cooling phases of core-collapse supernovae. The (anti)neutrino-nucleus cross sections for 56Fe and 208Pb are calculated in the framework of the relativistic nuclear energy density functional and weak interaction Hamiltonian, while the cross sections for inelastic scattering on free protons p(bar nue,e+)n are obtained using heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory. The modelling of (anti)neutrino fluxes emitted from a protoneutron star in a core-collapse supernova include collective and Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects inside the exploding star. The particle emission rates from the elementary decay modes of the daughter nuclei are calculated for normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. It is shown that simultaneous use of (anti)neutrino detectors with different target material allows to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy from the ratios of νe- and bar nue-induced particle emissions. This hybrid method favors neutrinos from the supernova cooling phase and the implementation of detectors with heavier target nuclei (208Pb) for the neutrino sector, while for antineutrinos the use of free protons in mineral oil or water is the appropriate choice.

  5. Neutrino Oscillations at Proton Accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Michael, Douglas

    2002-12-01

    Data from many different experiments have started to build a first glimpse of the phenomenology associated with neutrino oscillations. Results on atmospheric and solar neutrinos are particularly clear while a third result from LSND suggests a possibly very complex oscillation phenomenology. As impressive as the results from current experiments are, it is clear that we are just getting started on a long-term experimental program to understand neutrino masses, mixings and the physics which produce them. A number of exciting fundamental physics possibilities exist, including that neutrino oscillations could demonstrate CP or CPT violation and could be tied to exotic high-energy phenomena including strings and extra dimensions. A complete exploration of oscillation phenomena demands many experiments, including those possible using neutrino beams produced at high energy proton accelerators. Most existing neutrino experiments are statistics limited even though they use gigantic detectors. High intensity proton beams are essential for producing the intense neutrino beams which we need for next generation neutrino oscillation experiments.

  6. Simulating nonlinear neutrino flavor evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duan, H.; Fuller, G. M.; Carlson, J.

    2008-10-01

    We discuss a new kind of astrophysical transport problem: the coherent evolution of neutrino flavor in core collapse supernovae. Solution of this problem requires a numerical approach which can simulate accurately the quantum mechanical coupling of intersecting neutrino trajectories and the associated nonlinearity which characterizes neutrino flavor conversion. We describe here the two codes developed to attack this problem. We also describe the surprising phenomena revealed by these numerical calculations. Chief among these is that the nonlinearities in the problem can engineer neutrino flavor transformation which is dramatically different to that in standard Mikheyev Smirnov Wolfenstein treatments. This happens even though the neutrino mass-squared differences are measured to be small, and even when neutrino self-coupling is sub-dominant. Our numerical work has revealed potential signatures which, if detected in the neutrino burst from a Galactic core collapse event, could reveal heretofore unmeasurable properties of the neutrinos, such as the mass hierarchy and vacuum mixing angle θ13.

  7. Sterile Neutrino Search with MINOS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Devan, Alena V.

    2015-08-01

    MINOS, Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment in the NuMI muon neutrino beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL. It consists of two detectors, a near detector positioned 1 km from the source of the beam and a far detector 734 km away in Minnesota. MINOS is primarily designed to observe muon neutrino disappearance resulting from three flavor oscillations. The Standard Model of Particle Physics predicts that neutrinos oscillate between three active flavors as they propagate through space. This means that a muon-type neutrino has a certain probability to later interact asmore » a different type of neutrino. In the standard picture, the neutrino oscillation probabilities depend only on three neutrino flavors and two mass splittings, Δm 2. An anomaly was observed by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments that suggests the existence of a fourth, sterile neutrino flavor that does not interact through any of the known Standard Model interactions. Oscillations into a theoretical sterile flavor may be observed by a deficit in neutral current interactions in the MINOS detectors. A distortion in the charged current energy spectrum might also be visible if oscillations into the sterile flavor are driven by a large mass-squared difference, m s 2 ~ 1 eV 2. The results of the 2013 sterile neutrino search are presented here.« less

  8. Observing Muon Neutrino to Electron Neutrino Oscillations in the NOνA Experiment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Xin, Tian

    2016-01-01

    Neutrino oscillations offers an insight on new physics beyond the Standard Model. The three mixing angles (θ12, θ13 and θ23) and the two mass splittings (Δm2 and Αm2 ) have been measured by different neutrino oscillation experiments. Some other parameters including the mass ordering of different neutrino mass eigenstates and the CP violation phase are still unknown. NOνA is a long-baseline accelerator neutrino experiment, using neutrinos from the NuMI beam at Fermilab. The experiment is equipped with two functionally identical detectors about 810 kilometers apart and 14 mrad off the beam axis. In this configuration, the muon neutrinos from themore » NuMI beam reach the disappearance maximum in the far detector and a small fraction of that oscillates into electron neutrinos. The sensitivity to the mass ordering and CP viola- tion phase determination is greately enhanced. This thesis presents the νeappearance analysis using the neutrino data collected with the NOνA experiment between February 2014 and May 2015, which corresponds to 3.45 ×1020 protons-on-target (POT). The νe appearance analysis is performed by comparing the observed νe CC-like events to the estimated background at the far detector. The total background is predicted to be 0.95 events with 0.89 originated from beam events and 0.06 from cosmic ray events. The beam background is obtained by extrapolating near detector data through different oscillation channels, while the cosmic ray background is calculated based on out-of-time NuMI trigger data. A total of 6 electron neutrino candidates are observed in the end at the far detector which represents 3.3 σ excess over the predicted background. The NOνA result disfavors inverted mass hierarchy for δcp ϵ [0, 0.6π] at 90% C.L.« less

  9. Matter effects on the flavor conversions of solar neutrinos and high-energy astrophysical neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Guo-yuan; Liu, Jun-Hao; Zhou, Shun

    2018-06-01

    Can we observe the solar eclipses in the neutrino light? In principle, this is possible by identifying the lunar matter effects on the flavor conversions of solar neutrinos when they traverse the Moon before reaching the detectors at the Earth. Unfortunately, we show that the lunar matter effects on the survival probability of solar 8B neutrinos are suppressed by an additional factor of 1.2%, compared to the day-night asymmetry. However, we point out that the matter effects on the flavor conversions of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, when they propagate through the Sun, can be significant. Though the flavor composition of high-energy neutrinos can be remarkably modified, it is quite challenging to observe such effects even in the next-generation of neutrino telescopes.

  10. Neutrino mass hierarchy and three-flavor spectral splits of supernova neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Dasgupta, Basudeb; Mirizzi, Alessandro; Tomas, Ricard

    2010-05-01

    It was recently realized that three-flavor effects could peculiarly modify the development of spectral splits induced by collective oscillations, for supernova neutrinos emitted during the cooling phase of a protoneutron star. We systematically explore this case, explaining how the impact of these three-flavor effects depends on the ordering of the neutrino masses. In inverted mass hierarchy, the solar mass splitting gives rise to instabilities in regions of the (anti)neutrino energy spectra that were otherwise stable under the leading two-flavor evolution governed by the atmospheric mass splitting and by the 1-3 mixing angle. As a consequence, the high-energy spectral splits foundmore » in the electron (anti)neutrino spectra disappear, and are transferred to other flavors. Imperfect adiabaticity leads to smearing of spectral swap features. In normal mass hierarchy, the three-flavor and the two-flavor instabilities act in the same region of the neutrino energy spectrum, leading to only minor departures from the two-flavor treatment.« less

  11. A comprehensive study of neutrino spin-flavour conversion in supernovae and the neutrino mass hierarchy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ando, Shin'ichiro; Sato, Katsuhiko

    2003-10-01

    Resonant spin-flavour (RSF) conversions of supernova neutrinos, which are induced by the interaction between the nonzero neutrino magnetic moment and supernova magnetic fields, are studied for both normal and inverted mass hierarchy. As the case for the pure matter-induced neutrino oscillation (Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein (MSW) effect), we find that the RSF transitions are strongly dependent on the neutrino mass hierarchy as well as the value of θ13. Flavour conversions are solved numerically for various neutrino parameter sets, with the presupernova profile calculated by Woosley and Weaver. In particular, it is very interesting that the RSF-induced νe→bar nue transition occurs if the following conditions are all satisfied: the value of μνB (μν is the neutrino magnetic moment and B is the magnetic field strength) is sufficiently strong, the neutrino mass hierarchy is inverted, and the value of θ13 is large enough to induce adiabatic MSW resonance. In this case, the strong peak due to the original νe emitted from the neutronization burst would exist in the time profile of the neutrino events detected at the Super-Kamiokande detector. If this peak were observed in reality, it would provide fruitful information on the neutrino properties. On the other hand, the characteristics of the neutrino spectra are also different between the neutrino models, but we find that there remains degeneracy among several models. Dependence on presupernova models is also discussed.

  12. Neutrinos: Nature's Ghosts?

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lincoln, Don

    2013-06-18

    Dr. Don Lincoln introduces one of the most fascinating inhabitants of the subatomic realm: the neutrino. Neutrinos are ghosts of the microworld, almost not interacting at all. In this video, he describes some of their properties and how they were discovered. Studies of neutrinos are expected to be performed at many laboratories across the world and to form one of the cornerstones of the Fermilab research program for the next decade or more.

  13. Neutrinos: Nature's Ghosts?

    ScienceCinema

    Lincoln, Don

    2018-06-07

    Dr. Don Lincoln introduces one of the most fascinating inhabitants of the subatomic realm: the neutrino. Neutrinos are ghosts of the microworld, almost not interacting at all. In this video, he describes some of their properties and how they were discovered. Studies of neutrinos are expected to be performed at many laboratories across the world and to form one of the cornerstones of the Fermilab research program for the next decade or more.

  14. Status and Aims of the DUMAND Neutrino Project: the Ocean as a Neutrino Detector

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Roberts, A.; Blood, H.; Learned, J.; Reines, F.

    1976-07-01

    The possibility of using the ocean as a neutrino detector is considered. Neutrino-produced interactions result in charged particles that generate Cherenkov radiation in the water, which can be detected by light-gathering equipment and photomultipliers. The properties of the ocean as seen from this standpoint are critically examined, and the advantages and disadvantages pointed out. Possible uses for such a neutrino detector include (1) the detection of neutrinos emitted in gravitational collapse of stars (supernova production), not only in our own galaxy, but in other galaxies up to perhaps twenty-million light-years away, (2) the extension of high-energy neutrino physics, as currently practiced up to 200 GeV at high-energy accelerators, to energies up to 50 times higher, using neutrinos generated in the atmosphere by cosmic rays, and (3) the possible detection of neutrinos produced by cosmic-ray interactions outside the earth`s atmosphere. The technology for such an undertaking seems to be within reach.

  15. Effects of a neutrino-dark energy coupling on oscillations of high-energy neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klop, Niki; Ando, Shin'ichiro

    2018-03-01

    If dark energy (DE) is a dynamical field rather than a cosmological constant, an interaction between DE and the neutrino sector could exist, modifying the neutrino oscillation phenomenology and causing C P and apparent Lorentz violating effects. The terms in the Hamiltonian for flavor propagation induced by the DE-neutrino coupling do not depend on the neutrino energy, while the ordinary components decrease as Δ m2/Eν. Therefore, the DE-induced effects are absent at lower neutrino energies, but become significant at higher energies, allowing to be searched for by neutrino observatories. We explore the impact of the DE-neutrino coupling on the oscillation probability and the flavor transition in the three-flavor framework, and investigate the C P -violating and apparent Lorentz violating effects. We find that DE-induced effects become observable for Eνmeff˜10-20 GeV2, where meff is the effective mass parameter in the DE-induced oscillation probability, and C P is violated over a wide energy range. We also show that current and future experiments have the sensitivity to detect anomalous effects induced by a DE-neutrino coupling and probe the new mixing parameters. The DE-induced effects on neutrino oscillation can be distinguished from other new physics possibilities with similar effects, through the detection of the directional dependence of the interaction, which is specific to this interaction with DE. However, current experiments will not yet be able to measure the small changes of ˜0.03 % in the flavor composition due to this directional effect.

  16. Solar neutrinos and the MSW effect for three-neutrino mixing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shi, X.; Schramm, David N.

    1991-01-01

    Researchers considered three-neutrino Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) mixing, assuming m sub 3 is much greater than m sub 2 is greater than m sub 1 as expected from theoretical consideration if neutrinos have mass. They calculated the corresponding mixing parameter space allowed by the Cl-37 and Kamiokande 2 experiments. They also calculated the expected depletion for the Ga-71 experiment. They explored a range of theoretical uncertainty due to possible astrophysical effects by varying the B-8 neutrino flux and redoing the MSW mixing calculation.

  17. Neutrino mass sum-rule

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Damanik, Asan

    2018-03-01

    Neutrino mass sum-rele is a very important research subject from theoretical side because neutrino oscillation experiment only gave us two squared-mass differences and three mixing angles. We review neutrino mass sum-rule in literature that have been reported by many authors and discuss its phenomenological implications.

  18. Neutrino nuclear responses for double beta decays and astro neutrinos by charge exchange reactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ejiri, Hiroyasu

    2014-09-01

    Neutrino nuclear responses are crucial for neutrino studies in nuclei. Charge exchange reactions (CER) are shown to be used to study charged current neutrino nuclear responses associated with double beta decays(DBD)and astro neutrino interactions. CERs to be used are high energy-resolution (He3 ,t) reactions at RCNP, photonuclear reactions via IAR at NewSUBARU and muon capture reactions at MUSIC RCNP and MLF J-PARC. The Gamow Teller (GT) strengths studied by CERs reproduce the observed 2 neutrino DBD matrix elements. The GT and spin dipole (SD) matrix elements are found to be reduced much due to the nucleon spin isospin correlations and the non-nucleonic (delta isobar) nuclear medium effects. Impacts of the reductions on the DBD matrix elements and astro neutrino interactions are discussed.

  19. Nonstandard neutrino interactions in supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stapleford, Charles J.; Väänänen, Daavid J.; Kneller, James P.; McLaughlin, Gail C.; Shapiro, Brandon T.

    2016-11-01

    Nonstandard interactions (NSI) of neutrinos with matter can significantly alter neutrino flavor evolution in supernovae with the potential to impact explosion dynamics, nucleosynthesis, and the neutrinos signal. In this paper, we explore, both numerically and analytically, the landscape of neutrino flavor transformation effects in supernovae due to NSI and find a new, heretofore unseen transformation processes can occur. These new transformations can take place with NSI strengths well below current experimental limits. Within a broad swath of NSI parameter space, we observe symmetric and standard matter-neutrino resonances for supernovae neutrinos, a transformation effect previously only seen in compact object merger scenarios; in another region of the parameter space we find the NSI can induce neutrino collective effects in scenarios where none would appear with only the standard case of neutrino oscillation physics; and in a third region the NSI can lead to the disappearance of the high density Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein resonance. Using a variety of analytical tools, we are able to describe quantitatively the numerical results allowing us to partition the NSI parameter according to the transformation processes observed. Our results indicate nonstandard interactions of supernova neutrinos provide a sensitive probe of beyond the Standard Model physics complementary to present and future terrestrial experiments.

  20. Neutrino oscillations refitted

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Forero, D. V.; Tórtola, M.; Valle, J. W. F.

    2014-11-01

    Here, we update our previous global fit of neutrino oscillations by including the recent results that have appeared since the Neutrino 2012 conference. These include the measurements of reactor antineutrino disappearance reported by Daya Bay and RENO, together with latest T2K and MINOS data including both disappearance and appearance channels. We also include the revised results from the third solar phase of Super-Kamiokande, SK-III, as well as new solar results from the fourth phase of Super-Kamiokande, SK-IV. We find that the preferred global determination of the atmospheric angle θ23 is consistent with maximal mixing. We also determine the impact of the new data upon all the other neutrino oscillation parameters with an emphasis on the increasing sensitivity to the C P phase, thanks to the interplay between accelerator and reactor data. In the Appendix, we present the updated results obtained after the inclusion of new reactor data presented at the Neutrino 2014 conference. We discuss their impact on the global neutrino analysis.

  1. Higgs Production Through Sterile Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antusch, Stefan; Cazzato, Eros; Fischer, Oliver

    In scenarios with sterile (right-handed) neutrinos with an approximate "lepton-numberlike" symmetry, the heavy neutrinos (the mass eigenstates) can have masses around the electroweak scale and couple to the Higgs boson with, in principle, unsuppressed Yukawa couplings, while the smallness of the light neutrinos' masses is guaranteed by the approximate symmetry. The on-shell production of the heavy neutrinos at lepton colliders, together with their subsequent decays into a light neutrino and a Higgs boson, constitutes a resonant contribution to the Higgs production mechanism. This resonant mono-Higgs production mechanism can contribute significantly to the mono-Higgs observables at future lepton colliders. A dedicated search for the heavy neutrinos in this channel exhibits sensitivities for the electron neutrino Yukawa coupling as small as ˜ 5 × 10-3. Furthermore, the sensitivity is enhanced for higher center-of-mass energies, when identical integrated luminosities are considered.

  2. Impact of Neutrino Flavor Oscillations on the Neutrino-driven Wind Nucleosynthesis of an Electron-capture Supernova

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pllumbi, Else; Tamborra, Irene; Wanajo, Shinya; Janka, Hans-Thomas; Hüdepohl, Lorenz

    2015-08-01

    Neutrino oscillations, especially to light sterile states, can affect nucleosynthesis yields because of their possible feedback effect on the electron fraction (Ye). For the first time, we perform nucleosynthesis calculations for neutrino-driven wind trajectories from the neutrino-cooling phase of an 8.8 {M}⊙ electron-capture supernova (SN), whose hydrodynamic evolution was computed in spherical symmetry with sophisticated neutrino transport and whose Ye evolution was post-processed by including neutrino oscillations between both active and active-sterile flavors. We also take into account the α-effect as well as weak magnetism and recoil corrections in the neutrino absorption and emission processes. We observe effects on the Ye evolution that depend in a subtle way on the relative radial positions of the sterile Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein resonances, on collective flavor transformations, and on the formation of α particles. For the adopted SN progenitor, we find that neutrino oscillations, also to a sterile state with eV mass, do not significantly affect the element formation and in particular cannot make the post-explosion wind outflow neutron-rich enough to activate a strong r-process. Our conclusions become even more robust when, in order to mimic equation-of-state-dependent corrections due to nucleon potential effects in the dense-medium neutrino opacities, six cases with reduced Ye in the wind are considered. In these cases, despite the conversion of active neutrinos to sterile neutrinos, Ye increases or is not significantly lowered compared to the values obtained without oscillations and active flavor transformations. This is a consequence of a complicated interplay between sterile-neutrino production, neutrino-neutrino interactions, and α-effect.

  3. Raymond Davis Jr., Solar Neutrinos, and the Solar Neutrino Problems

    Science.gov Websites

    Neutrinos. II. Experimental; DOE Technical Report, March 16, 1964 Search for Neutrinos from the Sun; DOE Raymond Davis Dies, BNL Newsroom, June 1, 2006 Top Some links on this page may take you to non-federal

  4. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    DOE PAGES

    Bellerive, Alain; Klein, J. R.; McDonald, A. B.; ...

    2016-04-27

    This review paper provides a summary of the published results of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment that was carried out by an international scientific collaboration with data collected during the period from 1999 to 2006. By using heavy water as a detection medium, the SNO experiment demonstrated clearly that solar electron neutrinos from 8B decay in the solar core change into other active neutrino flavors in transit to Earth. The reaction on deuterium that has equal sensitivity to all active neutrino flavors also provides a very accurate measure of the initial solar flux for comparison with solar models. Thismore » review summarizes the results from three phases of solar neutrino detection as well as other physics results obtained from analyses of the SNO data.« less

  5. Neutrino Oscillations: Eighty Years in Review

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bowers, Rebecca Lyn

    In order to discuss neutrino oscillations, it is necessary to have knowledge of the developments in the field spanning the last eighty years. The existence of the neutrino was posited by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to account for the mass defect in beta decay, and to this day physicists are still endeavoring to answer fundamental questions about this enigmatic particle. The scope of this thesis includes a historical background of neutrino physics and a discussion of neutrinos and the Standard Model; subsequent to this is a discussion of the Solar Neutrino Problem, which provided the impetus for the proposal of neutrino oscillations. Bolstering the theory of neutrino oscillations (which is developed in the body of this thesis) are neutrino detector experiments and their results; these include the Homestake experiment, SNO, Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande, MINOS, and Double-Chooz. We also include relevant derivations, most particularly of the quantum mechanics of neutrino oscillations as treated in the wave packet formalism. We have amassed here the principle theories and experimental results -- a mere tip of the iceberg -- that have brought us to our current understanding of neutrino oscillations. We have also studied the quantum mechanics of neutrino oscillations and developed for ourselves the wave packet formalism describing the phenomenon.

  6. Supernova neutrino detection in LZ

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khaitan, D.

    2018-02-01

    In the first 10 seconds of a core-collapse supernova, almost all of its progenitor's gravitational potential, O(1053 ergs), is carried away in the form of neutrinos. These neutrinos, with O(10 MeV) kinetic energy, can interact via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) depositing O(1 keV) in detectors. In this work we describe the performances of low-background dark matter detectors, such as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), optimized for detecting low-energy depositions, in detecting these neutrino interactions. For instance, a 27 Msolar supernova at 10 kpc is expected to produce ~350 neutrino interactions in the 7-tonne liquid xenon active volume of LZ. Based on the LS220 EoS neutrino flux model for a SN, the Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST), and predicted CEνNS cross-sections for xenon, to study energy deposition and detection of SN neutrinos in LZ. We simulate the response of the LZ data acquisition system (DAQ) and demonstrate its capability and limitations in handling this interaction rate. We present an overview of the LZ detector, focusing on the benefits of liquid xenon for supernova neutrino detection. We discuss energy deposition and detector response simulations and their results. We present an analysis technique to reconstruct the total number of neutrinos and the time of the supernova core bounce.

  7. Supernova neutrinos and explosive nucleosynthesis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kajino, T.; Aoki, W.; Cheoun, M.-K.; Hayakawa, T.; Hidaka, J.; Hirai, Y.; Mathews, G. J.; Nakamura, K.; Shibagaki, S.; Suzuki, T.

    2014-05-01

    Core-collapse supernovae eject huge amount of flux of energetic neutrinos. We studied the explosive nucleosyn-thesis in supernovae and found that several isotopes 7Li, 11B, 92Nb, 138La and 180Ta as well as r-process nuclei are affected by the neutrino interactions. The abundance of these isotopes therefore depends strongly on the neutrino flavor oscillation due to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect. We discuss first how to determine the neutrino temperatures in order to explain the observed solar system abundances of these isotopes, combined with Galactic chemical evolution of the light nuclei and the heavy r-process elements. We then study the effects of neutrino oscillation on their abundances, and propose a novel method to determine the still unknown neutrino oscillation parameters, mass hierarchy and θ13, simultaneously. There is recent evidence that SiC X grains from the Murchison meteorite may contain supernova-produced light elements 11B and 7Li encapsulated in the presolar grains. Combining the recent experimental constraints on θ13, we show that our method sug-gests at a marginal preference for an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. Finally, we discuss supernova relic neutrinos that may indicate the softness of the equation of state (EoS) of nuclear matter as well as adiabatic conditions of the neutrino oscillation.

  8. Neutrino parameters from reactor and accelerator neutrino experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lindner, Manfred; Rodejohann, Werner; Xu, Xun-Jie

    2018-04-01

    We revisit correlations of neutrino oscillation parameters in reactor and long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. A framework based on an effective value of θ13 is presented, which can be used to analytically study the correlations and explain some questions including why and when δC P has the best fit value of -π /2 , why current and future long-baseline experiments will have less precision of δC P around ±π /2 than that around zero, etc. Recent hints on the C P phase are then considered from the point of view that different reactor and long-baseline neutrino experiments provide currently different best-fit values of θ13 and θ23. We point out that the significance of the hints changes for the different available best-fit values.

  9. Search for sterile neutrinos in the neutrino-4 experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Serebrov, A. P.; Ivochkin, V. G.; Samoilov, R. M.; Fomin, A. K.; Polyushkin, A. O.; Zinov'ev, V. G.; Neustroev, P. V.; Golovtsov, V. L.; Chernyi, A. V.; Zherebtsov, O. M.; Martem'yanov, V. P.; Tarasenkov, V. G.; Aleshin, V. I.; Petelin, A. L.; Izhutov, A. L.; Tuzov, A. A.; Sazontov, S. A.; Ryazanov, D. K.; Gromov, M. O.; Afanas'ev, V. V.; Zaitsev, M. E.; Chaikovskii, M. E.

    2017-03-01

    An experimental search for sterile neutrinos has been carried out at a neutrino facility based on the SM-3 nuclear reactor in Dimitrovgrad, Russia. The movable detector with passive shielding against the external radiation may be positioned at a distance varying between 6 and 12 m from the center of the reactor. The antineutrino flux has for the first time been measured using a movable detector placed close to the antineutrino source. The accuracy of the measurements is largely restricted by the cosmic background. The results of the measurements performed at small and large distances are analyzed in terms of the sterile-neutrino model parameters Δ m 14 2 and sin22θ14.

  10. Detectability of thermal neutrinos from binary neutron-star mergers and implications for neutrino physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kyutoku, Koutarou; Kashiyama, Kazumi

    2018-05-01

    We propose a long-term strategy for detecting thermal neutrinos from the remnant of binary neutron-star mergers with a future M-ton water-Cherenkov detector such as Hyper-Kamiokande. Monitoring ≳2500 mergers within ≲200 Mpc , we may be able to detect a single neutrino with a human time-scale operation of ≈80 Mtyears for the merger rate of 1 Mpc-3 Myr-1 , which is slightly lower than the median value derived by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration with GW170817. Although the number of neutrino events is minimal, contamination from other sources of neutrinos can be reduced efficiently to ≈0.03 by analyzing only ≈1 s after each merger identified with gravitational-wave detectors if gadolinium is dissolved in the water. The contamination may be reduced further to ≈0.01 if we allow the increase of waiting time by a factor of ≈1.7 . The detection of even a single neutrino can pin down the energy scale of thermal neutrino emission from binary neutron-star mergers and could strongly support or disfavor formation of remnant massive neutron stars. Because the dispersion relation of gravitational waves is now securely constrained to that of massless particles with a corresponding limit on the graviton mass of ≲10-22 eV /c2 by binary black-hole mergers, the time delay of a neutrino from gravitational waves can be used to put an upper limit of ≲O (10 ) meV /c2 on the absolute neutrino mass in the lightest eigenstate. Large neutrino detectors will enhance the detectability, and, in particular, 5 Mt Deep-TITAND and 10 Mt MICA planned in the future will allow us to detect thermal neutrinos every ≈16 and 8 years, respectively, increasing the significance.

  11. Solar Neutrino Problem

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Davis, R. Jr.; Evans, J. C.; Cleveland, B. T.

    1978-04-28

    A summary of the results of the Brookhaven solar neutrino experiment is given and discussed in relation to solar model calculations. A review is given of the merits of various new solar neutrino detectors that were proposed.

  12. Observation of Electron Neutrino Appearance in a Muon Neutrino Beam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Adam, J.; Aihara, H.; Akiri, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Assylbekov, S.; Autiero, D.; Barbi, M.; Barker, G. J.; Barr, G.; Bass, M.; Batkiewicz, M.; Bay, F.; Bentham, S. W.; Berardi, V.; Berger, B. E.; Berkman, S.; Bertram, I.; Bhadra, S.; Blaszczyk, F. d. M.; Blondel, A.; Bojechko, C.; Bordoni, S.; Boyd, S. B.; Brailsford, D.; Bravar, A.; Bronner, C.; Buchanan, N.; Calland, R. G.; Caravaca Rodríguez, J.; Cartwright, S. L.; Castillo, R.; Catanesi, M. G.; Cervera, A.; Cherdack, D.; Christodoulou, G.; Clifton, A.; Coleman, J.; Coleman, S. J.; Collazuol, G.; Connolly, K.; Cremonesi, L.; Dabrowska, A.; Danko, I.; Das, R.; Davis, S.; de Perio, P.; De Rosa, G.; Dealtry, T.; Dennis, S. R.; Densham, C.; Di Lodovico, F.; Di Luise, S.; Drapier, O.; Duboyski, T.; Duffy, K.; Dufour, F.; Dumarchez, J.; Dytman, S.; Dziewiecki, M.; Emery, S.; Ereditato, A.; Escudero, L.; Finch, A. J.; Floetotto, L.; Friend, M.; Fujii, Y.; Fukuda, Y.; Furmanski, A. P.; Galymov, V.; Gaudin, A.; Giffin, S.; Giganti, C.; Gilje, K.; Goeldi, D.; Golan, T.; Gomez-Cadenas, J. J.; Gonin, M.; Grant, N.; Gudin, D.; Hadley, D. R.; Haesler, A.; Haigh, M. D.; Hamilton, P.; Hansen, D.; Hara, T.; Hartz, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Hastings, N. C.; Hayato, Y.; Hearty, C.; Helmer, R. L.; Hierholzer, M.; Hignight, J.; Hillairet, A.; Himmel, A.; Hiraki, T.; Hirota, S.; Holeczek, J.; Horikawa, S.; Huang, K.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Ieki, K.; Ieva, M.; Ikeda, M.; Imber, J.; Insler, J.; Irvine, T. J.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Ives, S. J.; Iyogi, K.; Izmaylov, A.; Jacob, A.; Jamieson, B.; Johnson, R. A.; Jo, J. H.; Jonsson, P.; Jung, C. K.; Kaboth, A. C.; Kajita, T.; Kakuno, H.; Kameda, J.; Kanazawa, Y.; Karlen, D.; Karpikov, I.; Kearns, E.; Khabibullin, M.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kielczewska, D.; Kikawa, T.; Kilinski, A.; Kim, J.; Kisiel, J.; Kitching, P.; Kobayashi, T.; Koch, L.; Kolaceke, A.; Konaka, A.; Kormos, L. L.; Korzenev, A.; Koseki, K.; Koshio, Y.; Kreslo, I.; Kropp, W.; Kubo, H.; Kudenko, Y.; Kumaratunga, S.; Kurjata, R.; Kutter, T.; Lagoda, J.; Laihem, K.; Lamont, I.; Laveder, M.; Lawe, M.; Lazos, M.; Lee, K. P.; Licciardi, C.; Lindner, T.; Lister, C.; Litchfield, R. P.; Longhin, A.; Ludovici, L.; Macaire, M.; Magaletti, L.; Mahn, K.; Malek, M.; Manly, S.; Marino, A. D.; Marteau, J.; Martin, J. F.; Maruyama, T.; Marzec, J.; Mathie, E. L.; Matveev, V.; Mavrokoridis, K.; Mazzucato, E.; McCarthy, M.; McCauley, N.; McFarland, K. S.; McGrew, C.; Metelko, C.; Mezzetto, M.; Mijakowski, P.; Miller, C. A.; Minamino, A.; Mineev, O.; Mine, S.; Missert, A.; Miura, M.; Monfregola, L.; Moriyama, S.; Mueller, Th. A.; Murakami, A.; Murdoch, M.; Murphy, S.; Myslik, J.; Nagasaki, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakahata, M.; Nakai, T.; Nakamura, K.; Nakayama, S.; Nakaya, T.; Nakayoshi, K.; Naples, D.; Nielsen, C.; Nirkko, M.; Nishikawa, K.; Nishimura, Y.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Ohta, R.; Okumura, K.; Okusawa, T.; Oryszczak, W.; Oser, S. M.; Owen, R. A.; Oyama, Y.; Palladino, V.; Paolone, V.; Payne, D.; Pearce, G. F.; Perevozchikov, O.; Perkin, J. D.; Petrov, Y.; Pickard, L. J.; Pinzon Guerra, E. S.; Pistillo, C.; Plonski, P.; Poplawska, E.; Popov, B.; Posiadala, M.; Poutissou, J.-M.; Poutissou, R.; Przewlocki, P.; Quilain, B.; Radicioni, E.; Ratoff, P. N.; Ravonel, M.; Rayner, M. A. M.; Redij, A.; Reeves, M.; Reinherz-Aronis, E.; Retiere, F.; Robert, A.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Rojas, P.; Rondio, E.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Ruterbories, D.; Sacco, R.; Sakashita, K.; Sánchez, F.; Sato, F.; Scantamburlo, E.; Scholberg, K.; Schwehr, J.; Scott, M.; Seiya, Y.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekiya, H.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shiozawa, M.; Short, S.; Shustrov, Y.; Sinclair, P.; Smith, B.; Smith, R. J.; Smy, M.; Sobczyk, J. T.; Sobel, H.; Sorel, M.; Southwell, L.; Stamoulis, P.; Steinmann, J.; Still, B.; Suda, Y.; Suzuki, A.; Suzuki, K.; Suzuki, S. Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Szeglowski, T.; Tacik, R.; Tada, M.; Takahashi, S.; Takeda, A.; Takeuchi, Y.; Tanaka, H. K.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tanaka, M. M.; Terhorst, D.; Terri, R.; Thompson, L. F.; Thorley, A.; Tobayama, S.; Toki, W.; Tomura, T.; Totsuka, Y.; Touramanis, C.; Tsukamoto, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Ueno, K.; Vacheret, A.; Vagins, M.; Vasseur, G.; Wachala, T.; Waldron, A. V.; Walter, C. W.; Wark, D.; Wascko, M. O.; Weber, A.; Wendell, R.; Wilkes, R. J.; Wilking, M. J.; Wilkinson, C.; Williamson, Z.; Wilson, J. R.; Wilson, R. J.; Wongjirad, T.; Yamada, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Yen, S.; Yershov, N.; Yokoyama, M.; Yuan, T.; Zalewska, A.; Zalipska, J.; Zambelli, L.; Zaremba, K.; Ziembicki, M.; Zimmerman, E. D.; Zito, M.; Żmuda, J.; T2K Collaboration

    2014-02-01

    The T2K experiment has observed electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam produced 295 km from the Super-Kamiokande detector with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV. A total of 28 electron neutrino events were detected with an energy distribution consistent with an appearance signal, corresponding to a significance of 7.3σ when compared to 4.92±0.55 expected background events. In the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing model, the electron neutrino appearance signal depends on several parameters including three mixing angles θ12, θ23, θ13, a mass difference Δm322 and a CP violating phase δCP. In this neutrino oscillation scenario, assuming |Δm322|=2.4×10-3 eV2, sin2θ23=0.5, and Δm322>0 (Δm322<0), a best-fit value of sin22θ13=0.140-0.032+0.038 (0.170-0.037+0.045) is obtained at δCP=0. When combining the result with the current best knowledge of oscillation parameters including the world average value of θ13 from reactor experiments, some values of δCP are disfavored at the 90% C.L.

  13. An Algorithm for the Reconstruction of Neutrino-induced Showers in the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albert, A.; André, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid, M.; Aubert, J.-J.; Avgitas, T.; Baret, B.; Barrios-Martí, J.; Basa, S.; Belhorma, B.; Bertin, V.; Biagi, S.; Bormuth, R.; Bourret, S.; Bouwhuis, M. C.; Brânzaş, H.; Bruijn, R.; Brunner, J.; Busto, J.; Capone, A.; Caramete, L.; Carr, J.; Celli, S.; Cherkaoui El Moursli, R.; Chiarusi, T.; Circella, M.; Coelho, J. A. B.; Coleiro, A.; Coniglione, R.; Costantini, H.; Coyle, P.; Creusot, A.; Díaz, A. F.; Deschamps, A.; De Bonis, G.; Distefano, C.; Di Palma, I.; Domi, A.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Drouhin, D.; Eberl, T.; El Bojaddaini, I.; El Khayati, N.; Elsässer, D.; Enzenhöfer, A.; Ettahiri, A.; Fassi, F.; Felis, I.; Fusco, L. A.; Gay, P.; Giordano, V.; Glotin, H.; Grégoire, T.; Ruiz, R. Gracia; Graf, K.; Hallmann, S.; van Haren, H.; Heijboer, A. J.; Hello, Y.; Hernández-Rey, J. J.; Hößl, J.; Hofestädt, J.; Hugon, C.; Illuminati, G.; James, C. W.; de Jong, M.; Jongen, M.; Kadler, M.; Kalekin, O.; Katz, U.; Kießling, D.; Kouchner, A.; Kreter, M.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Lachaud, C.; Lahmann, R.; Lefèvre, D.; Leonora, E.; Lotze, M.; Loucatos, S.; Marcelin, M.; Margiotta, A.; Marinelli, A.; Martínez-Mora, J. A.; Mele, R.; Melis, K.; Michael, T.; Migliozzi, P.; Moussa, A.; Navas, S.; Nezri, E.; Organokov, M.; Păvălaş, G. E.; Pellegrino, C.; Perrina, C.; Piattelli, P.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Quinn, L.; Racca, C.; Riccobene, G.; Sánchez-Losa, A.; Saldaña, M.; Salvadori, I.; Samtleben, D. F. E.; Sanguineti, M.; Sapienza, P.; Schüssler, F.; Sieger, C.; Spurio, M.; Stolarczyk, Th.; Taiuti, M.; Tayalati, Y.; Trovato, A.; Turpin, D.; Tönnis, C.; Vallage, B.; Van Elewyck, V.; Versari, F.; Vivolo, D.; Vizzoca, A.; Wilms, J.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zúñiga, J.

    2017-12-01

    Muons created by {ν }μ charged current (CC) interactions in the water surrounding the ANTARES neutrino telescope have been almost exclusively used so far in searches for cosmic neutrino sources. Due to their long range, highly energetic muons inducing Cherenkov radiation in the water are reconstructed with dedicated algorithms that allow for the determination of the parent neutrino direction with a median angular resolution of about 0.°4 for an {E}-2 neutrino spectrum. In this paper, an algorithm optimized for accurate reconstruction of energy and direction of shower events in the ANTARES detector is presented. Hadronic showers of electrically charged particles are produced by the disintegration of the nucleus both in CC and neutral current interactions of neutrinos in water. In addition, electromagnetic showers result from the CC interactions of electron neutrinos while the decay of a tau lepton produced in {ν }τ CC interactions will, in most cases, lead to either a hadronic or an electromagnetic shower. A shower can be approximated as a point source of photons. With the presented method, the shower position is reconstructed with a precision of about 1 m; the neutrino direction is reconstructed with a median angular resolution between 2° and 3° in the energy range of 1-1000 TeV. In this energy interval, the uncertainty on the reconstructed neutrino energy is about 5%-10%. The increase in the detector sensitivity due to the use of additional information from shower events in the searches for a cosmic neutrino flux is also presented.

  14. Absolute neutrino mass measurements

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wolf, Joachim

    2011-10-06

    The neutrino mass plays an important role in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. In recent years the detection of neutrino flavour oscillations proved that neutrinos carry mass. However, oscillation experiments are only sensitive to the mass-squared difference of the mass eigenvalues. In contrast to cosmological observations and neutrino-less double beta decay (0v2{beta}) searches, single {beta}-decay experiments provide a direct, model-independent way to determine the absolute neutrino mass by measuring the energy spectrum of decay electrons at the endpoint region with high accuracy.Currently the best kinematic upper limits on the neutrino mass of 2.2eV have been set by two experiments inmore » Mainz and Troitsk, using tritium as beta emitter. The next generation tritium {beta}-experiment KATRIN is currently under construction in Karlsruhe/Germany by an international collaboration. KATRIN intends to improve the sensitivity by one order of magnitude to 0.2eV. The investigation of a second isotope ({sup 137}Rh) is being pursued by the international MARE collaboration using micro-calorimeters to measure the beta spectrum. The technology needed to reach 0.2eV sensitivity is still in the R and D phase. This paper reviews the present status of neutrino-mass measurements with cosmological data, 0v2{beta} decay and single {beta}-decay.« less

  15. Light sterile neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gariazzo, S.; Giunti, C.; Laveder, M.; Li, Y. F.; Zavanin, E. M.

    2016-03-01

    The theory and phenomenology of light sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale is reviewed. The reactor, gallium and Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector anomalies are briefly described and interpreted as indications of the existence of short-baseline oscillations which require the existence of light sterile neutrinos. The global fits of short-baseline oscillation data in 3 + 1 and 3 + 2 schemes are discussed, together with the implications for β-decay and neutrinoless double-β decay. The cosmological effects of light sterile neutrinos are briefly reviewed and the implications of existing cosmological data are discussed. The review concludes with a summary of future perspectives. This review is dedicated to the memory of Hai-Wei Long, our dear friend and collaborator, who passed away on 29 May 2015. He was an exceptionally kind person and an enthusiastic physicist. We deeply miss him.

  16. Coherent propagation of PeV neutrinos and the dip in the neutrino spectrum at IceCube

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kamada, Ayuki; Yu, Hai-Bo

    2015-12-01

    The energy spectrum of high-energy neutrinos reported by the IceCube Collaboration shows a dip between 400 TeV and 1 PeV. One intriguing explanation is that high-energy neutrinos scatter with the cosmic neutrino background through an ˜MeV mediator. Taking the density matrix approach, we develop a formalism to study the propagation of PeV neutrinos in the presence of the new neutrino interaction. If the interaction is flavored such as the gauged Lμ-Lτ model we consider, the resonant collision may not suppress the PeV neutrino flux completely. The new force mediator may also contribute to the number of effectively massless degrees of freedom in the early Universe and change the diffusion time of neutrinos from the supernova core. Astrophysical observations such as big bang nucleosynthesis and supernova cooling provide an interesting test for the explanation.

  17. Neutrino Oscillations:. a Phenomenological Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fogli, G. L.; Lisi, E.; Marrone, A.; Palazzo, A.; Rotunno, A. M.; Montanino, D.

    We review the status of the neutrino oscillations physics, with a particular emphasis on the present knowledge of the neutrino mass-mixing parameters. We consider first the νμ → ντ flavor transitions of atmospheric neutrinos. It is found that standard oscillations provide the best description of the SK+K2K data, and that the associated mass-mixing parameters are determined at ±1σ (and NDF = 1) as: Δm2 = (2.6 ± 0.4) × 10-3 eV2 and sin 2 2θ = 1.00{ - 0.05}{ + 0.00} . Such indications, presently dominated by SK, could be strengthened by further K2K data. Then we point out that the recent data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, together with other relevant measurements from solar and reactor neutrino experiments, in particular the KamLAND data, convincingly show that the flavor transitions of solar neutrinos are affected by Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effects. Finally, we perform an updated analysis of two-family active oscillations of solar and reactor neutrinos in the standard MSW case.

  18. Cosmological and supernova neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kajino, T.; Aoki, W.; Balantekin, A. B.; Cheoun, M.-K.; Hayakawa, T.; Hidaka, J.; Hirai, Y.; Kusakabe, M.; Mathews, G. J.; Nakamura, K.; Pehlivan, Y.; Shibagaki, S.; Suzuki, T.

    2014-06-01

    The Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies are the pillars of modern cosmology. It has recently been suggested that axion which is a dark matter candidate in the framework of the standard model could condensate in the early universe and induce photon cooling before the epoch of the photon last scattering. Although this may render a solution to the overproduction problem of primordial 7Li abundance, there arises another serious difficulty of overproducing D abundance. We propose a hybrid dark matter model with both axions and relic supersymmetric (SUSY) particles to solve both overproduction problems of the primordial D and 7Li abundances simultaneously. The BBN also serves to constrain the nature of neutrinos. Considering non-thermal photons produced in the decay of the heavy sterile neutrinos due to the magnetic moment, we explore the cosmological constraint on the strength of neutrino magnetic moment consistent with the observed light element abundances. Core-collapse supernovae eject huge flux of energetic neutrinos which affect explosive nucleosynthesis of rare isotopes like 7Li, 11B, 92Nb, 138La and 180Ta and r-process elements. Several isotopes depend strongly on the neutrino flavor oscillation due to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect. Combining the recent experimental constraints on θ13 with predicted and observed supernova-produced abundance ratio 11B/7Li encapsulated in the presolar grains from the Murchison meteorite, we show a marginal preference for an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. We also discuss supernova relic neutrinos (SRN) that may indicate the softness of the equation of state (EoS) of nuclear matter and adiabatic conditions of the neutrino oscillation.

  19. Quasi-Dirac neutrino oscillations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anamiati, Gaetana; Fonseca, Renato M.; Hirsch, Martin

    2018-05-01

    Dirac neutrino masses require two distinct neutral Weyl spinors per generation, with a special arrangement of masses and interactions with charged leptons. Once this arrangement is perturbed, lepton number is no longer conserved and neutrinos become Majorana particles. If these lepton number violating perturbations are small compared to the Dirac mass terms, neutrinos are quasi-Dirac particles. Alternatively, this scenario can be characterized by the existence of pairs of neutrinos with almost degenerate masses, and a lepton mixing matrix which has 12 angles and 12 phases. In this work we discuss the phenomenology of quasi-Dirac neutrino oscillations and derive limits on the relevant parameter space from various experiments. In one parameter perturbations of the Dirac limit, very stringent bounds can be derived on the mass splittings between the almost degenerate pairs of neutrinos. However, we also demonstrate that with suitable changes to the lepton mixing matrix, limits on such mass splittings are much weaker, or even completely absent. Finally, we consider the possibility that the mass splittings are too small to be measured and discuss bounds on the new, nonstandard lepton mixing angles from current experiments for this case.

  20. A study of muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations in the MINOS experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Tingjun

    The observation of neutrino oscillations (neutrino changing from one flavor to another) has provided compelling evidence that the neutrinos have non-zero masses and that leptons mix, which is not part of the original Standard Model of particle physics. The theoretical framework that describes neutrino oscillation involves two mass scales (Delta m2atm , and Delta m2sol ), three mixing angles (theta12, theta23, and theta13) and one CP violating phase (delta CP). Both mass scales and two of the mixing angles (theta 12 and theta23) have been measured by many neutrino experiments. The mixing angle theta13, which is believed to be very small, remains unknown. The current best limit on theta13 comes from the CHOOZ experiment: theta13 < 11° at 90% C.L. at the atmospheric mass scale. deltaCP is also unknown today. MINOS, the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, is a long baseline neutrino experiment based at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The experiment uses a muon neutrino beam, which is measured 1 km downstream from its origin in the Near Detector at Fermilab and then 735 km later in the Far Detector at the Soudan mine. By comparing these two measurements, MINOS can obtain parameters in the atmospheric sector of neutrino oscillations. MINOS has published results on the precise measurement of Delta m2atm and theta23 through the disappearance of muon neutrinos in the Far Detector and on a search for sterile neutrinos by looking for a deficit in the number of neutral current interactions seen in the Far Detector. MINOS also has the potential to improve the limit on the neutrino mixing angle theta 13 or make the first measurement of its value by searching for an electron neutrino appearance signal in the Far Detector. This is the focus of the study presented in this thesis. We developed a neural network based algorithm to distinguish the electron neutrino signal from background. The most important part of this measurement is the background estimation, which is

  1. Low-energy (anti)neutrino physics with Borexino: Neutrinos from the primary proton-proton fusion process in the Sun

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mosteiro, P.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Cadonati, L.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Cavalcante, P.; Chavarría, Á.; Chepurnov, A.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Empl, A.; Etenko, A.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Galbiati, C.; Gazzana, S.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Göger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Al.; Ianni, An.; Kobychev, V.; Korablëv, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Lewke, T.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Meindl, Q.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Muratova, V.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Otis, K.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Rossi, N.; Saldanha, R.; Salvo, C.; Schönert, S.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Vignaud, D.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wright, A.; Wurm, M.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2015-08-01

    The Sun is fueled by a series of nuclear reactions that produce the energy that makes it shine. The primary reaction is the fusion of two protons into a deuteron, a positron and a neutrino. These neutrinos constitute the vast majority of neutrinos reaching Earth, providing us with key information about what goes on at the core of our star. Several experiments have now confirmed the observation of neutrino oscillations by detecting neutrinos from secondary nuclear processes in the Sun; this is the first direct spectral measurement of the neutrinos from the keystone proton-proton fusion. This observation is a crucial step towards the completion of the spectroscopy of pp-chain neutrinos, as well as further validation of the LMA-MSW model of neutrino oscillations.

  2. Signature of heavy sterile neutrinos at CEPC

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liao, Wei; Wu, Xiao-Hong

    2018-03-01

    We study the production of heavy sterile neutrino N , e+e-→N ν (ν ¯), at the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) and its l j j signal in its decay to three charged fermions. We study background events for this process which are mainly events coming from W pair production. We study the production of a single heavy sterile neutrino and the sensitivity of CEPC to the mixing of the sterile neutrino with active neutrinos. We study the production of two degenerate heavy sterile neutrinos in a low energy seesaw model by taking into account the constraints on mixings of sterile neutrinos from the neutrinoless double β decay experiment and the masses and mixings of active neutrinos. We show that CEPC under proposal has a good sensitivity to the mixing of sterile neutrinos with active neutrinos for a mass of a sterile neutrino around 100 GeV.

  3. Nuclear physics for geo-neutrino studies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Fiorentini, Gianni; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Ferrara, I-44100 Ferrara; Ianni, Aldo

    2010-03-15

    Geo-neutrino studies are based on theoretical estimates of geo-neutrino spectra. We propose a method for a direct measurement of the energy distribution of antineutrinos from decays of long-lived radioactive isotopes. We present preliminary results for the geo-neutrinos from {sup 214}Bi decay, a process that accounts for about one-half of the total geo-neutrino signal. The feeding probability of the lowest state of {sup 214}Bi--the most important for geo-neutrino signal--is found to be p{sub 0}=0.177+-0.004 (stat){sub -0.001}{sup +0.003} (sys), under the hypothesis of universal neutrino spectrum shape (UNSS). This value is consistent with the (indirect) estimate of the table of isotopes. Wemore » show that achievable larger statistics and reduction of systematics should allow for the testing of possible distortions of the neutrino spectrum from that predicted using the UNSS hypothesis. Implications on the geo-neutrino signal are discussed.« less

  4. Accelerator-based Neutrino Physics at Fermilab

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dukes, Edmond

    2008-10-01

    The discovery of neutrino mass has excited great interest in elucidating the properties of neutrinos and their role in nature. Experiments around the world take advantage of solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator sources of neutrinos. Accelerator-based sources are particularly convenient since their parameters can be tuned to optimize the measurement in question. At Fermilab an extensive neutrino program includes the MiniBooNE, SciBooNE, and MINOS experiments. Two major new experiments, MINERvA and NOvA, are being constructed, plans for a high-intensity neutrino source to DUSEL are underway, and an R&D effort towards a large liquid argon detector is being pursued. The NOvA experiment intends to search for electron neutrino appearance using a massive surface detector 811 km from Fermilab. In addition to measuring the last unknown mixing angle, theta(13), NOvA has the possibility of seeing matter-antimatter asymmetries in neutrinos and resolving the ordering of the neutrino mass states.

  5. Astrophysical and cosmological constraints to neutrino properties

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kolb, Edward W.; Schramm, David N.; Turner, Michael S.

    1989-01-01

    The astrophysical and cosmological constraints on neutrino properties (masses, lifetimes, numbers of flavors, etc.) are reviewed. The freeze out of neutrinos in the early Universe are discussed and then the cosmological limits on masses for stable neutrinos are derived. The freeze out argument coupled with observational limits is then used to constrain decaying neutrinos as well. The limits to neutrino properties which follow from SN1987A are then reviewed. The constraint from the big bang nucleosynthesis on the number of neutrino flavors is also considered. Astrophysical constraints on neutrino-mixing as well as future observations of relevance to neutrino physics are briefly discussed.

  6. Detecting the Neutrino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arns, Robert G.

    In 1930 Wolfgang Pauli suggested that a new particle might be required to make sense of the radioactive-disintegration mode known as beta decay. This conjecture initially seemed impossible to verify since the new particle, which became known as the neutrino, was uncharged, had zero or small mass, and interacted only insignificantly with other matter. In 1951 Frederick Reines and Clyde L. Cowan, Jr., of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory undertook the difficult task of detecting the free neutrino by observing its inverse beta-decay interaction with matter. They succeeded in 1956. The neutrino was accepted rapidly as a fundamental particle despite discrepancies in reported details of the experiments and despite the absence of independent verification of the result. This paper describes the experiments, examines the nature of the discrepancies, and discusses the circumstances of the acceptance of the neutrino's detection by the physics community.

  7. Neutrino oscillations and Non-Standard Interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Farzan, Yasaman; Tórtola, Mariam

    2018-02-01

    Current neutrino experiments are measuring the neutrino mixing parameters with an unprecedented accuracy. The upcoming generation of neutrino experiments will be sensitive to subdominant oscillation effects that can give information on the yet-unknown neutrino parameters: the Dirac CP-violating phase, the mass ordering and the octant of θ_{23}. Determining the exact values of neutrino mass and mixing parameters is crucial to test neutrino models and flavor symmetries designed to predict these neutrino parameters. In the first part of this review, we summarize the current status of the neutrino oscillation parameter determination. We consider the most recent data from all solar experiments and the atmospheric data from Super-Kamiokande, IceCube and ANTARES. We also implement the data from the reactor neutrino experiments KamLAND, Daya Bay, RENO and Double Chooz as well as the long baseline neutrino data from MINOS, T2K and NOvA. If in addition to the standard interactions, neutrinos have subdominant yet-unknown Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) with matter fields, extracting the values of these parameters will suffer from new degeneracies and ambiguities. We review such effects and formulate the conditions on the NSI parameters under which the precision measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters can be distorted. Like standard weak interactions, the non-standard interaction can be categorized into two groups: Charged Current (CC) NSI and Neutral Current (NC) NSI. Our focus will be mainly on neutral current NSI because it is possible to build a class of models that give rise to sizeable NC NSI with discernible effects on neutrino oscillation. These models are based on new U(1) gauge symmetry with a gauge boson of mass ≲ 10 MeV. The UV complete model should be of course electroweak invariant which in general implies that along with neutrinos, charged fermions also acquire new interactions on which there are strong bounds. We enumerate the bounds that already

  8. Higgs production through sterile neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antusch, Stefan; Cazzato, Eros; Fischer, Oliver

    2016-10-01

    In scenarios with sterile (right-handed) neutrinos with an approximate “lepton-number-like” symmetry, the heavy neutrinos (the mass eigenstates) can have masses around the electroweak scale and couple to the Higgs boson with, in principle, unsuppressed Yukawa couplings, while the smallness of the light neutrinos’ masses is guaranteed by the approximate symmetry. The on-shell production of the heavy neutrinos at lepton colliders, together with their subsequent decays into a light neutrino and a Higgs boson, constitutes a resonant contribution to the Higgs production mechanism. This resonant mono-Higgs production mechanism can contribute significantly to the mono-Higgs observables at future lepton colliders. A dedicated search for the heavy neutrinos in this channel exhibits sensitivities for the electron neutrino Yukawa coupling as small as ˜ 5 × 10-3. Furthermore, the sensitivity is enhanced for higher center-of-mass energies, when identical integrated luminosities are considered.

  9. Neutrino Interactions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kamyshkov, Yuri; Handler, Thomas

    The neutrino group of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville was involved from 05/01/2013 to 04/30/2015 in the neutrino physics research funded by DOE-HEP grant DE-SC0009861. Contributions were made to the Double Chooz nuclear reactor experiment in France where second detector was commissioned during this period and final series of measurements has been started. Although Double Chooz was smaller experimental effort than competitive Daya Bay and RENO experiments, its several advantages make it valuable for understanding of systematic errors in measurements of neutrino oscillations. Double Chooz was the first experiment among competing three that produced initial result for neutrino angle θmore » 13 measurement, giving other experiments the chance to improve measured value statistically. Graduate student Ben Rybolt defended his PhD thesis on the results of Double Chooz experiment in 2015. UT group has fulfilled all the construction and analysis commitments to Double Chooz experiment, and has withdrawn from the collaboration by the end of the mentioned period to start another experiment. Larger effort of UT neutrino group during this period was devoted to the participation in another DOE-HEP project - NOvA experiment. The 14,000-ton "FAR" neutrino detector was commissioned in northern Minnesota in 2014 together with 300-ton "NEAR" detector located at Fermilab. Following that, the physics measurement program has started when Fermilab accelerator complex produced the high-intensity neutrino beam propagating through Earth to detector in MInnessota. UT group contributed to NOvA detector construction and developments in several aspects. Our Research Associate Athanasios Hatzikoutelis was managing (Level 3 manager) the construction of the Detector Control System. This work was successfully accomplished in time with the commissioning of the detectors. Group was involved in the development of the on-line software and study of the signatures of the cosmic ray backgrounds

  10. Physics prospects of the Jinping neutrino experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beacom, John F.; Chen, Shaomin; Cheng, Jianping; Doustimotlagh, Sayed N.; Gao, Yuanning; Gong, Guanghua; Gong, Hui; Guo, Lei; Han, Ran; He, Hong-Jian; Huang, Xingtao; Li, Jianmin; Li, Jin; Li, Mohan; Li, Xueqian; Liao, Wei; Lin, Guey-Lin; Liu, Zuowei; McDonough, William; Šrámek, Ondřej; Tang, Jian; Wan, Linyan; Wang, Yuanqing; Wang, Zhe; Wang, Zongyi; Wei, Hanyu; Xi, Yufei; Xu, Ye; Xu, Xun-Jie; Yang, Zhenwei; Yao, Chunfa; Yeh, Minfang; Yue, Qian; Zhang, Liming; Zhang, Yang; Zhao, Zhihong; Zheng, Yangheng; Zhou, Xiang; Zhu, Xianglei; Zuber, Kai

    2017-02-01

    The China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), which has the lowest cosmic-ray muon flux and the lowest reactor neutrino flux of any laboratory, is ideal to carry out low-energy neutrino experiments. With two detectors and a total fiducial mass of 2000 tons for solar neutrino physics (equivalently, 3000 tons for geo-neutrino and supernova neutrino physics), the Jinping neutrino experiment will have the potential to identify the neutrinos from the CNO fusion cycles of the Sun, to cover the transition phase for the solar neutrino oscillation from vacuum to matter mixing, and to measure the geo-neutrino flux, including the Th/U ratio. These goals can be fulfilled with mature existing techniques. Efforts on increasing the target mass with multi-modular neutrino detectors and on developing the slow liquid scintillator will increase the Jinping discovery potential in the study of solar neutrinos, geo-neutrinos, supernova neutrinos, and dark matter. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11235006, 11475093, 11135009, 11375065, 11505301, and 11620101004), the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (20121088035, 20131089288, and 20151080432), the Key Laboratory of Particle & Radiation Imaging (Tsinghua University), the CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics (CCEPP), U.S. National Science Foundation Grant PHY-1404311 (Beacom), and U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-98CH10886 (Yeh).

  11. Cosmological bounds on neutrino statistics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Salas, P. F.; Gariazzo, S.; Laveder, M.; Pastor, S.; Pisanti, O.; Truong, N.

    2018-03-01

    We consider the phenomenological implications of the violation of the Pauli exclusion principle for neutrinos, focusing on cosmological observables such as the spectrum of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the primordial abundances of light elements. Neutrinos that behave (at least partly) as bosonic particles have a modified equilibrium distribution function that implies a different influence on the evolution of the Universe that, in the case of massive neutrinos, can not be simply parametrized by a change in the effective number of neutrinos. Our results show that, despite the precision of the available cosmological data, only very weak bounds can be obtained on neutrino statistics, disfavouring a more bosonic behaviour at less than 2σ.

  12. Neutrino footprint in large scale structure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garay, Carlos Peña; Verde, Licia; Jimenez, Raul

    2017-03-01

    Recent constrains on the sum of neutrino masses inferred by analyzing cosmological data, show that detecting a non-zero neutrino mass is within reach of forthcoming cosmological surveys. Such a measurement will imply a direct determination of the absolute neutrino mass scale. Physically, the measurement relies on constraining the shape of the matter power spectrum below the neutrino free streaming scale: massive neutrinos erase power at these scales. However, detection of a lack of small-scale power from cosmological data could also be due to a host of other effects. It is therefore of paramount importance to validate neutrinos as the source of power suppression at small scales. We show that, independent on hierarchy, neutrinos always show a footprint on large, linear scales; the exact location and properties are fully specified by the measured power suppression (an astrophysical measurement) and atmospheric neutrinos mass splitting (a neutrino oscillation experiment measurement). This feature cannot be easily mimicked by systematic uncertainties in the cosmological data analysis or modifications in the cosmological model. Therefore the measurement of such a feature, up to 1% relative change in the power spectrum for extreme differences in the mass eigenstates mass ratios, is a smoking gun for confirming the determination of the absolute neutrino mass scale from cosmological observations. It also demonstrates the synergy between astrophysics and particle physics experiments.

  13. First all-flavor neutrino pointlike source search with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albert, A.; André, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid, M.; Aubert, J.-J.; Avgitas, T.; Baret, B.; Barrios-Martí, J.; Basa, S.; Belhorma, B.; Bertin, V.; Biagi, S.; Bormuth, R.; Bourret, S.; Bouwhuis, M. C.; Brânzaş, H.; Bruijn, R.; Brunner, J.; Busto, J.; Capone, A.; Caramete, L.; Carr, J.; Celli, S.; Cherkaoui El Moursli, R.; Chiarusi, T.; Circella, M.; Coelho, J. A. B.; Coleiro, A.; Coniglione, R.; Costantini, H.; Coyle, P.; Creusot, A.; Díaz, A. F.; Deschamps, A.; de Bonis, G.; Distefano, C.; di Palma, I.; Domi, A.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Drouhin, D.; Eberl, T.; El Bojaddaini, I.; El Khayati, N.; Elsässer, D.; Enzenhöfer, A.; Ettahiri, A.; Fassi, F.; Felis, I.; Fusco, L. A.; Galatà, S.; Gay, P.; Giordano, V.; Glotin, H.; Grégoire, T.; Gracia Ruiz, R.; Graf, K.; Hallmann, S.; van Haren, H.; Heijboer, A. J.; Hello, Y.; Hernández-Rey, J. J.; Hößl, J.; Hofestädt, J.; Hugon, C.; Illuminati, G.; James, C. W.; de Jong, M.; Jongen, M.; Kadler, M.; Kalekin, O.; Katz, U.; Kießling, D.; Kouchner, A.; Kreter, M.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Lachaud, C.; Lahmann, R.; Lefèvre, D.; Leonora, E.; Lotze, M.; Loucatos, S.; Marcelin, M.; Margiotta, A.; Marinelli, A.; Martínez-Mora, J. A.; Mele, R.; Melis, K.; Michael, T.; Migliozzi, P.; Moussa, A.; Navas, S.; Nezri, E.; Organokov, M.; Pǎvǎlaş, G. E.; Pellegrino, C.; Perrina, C.; Piattelli, P.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Quinn, L.; Racca, C.; Riccobene, G.; Sánchez-Losa, A.; Saldaña, M.; Salvadori, I.; Samtleben, D. F. E.; Sanguineti, M.; Sapienza, P.; Schüssler, F.; Sieger, C.; Spurio, M.; Stolarczyk, Th.; Taiuti, M.; Tayalati, Y.; Trovato, A.; Turpin, D.; Tönnis, C.; Vallage, B.; van Elewyck, V.; Versari, F.; Vivolo, D.; Vizzoca, A.; Wilms, J.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zúñiga, J.; ANTARES Collaboration

    2017-10-01

    A search for cosmic neutrino sources using the data collected with the ANTARES neutrino telescope between early 2007 and the end of 2015 is performed. For the first time, all neutrino interactions—charged- and neutral-current interactions of all flavors—are considered in a search for point-like sources with the ANTARES detector. In previous analyses, only muon neutrino charged-current interactions were used. This is achieved by using a novel reconstruction algorithm for shower-like events in addition to the standard muon track reconstruction. The shower channel contributes about 23% of all signal events for an E-2 energy spectrum. No significant excess over background is found. The most signal-like cluster of events is located at (α ,δ )=(343.8 ° ,23.5 ° ) with a significance of 1.9 σ . The neutrino flux sensitivity of the search is about E2d Φ /d E =6 ×10-9 GeV cm-2 s-1 for declinations from -90 ° up to -42 ° , and below 10-8 GeV cm-2 s-1 for declinations up to 5°. The directions of 106 source candidates and 13 muon track events from the IceCube high-energy sample events are investigated for a possible neutrino signal and upper limits on the signal flux are determined.

  14. Neutrino flavor evolution in neutron star mergers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tian, James Y.; Patwardhan, Amol V.; Fuller, George M.

    2017-08-01

    We examine the flavor evolution of neutrinos emitted from the disklike remnant (hereafter called "neutrino disk") of a binary neutron star (BNS) merger. We specifically follow the neutrinos emitted from the center of the disk, along the polar axis perpendicular to the equatorial plane. We carried out two-flavor simulations using a variety of different possible initial neutrino luminosities and energy spectra and, for comparison, three-flavor simulations in specific cases. In all simulations, the normal neutrino mass hierarchy was used. The flavor evolution was found to be highly dependent on the initial neutrino luminosities and energy spectra; in particular, we found two broad classes of results depending on the sign of the initial net electron neutrino lepton number (i.e., the number of neutrinos minus the number of antineutrinos). In the antineutrino-dominated case, we found that the matter-neutrino resonance effect dominates, consistent with previous results, whereas in the neutrino-dominated case, a bipolar spectral swap develops. The neutrino-dominated conditions required for this latter result have been realized, e.g., in a BNS merger simulation that employs the "DD2" equation of state for neutron star matter [Phys. Rev. D 93, 044019 (2016), 10.1103/PhysRevD.93.044019]. For this case, in addition to the swap at low energies, a collective Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein mechanism generates a high-energy electron neutrino tail. The enhanced population of high-energy electron neutrinos in this scenario could have implications for the prospects of r -process nucleosynthesis in the material ejected outside the plane of the neutrino disk.

  15. Geo-neutrino results with Borexino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roncin, R.; Agostini, M.; Appel, S.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Di Noto, L.; Drachnev, I.; Etenko, A.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Galbiati, C.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Goeger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jedrzejczak, K.; Kaiser, M.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Muratova, V.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Semenov, D.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Thurn, J.; Toropova, M.; Unzhakov, E.; Vishneva, A.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Weinz, S.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Yokley, Z.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2016-02-01

    Borexino is a liquid scintillator detector primary designed to observe solar neutrinos. Due to its low background level as well as its position in a nuclear free country, Italy, Borexino is also sensitive to geo-neutrinos. Borexino is leading this interdisciplinary field of neutrino geoscience by studying electron antineutrinos which are emitted from the decay of radioactive isotopes present in the crust and the mantle of the Earth. With 2056 days of data taken between December 2007 and March 2015, Borexino observed 77 antineutrino candidates. If we assume a chondritic Th/U mass ratio of 3.9, the number of geo-neutrino events is found to be 23.7+6.5 -5.7(stat) +0.9-0.6 (syst). With this measurement, Borexino alone is able to reject the null geo-neutrino signal at 5.9σ, to claim a geo-neutrino signal from the mantle at 98% C.L. and to restrict the radiogenic heat production for U and Th between 23 and 36 TW.

  16. Study of Neutrino Interactions in MINOS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sharma, Richa

    2014-01-01

    MINOS stands for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search. It is a long baseline experiment located in the USA and is composed of two detectors. The Near Detector is at Fermilab, 1 km from the source of neutrinos. The Far Detector is in Minnesota at a distance of 735 km from the source. Both detectors are steel scintillator tracking calorimeters. MINOS searches for neutrino oscillations by comparing the neutrino energy spectrum at the Far Detector with that obtained from a prediction based on the spectrum at the Near Detector. The primary aim of MINOS is to measure the atmospheric oscillation parametersmore » Δm 2 32 and θ 23. CPT symmetry requires that these parameters should be same for neutrinos and antineutrinos. Di erences between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations would be an indication of new physics beyond the neutrino-Standard Model ( SM). Additionally, violation of Lorentz or CPT symmetry could also give rise to oscillations di erent from that expected from the SM predictions, such as neutrino to antineutrino transitions.« less

  17. The Liouville equation for flavour evolution of neutrinos and neutrino wave packets

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hansen, Rasmus Sloth Lundkvist; Smirnov, Alexei Yu., E-mail: rasmus@mpi-hd.mpg.de, E-mail: smirnov@mpi-hd.mpg.de

    We consider several aspects related to the form, derivation and applications of the Liouville equation (LE) for flavour evolution of neutrinos. To take into account the quantum nature of neutrinos we derive the evolution equation for the matrix of densities using wave packets instead of Wigner functions. The obtained equation differs from the standard LE by an additional term which is proportional to the difference of group velocities. We show that this term describes loss of the propagation coherence in the system. In absence of momentum changing collisions, the LE can be reduced to a single derivative equation over amore » trajectory coordinate. Additional time and spatial dependence may stem from initial (production) conditions. The transition from single neutrino evolution to the evolution of a neutrino gas is considered.« less

  18. The AMANDA Neutrino Detector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wischnewski, R.; Andres, E.; Askebjer, P.

    1999-08-23

    The first stage of the AMANDA High Energy Neutrino Detectorat the South Pole, the 302 PMT array AMANDA-B with an expected effectivearea for TeV neutrinos of similar to 10(4) m(2), has been taking datasince 1997. Progress with calibration, investigation of ice properties,as well as muon and neutrino data analysis are described. The next stage20-string detector AMANDA-II with similar to 800 PMTs will be completedin spring 2000.

  19. Possible explanation of the solar-neutrino puzzle

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bethe, H. A.

    1986-01-01

    A new derivation of the Mikheyev and Smirnov (1985) mechanism for the conversion of electron neutrinos into mu neutrinos when traversing the sun is presented, and various hypotheses set forth. It is assumed that this process is responsible for the detection of fewer solar neutrinos than expected, with neutrinos below a minimum energy, E(m), being undetectable. E(m) is found to be about 6 MeV, and the difference of the squares of the respective neutrino masses is calculated to be 6 X 10 to the - 5th sq eV. A restriction on the neutrino mixing angle is assumed such that the change of density near the crossing point is adiabatic. It is predicted that no resonance conversion of neutrinos will occur in the dense core of supernovae, but conversion of electron neutrinos to mu neutrinos will occur as they escape outward through a density region around 100.

  20. Nuclear Neutrino Spectra in Late Stellar Evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Misch, G. Wendell; Sun, Yang; Fuller, George

    2018-05-01

    Neutrinos are the principle carriers of energy in massive stars, beginning from core carbon burning and continuing through core collapse and after the core bounce. In fact, it may be possible to detect neutrinos from nearby pre-supernova stars. Therefore, it is of great interest to understand the neutrino energy spectra from these stars. Leading up to core collapse, beginning around core silicon burning, nuclei become dominant producers of neutrinos, particularly at high neutrino energy, so a systematic study of nuclear neutrino spectra is desirable. We have done such a study, and we present our sd-shell model calculations of nuclear neutrino energy spectra for nuclei in the mass number range A = 21 - 35. Our study includes neutrinos produced by charged lepton capture, charged lepton emission, and neutral current nuclear deexcitation. Previous authors have tabulated the rates of charged current nuclear weak interactions in astrophysical conditions, but the present work expands on this not only by providing neutrino energy spectra, but also by including the heretofore untabulated neutral current de-excitation neutrino pairs.

  1. Measurement of the intrinsic electron neutrino component in the T2K neutrino beam with the ND280 detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Adam, J.; Aihara, H.; Akiri, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Assylbekov, S.; Autiero, D.; Barbi, M.; Barker, G. J.; Barr, G.; Bass, M.; Batkiewicz, M.; Bay, F.; Bentham, S. W.; Berardi, V.; Berger, B. E.; Berkman, S.; Bertram, I.; Bhadra, S.; Blaszczyk, F. d. M.; Blondel, A.; Bojechko, C.; Bordoni, S.; Boyd, S. B.; Brailsford, D.; Bravar, A.; Bronner, C.; Buchanan, N.; Calland, R. G.; Caravaca Rodríguez, J.; Cartwright, S. L.; Castillo, R.; Catanesi, M. G.; Cervera, A.; Cherdack, D.; Christodoulou, G.; Clifton, A.; Coleman, J.; Coleman, S. J.; Collazuol, G.; Connolly, K.; Cremonesi, L.; Dabrowska, A.; Danko, I.; Das, R.; Davis, S.; de Perio, P.; De Rosa, G.; Dealtry, T.; Dennis, S. R.; Densham, C.; Di Lodovico, F.; Di Luise, S.; Drapier, O.; Duboyski, T.; Duffy, K.; Dufour, F.; Dumarchez, J.; Dytman, S.; Dziewiecki, M.; Emery, S.; Ereditato, A.; Escudero, L.; Finch, A. J.; Floetotto, L.; Friend, M.; Fujii, Y.; Fukuda, Y.; Furmanski, A. P.; Galymov, V.; Giffin, S.; Giganti, C.; Gilje, K.; Goeldi, D.; Golan, T.; Gomez-Cadenas, J. J.; Gonin, M.; Grant, N.; Gudin, D.; Hadley, D. R.; Haesler, A.; Haigh, M. D.; Hamilton, P.; Hansen, D.; Hara, T.; Hartz, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Hastings, N. C.; Hayato, Y.; Hearty, C.; Helmer, R. L.; Hierholzer, M.; Hignight, J.; Hillairet, A.; Himmel, A.; Hiraki, T.; Hirota, S.; Holeczek, J.; Horikawa, S.; Huang, K.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Ieki, K.; Ieva, M.; Ikeda, M.; Imber, J.; Insler, J.; Irvine, T. J.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Ives, S. J.; Iwai, E.; Iyogi, K.; Izmaylov, A.; Jacob, A.; Jamieson, B.; Johnson, R. A.; Jo, J. H.; Jonsson, P.; Jung, C. K.; Kabirnezhad, M.; Kaboth, A. C.; Kajita, T.; Kakuno, H.; Kameda, J.; Kanazawa, Y.; Karlen, D.; Karpikov, I.; Kearns, E.; Khabibullin, M.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kielczewska, D.; Kikawa, T.; Kilinski, A.; Kim, J.; Kisiel, J.; Kitching, P.; Kobayashi, T.; Koch, L.; Kolaceke, A.; Konaka, A.; Kormos, L. L.; Korzenev, A.; Koseki, K.; Koshio, Y.; Kreslo, I.; Kropp, W.; Kubo, H.; Kudenko, Y.; Kumaratunga, S.; Kurjata, R.; Kutter, T.; Lagoda, J.; Laihem, K.; Lamont, I.; Larkin, E.; Laveder, M.; Lawe, M.; Lazos, M.; Lee, K. P.; Lindner, T.; Lister, C.; Litchfield, R. P.; Longhin, A.; Ludovici, L.; Macaire, M.; Magaletti, L.; Mahn, K.; Malek, M.; Manly, S.; Marino, A. D.; Marteau, J.; Martin, J. F.; Maruyama, T.; Marzec, J.; Mathie, E. L.; Matveev, V.; Mavrokoridis, K.; Mazzucato, E.; McCarthy, M.; McCauley, N.; McFarland, K. S.; McGrew, C.; Metelko, C.; Mezzetto, M.; Mijakowski, P.; Miller, C. A.; Minamino, A.; Mineev, O.; Mine, S.; Missert, A.; Miura, M.; Monfregola, L.; Moriyama, S.; Mueller, Th. A.; Murakami, A.; Murdoch, M.; Murphy, S.; Myslik, J.; Nagasaki, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakahata, M.; Nakai, T.; Nakamura, K.; Nakayama, S.; Nakaya, T.; Nakayoshi, K.; Naples, D.; Nielsen, C.; Nirkko, M.; Nishikawa, K.; Nishimura, Y.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Ohta, R.; Okumura, K.; Okusawa, T.; Oryszczak, W.; Oser, S. M.; Owen, R. A.; Oyama, Y.; Palladino, V.; Palomino, J.; Paolone, V.; Payne, D.; Perevozchikov, O.; Perkin, J. D.; Petrov, Y.; Pickard, L.; Pinzon Guerra, E. S.; Pistillo, C.; Plonski, P.; Poplawska, E.; Popov, B.; Posiadala, M.; Poutissou, J.-M.; Poutissou, R.; Przewlocki, P.; Quilain, B.; Radicioni, E.; Ratoff, P. N.; Ravonel, M.; Rayner, M. A. M.; Redij, A.; Reeves, M.; Reinherz-Aronis, E.; Retiere, F.; Robert, A.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Rojas, P.; Rondio, E.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Ruterbories, D.; Sacco, R.; Sakashita, K.; Sánchez, F.; Sato, F.; Scantamburlo, E.; Scholberg, K.; Schoppmann, S.; Schwehr, J.; Scott, M.; Seiya, Y.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekiya, H.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shiozawa, M.; Short, S.; Shustrov, Y.; Sinclair, P.; Smith, B.; Smith, R. J.; Smy, M.; Sobczyk, J. T.; Sobel, H.; Sorel, M.; Southwell, L.; Stamoulis, P.; Steinmann, J.; Still, B.; Suda, Y.; Suzuki, A.; Suzuki, K.; Suzuki, S. Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Szeglowski, T.; Tacik, R.; Tada, M.; Takahashi, S.; Takeda, A.; Takeuchi, Y.; Tanaka, H. K.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tanaka, M. M.; Terhorst, D.; Terri, R.; Thompson, L. F.; Thorley, A.; Tobayama, S.; Toki, W.; Tomura, T.; Totsuka, Y.; Touramanis, C.; Tsukamoto, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Ueno, K.; Vacheret, A.; Vagins, M.; Vasseur, G.; Wachala, T.; Waldron, A. V.; Walter, C. W.; Wark, D.; Wascko, M. O.; Weber, A.; Wendell, R.; Wilkes, R. J.; Wilking, M. J.; Wilkinson, C.; Williamson, Z.; Wilson, J. R.; Wilson, R. J.; Wongjirad, T.; Yamada, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Yen, S.; Yershov, N.; Yokoyama, M.; Yuan, T.; Yu, M.; Zalewska, A.; Zalipska, J.; Zambelli, L.; Zaremba, K.; Ziembicki, M.; Zimmerman, E. D.; Zito, M.; Żmuda, J.; T2K Collaboration

    2014-05-01

    The T2K experiment has reported the first observation of the appearance of electron neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam. The main and irreducible background to the appearance signal comes from the presence in the neutrino beam of a small intrinsic component of electron neutrinos originating from muon and kaon decays. In T2K, this component is expected to represent 1.2% of the total neutrino flux. A measurement of this component using the near detector (ND280), located 280 m from the target, is presented. The charged current interactions of electron neutrinos are selected by combining the particle identification capabilities of both the time projection chambers and electromagnetic calorimeters of ND280. The measured ratio between the observed electron neutrino beam component and the prediction is 1.01±0.10 providing a direct confirmation of the neutrino fluxes and neutrino cross section modeling used for T2K neutrino oscillation analyses. Electron neutrinos coming from muons and kaons decay are also separately measured, resulting in a ratio with respect to the prediction of 0.68±0.30 and 1.10±0.14, respectively.

  2. Oscillation characteristics of neutrino in the model with three sterile neutrinos for analysis of the anomalies on small distances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khruschov, V. V.; Fomichev, S. V.

    2017-11-01

    In the framework of the model with three sterile neutrinos, the transition probabilities for different flavours of neutrino are calculated and the graphical dependences are obtained, in particular, for the appearance probability of electron neutrino and antineutrino in the muon neutrino and antineutrino jets as a function of distance and other model parameters at their acceptable values and at the neutrino energy less than 50 MeV, as well as a function of a ratio of distance to the neutrino energy. The theoretical results obtained can be used for analysis of the neutrino data related to the anomalies on small distances.

  3. Generic Friedberg-Lee symmetry of Dirac neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Luo Shu; Xing Zhizhong; Li Xin

    2008-12-01

    We write out the generic Dirac neutrino mass operator which possesses the Friedberg-Lee symmetry and find that its corresponding neutrino mass matrix is asymmetric. Following a simple way to break the Friedberg-Lee symmetry, we calculate the neutrino mass eigenvalues and show that the resultant neutrino mixing pattern is nearly tri-bimaximal. Imposing the Hermitian condition on the neutrino mass matrix, we also show that the simplified ansatz is consistent with current experimental data and favors the normal neutrino mass hierarchy.

  4. Boron neutrino flux and the MSW solution of the solar neutrino problem

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Krastev, P.I.; Smirnov, A.Y.

    1994-10-01

    There are large uncertainties in the predictions of the boron neutrino flux from the Sun which cannot be considered as being of purely statistical origin. We treat the magnitude of this flux, {Phi}{sub B}, as a parameter to be found from experiment. The properties of the, MSW solution to the solar neutrino problem for different values of {Phi}{sub B} are studied. Present, data give the bounds: 0.38 < {Phi}{sub B}/{Phi}{sub B}{sup O} < 3.1 (2{sigma}), where {Phi}{sub B}{sup O} {identical_to} 5.7 {center_dot} 10{sup 6} cm{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1} is the flux in the reference SSM. The variations of the flux inmore » this interval enlarge the allowed region of mixing angles: sin{sup 2} 2{theta} = 0.2 {divided_by} 2 {center_dot} 10{sup {minus}4} {divided_by} 2 {center_dot} 10{sup {minus}2} (small mixing solutions) and sin{sup 2} 2{theta} = 0.2 {divided_by} 0.85 (large mixing solution). If the value of the original boron neutrino flux is about that measured by Kamiokande, a consistent description of the data is achieved for sin{sup 2} 2{theta} {approximately} (0.8 {divided_by} 2) {center_dot} 10{sup {minus}3} (``very small mixing solution``). The solution is characterized by a strong suppression of the beryllium neutrino line, a weak distortion of the high energy part of the baron neutrino spectrum and a value of the double ratio (CC/NC){sup exp}/(CC/NC){sup SSM} at E > 5 MeV close to 1. We comment on the possibility to measure the neutrino parameters and the original boron neutrino flux in future experiments.« less

  5. Dark matter vs. neutrinos: the effect of astrophysical uncertainties and timing information on the neutrino floor

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Davis, Jonathan H., E-mail: jonathan.h.m.davis@gmail.com

    2015-03-01

    Future multi-tonne Direct Detection experiments will be sensitive to solar neutrino induced nuclear recoils which form an irreducible background to light Dark Matter searches. Indeed for masses around 6 GeV the spectra of neutrinos and Dark Matter are so similar that experiments are said to run into a neutrino floor, for which sensitivity increases only marginally with exposure past a certain cross section. In this work we show that this floor can be overcome using the different annual modulation expected from solar neutrinos and Dark Matter. Specifically for cross sections below the neutrino floor the DM signal is observable throughmore » a phase shift and a smaller amplitude for the time-dependent event rate. This allows the exclusion power to be improved by up to an order of magnitude for large exposures. In addition we demonstrate that, using only spectral information, the neutrino floor exists over a wider mass range than has been previously shown, since the large uncertainties in the Dark Matter velocity distribution make the signal spectrum harder to distinguish from the neutrino background. However for most velocity distributions it can still be surpassed using timing information, and so the neutrino floor is not an absolute limit on the sensitivity of Direct Detection experiments.« less

  6. Dark matter vs. neutrinos: the effect of astrophysical uncertainties and timing information on the neutrino floor

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Davis, Jonathan H.

    2015-03-09

    Future multi-tonne Direct Detection experiments will be sensitive to solar neutrino induced nuclear recoils which form an irreducible background to light Dark Matter searches. Indeed for masses around 6 GeV the spectra of neutrinos and Dark Matter are so similar that experiments are said to run into a neutrino floor, for which sensitivity increases only marginally with exposure past a certain cross section. In this work we show that this floor can be overcome using the different annual modulation expected from solar neutrinos and Dark Matter. Specifically for cross sections below the neutrino floor the DM signal is observable throughmore » a phase shift and a smaller amplitude for the time-dependent event rate. This allows the exclusion power to be improved by up to an order of magnitude for large exposures. In addition we demonstrate that, using only spectral information, the neutrino floor exists over a wider mass range than has been previously shown, since the large uncertainties in the Dark Matter velocity distribution make the signal spectrum harder to distinguish from the neutrino background. However for most velocity distributions it can still be surpassed using timing information, and so the neutrino floor is not an absolute limit on the sensitivity of Direct Detection experiments.« less

  7. The not-so-sterile 4th neutrino: constraints on new gauge interactions from neutrino oscillation experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kopp, Joachim; Welter, Johannes

    2014-12-01

    Sterile neutrino models with new gauge interactions in the sterile sector are phenomenologically interesting since they can lead to novel effects in neutrino oscillation experiments, in cosmology and in dark matter detectors, possibly even explaining some of the observed anomalies in these experiments. Here, we use data from neutrino oscillation experiments, in particular from MiniBooNE, MINOS and solar neutrino experiments, to constrain such models. We focus in particular on the case where the sterile sector gauge boson A ' couples also to Standard Model particles (for instance to the baryon number current) and thus induces a large Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein potential. For eV-scale sterile neutrinos, we obtain strong constraints especially from MINOS, which restricts the strength of the new interaction to be less than ˜ 10 times that of the Standard Model weak interaction unless active-sterile neutrino mixing is very small (sin2 θ 24 ≲ 10-3). This rules out gauge forces large enough to affect short-baseline experiments like MiniBooNE and it imposes nontrivial constraints on signals from sterile neutrino scattering in dark matter experiments.

  8. A Nine-Year Hunt for Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2018-02-01

    How do we hunt for elusive neutrinos emitted by distant astrophysical sources? Submerge a huge observatory under ice or water and then wait patiently.Sneaky MessengersNeutrinos tiny, nearly massless particles that only weakly interact with other matter are thought to be produced as a constant background originating from throughout our universe. In contrast to known point sources of neutrinos (for instance, nearby supernovae), the diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos could be emitted from unresolved astrophysical sources too faint to be individually detected, or from the interactions of high-energy cosmic rays propagating across the universe.Observations of this diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos would be a huge step toward understanding cosmic-ray production, acceleration, and interaction properties. Unfortunately, these observations arent easy to make!Diagram showing the path of a neutrino from a distant astrophysical source (accelerator) through the Earth. It is eventually converted into an upward-traveling muon that registers in the ANTARES detector under the sea. [ANTARES]Looking for What Doesnt Want to Be FoundBecause neutrinos so rarely interact with matter, most pass right through us, eluding detection. The most common means of spotting the rare interacting neutrino is to look for Cherenkov radiation in a medium like ice or water, produced when a neutrino has interacted with matterto produce a charged particle (for instance, a muon) moving faster than the speed of light in the medium.Muons produced in our atmosphere can also register in such detectors, however, so we need a way of filtering out these non-cosmic background events. The solution is a clever trick: search for particles traveling upward, not downward. Atmospheric muons will come only from above, whereas muons produced by neutrinos should travel through the detectors in all directions, since cosmic neutrinos arrive from all directions including from below, after passing through the Earth

  9. ORCA: measuring the neutrino mass hierarchy with atmospheric neutrinos in the Mediterranean

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Van Elewyck, Véronique; KM3NeT Collaboration

    2015-04-01

    Since the measurement of the mixing angle θ13, the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy has become a central challenge of neutrino physics. Recent studies have pointed out that it could reveal itself in the atmospheric neutrino sector, where oscillations are affected by Earth matter effects. This contribution reports on the ORCA feasibility study for such a measurement with an underwater Cherenkov detector based on the technology developed for the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. The baseline performances are discussed for a reference detector with 50 instrumented lines. Preliminary projections, based on the muon channel only, indicate that a 3 — 5σ significance measurement is within reach of a detector with an exposure of the order of 20 Mton years. Further improvement is expected to come from the electron channel, which is currently under study.

  10. Low energy neutrinos in Super-Kamiokande

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sekiya, Hiroyuki

    2016-05-01

    Super-Kamiokande (SK), a 50 kton water Cherenkov detector, observes 8B solar neutrinos via neutrino-electron elastic scattering. The analysis threshold was successfully lowered to 3.5 MeV (recoil electron kinetic energy) in SK-IV. To date SK has observed solar neutrinos for 18 years. An analysis regarding possible correlations between the solar neutrino flux and the 11 year solar activity cycle is shown. With large statistics, SK searches for distortions of the solar neutrino energy spectrum caused by the MSW resonance in the core of the sun. SK also searches for a day/night solar neutrino flux asymmetry induced by the matter in the Earth. The Super-Kamiokande Gd (SK-Gd) project is the upgrade of the SK detector via the addition of water-soluble gadolinium (Gd) salt. This modification will enable it to efficiently identify low energy anti-neutrinos. SK-Gd will pursue low energy physics currently inaccessible to SK due to backgrounds. The most important will be the world’s first observation of the diffuse supernova neutrino background. The main R&D program towards SK-Gd is EG ADS: a 200 ton, fully instrumented tank built in a new cavern in the Kamioka mine.

  11. Neutrino astronomy at the South Pole: Latest results from the IceCube neutrino observatory and its future development

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Toscano, S.; IceCube Collaboration

    2017-12-01

    The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer neutrino telescope located at the geographic South Pole. Buried deep under the Antarctic ice sheet, an array of 5160 Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) is used to capture the Cherenkov light emitted by relativistic particles generated from neutrino interactions. The main goal of IceCube is the detection of astrophysical neutrinos. In 2013 the IceCube neutrino telescope discovered a high-energy diffuse flux of neutrino events with energy ranging from tens of TeV up to few PeV of cosmic origin. Meanwhile, different analyses confirm the discovery and search for possible correlations with astrophysical sources. However, the source of these neutrinos remains a mystery, since no counterparts have been identified yet. In this contribution we give an overview of the detection principles of IceCube, the most recent results, and the plans for a next-generation neutrino detector, dubbed IceCube-Gen2.

  12. Neutrino physics with DARWIN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benabderrahmane, M. L.

    2017-09-01

    DARWIN (DARk matter WImp search with liquid xenoN) will be a multi-ton dark matter detector with the primary goal of exploring the entire experimentally accessible parameter space for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) over a wide mass-range. With its 40 tonne active liquid xenon target, low-energy threshold and ultra-low background level, DARWIN can also search for other rare interactions. Here we present its sensitivity to low-energy solar neutrinos and to neutrinoless double beta decay. In a low-energy window of 2-30 keV a rate of 105/year, from pp and 7Be neutrinos can be reached. Such a measurement, with 1% precision will allow testing neutrinos models. DARWIN could also reach a competitive half-life sensitivity of 8.5 · 1027 y to the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) of 136Xe after an exposure of 140 t×y of natural xenon. Nuclear recoils from coherent scattering of solar neutrinos will limit the sensitivity to WIMP masses below 5 GeV/c2, and the event rate from 8B neutrinos would range from a few to a few tens of events per tonne and year, depending on the energy threshold of the detector. Deviations from the predicted but yet unmeasured neutrino flux would be an indication for physics beyond the Standard Model

  13. Neutrino emission from nearby supernova progenitors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoshida, Takashi; Takahashi, Koh; Umeda, Hideyuki

    2016-05-01

    Neutrinos have an important role for energy loss process during advanced evolution of massive stars. Although the luminosity and average energy of neutrinos during the Si burning are much smaller than those of supernova neutrinos, these neutrinos are expected to be detected by the liquid scintillation neutrino detector KamLAND if a supernova explosion occurs at the distance of ~100 parsec. We investigate the neutrino emission from massive stars during advanced evolution. We calculate the evolution of the energy spectra of neutrinos produced through electron-positron pair-annihilation in the supernova progenitors with the initial mass of 12, 15, and 20 M ⊙ during the Si burning and core-collapse stages. The neutrino emission rate increases from ~ 1050 s-1 to ~ 1052 s-1. The average energy of electron-antineutrinos is about 1.25 MeV during the Si burning and gradually increases until the core-collapse. For one week before the supernova explosion, the KamLAND detector is expected to observe 12-24 and 6-13 v¯e events in the normal and inverted mass hierarchies, respectively, if a supernova explosion of a 12-20 M ⊙ star occurs at the distance of 200 parsec, corresponding to the distance to Betelgeuse. Observations of neutrinos from SN progenitors have a possibility to constrain the core structure and the evolution just before the core collapse of massive stars.

  14. Capturing Neutrinos from a Star's Final Hours

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hensley, Kerry

    2018-04-01

    What happens on the last day of a massive stars life? In the hours before the star collapses and explodes as a supernova, the rapid evolution of material in its core creates swarms of neutrinos. Observing these neutrinos may help us understand the final stages of a massive stars life but theyve never been detected.A view of some of the 1,520 phototubes within the MiniBooNE neutrino detector. Observations from this and other detectors are helping to illuminate the nature of the mysterious neutrino. [Fred Ullrich/FNAL]Silent Signposts of Stellar EvolutionThe nuclear fusion that powers stars generates tremendous amounts of energy. Much of this energy is emitted as photons, but a curious and elusive particle the neutrino carries away most of the energy in the late stages of stellar evolution.Stellar neutrinos can be created through two processes: thermal processesand beta processes. Thermal processes e.g.,pair production, in which a particle/antiparticle pair are created depend on the temperature and pressure of the stellar core. Beta processes i.e.,when a proton converts to a neutron, or vice versa are instead linked to the isotopic makeup of the stars core. This means that, if we can observe them, beta-process neutrinos may be able to tell us about the last steps of stellar nucleosynthesis in a dying star.But observing these neutrinos is not so easilydone. Neutrinos arenearly massless, neutral particles that interact only feebly with matter; out of the whopping 1060neutrinos released in a supernova explosion, even the most sensitive detectors only record the passage of just a few. Do we have a chance of detectingthe beta-process neutrinos that are released in the final few hours of a stars life, beforethe collapse?Neutrino luminosities leading up to core collapse. Shortly before collapse, the luminosity of beta-process neutrinos outshines that of any other neutrino flavor or origin. [Adapted from Patton et al. 2017]Modeling Stellar CoresTo answer this question, Kelly

  15. Sterile neutrinos and flavor ratios in IceCube

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brdar, Vedran; Kopp, Joachim; Wang, Xiao-Ping, E-mail: vbrdar@uni-mainz.de, E-mail: jkopp@uni-mainz.de, E-mail: xiaowang@uni-mainz.de

    2017-01-01

    The flavor composition of astrophysical neutrinos observed in neutrino telescopes is a powerful discriminator between different astrophysical neutrino production mechanisms and can also teach us about the particle physics properties of neutrinos. In this paper, we investigate how the possible existence of light sterile neutrinos can affect these flavor ratios. We consider two scenarios: (i) neutrino production in conventional astrophysical sources, followed by partial oscillation into sterile states; (ii) neutrinos from dark matter decay with a primary flavor composition enhanced in tau neutrinos or sterile neutrinos. Throughout the paper, we constrain the sterile neutrino mixing parameters from a full globalmore » fit to short and long baseline data. We present our results in the form of flavor triangles and, for scenario (ii), as exclusion limits on the dark matter mass and lifetime, derived from a fit to IceCube high energy starting events and through-going muons. We argue that identifying a possible flux of neutrinos from dark matter decay may require analyzing the flavor composition as a function of neutrino energy.« less

  16. The Angra Neutrino Project: precise measurement of θ13 and safeguards applications of neutrino detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Casimiro, E.; Anjos, J. C.

    2009-04-01

    We present an introduction to the Angra Neutrino Project. The goal of the project is to explore the use of neutrino detectors to monitor the reactor activity. The Angra Project, willl employ as neutrino sources the reactors of the nuclear power complex in Brazil, located in Angra dos Reis, some 150 Km south from the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Angra collaboration will develop and operate a low-mass neutrino detector to monitor the nuclear reactor activity, in particular to measure the reactor thermal power and the reactor fuel isotopic composition.

  17. Neutrinos for Peace

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cribier, M.

    2015-04-01

    The fundamental knowledge on neutrinos acquired in the recent years open the possibility of applied neutrino physics. Among it the automatic and non intrusive monitoring of nuclear reactor by its antineutrino signal could be very valuable to IAEA in charge of the control of nuclear power plants. Several efforts worldwide have already started.

  18. Accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Harris, Deborah A.; /Fermilab

    2007-12-01

    Neutrino oscillations were first discovered by experiments looking at neutrinos coming from extra-terrestrial sources, namely the sun and the atmosphere, but we will be depending on earth-based sources to take many of the next steps in this field. This article describes what has been learned so far from accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments, and then describe very generally what the next accelerator-based steps are. In section 2 the article discusses how one uses an accelerator to make a neutrino beam, in particular, one made from decays in flight of charged pions. There are several different neutrino detection methods currently in use,more » or under development. In section 3 these are presented, with a description of the general concept, an example of such a detector, and then a brief discussion of the outstanding issues associated with this detection technique. Finally, section 4 describes how the measurements of oscillation probabilities are made. This includes a description of the near detector technique and how it can be used to make the most precise measurements of neutrino oscillations.« less

  19. Extraterrestrial high energy neutrino fluxes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecker, F. W.

    1979-01-01

    Using the most recent cosmic ray spectra up to 2x10 to the 20th power eV, production spectra of high energy neutrinos from cosmic ray interactions with interstellar gas and extragalactic interactions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays with 3K universal background photons are presented and discussed. Estimates of the fluxes from cosmic diffuse sources and the nearby quasar 3C273 are made using the generic relationship between secondary neutrinos and gammas and using recent gamma ray satellite data. These gamma ray data provide important upper limits on cosmological neutrinos. Quantitative estimates of the observability of high energy neutrinos from the inner galaxy and 3C273 above atmospheric background for a DUMAND type detector are discussed in the context of the Weinberg-Salam model with sq sin theta omega = 0.2 and including the atmospheric background from the decay of charmed mesons. Constraints on cosmological high energy neutrino production models are also discussed. It appears that important high energy neutrino astronomy may be possible with DUMAND, but very long observing times are required.

  20. New physics with ultra-high-energy neutrinos

    DOE PAGES

    Marfatia, D.; McKay, D. W.; Weiler, T. J.

    2015-07-03

    Now that PeV neutrinos have been discovered by IceCube, we optimistically entertain the possibility that neutrinos with energy above 100PeV exist. Here, we evaluate the dependence of event rates of such neutrinos on the neutrino-nucleon cross section at observatories that detect particles, atmospheric fluorescence, or Cherenkov radiation, initiated by neutrino interactions. We consider how (i)a simple scaling of the total standard model neutrino-nucleon cross section, (ii) a new elastic neutral current interaction, and (iii) anew completely inelastic interaction, individually impact event rates.

  1. Probing neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the charged-current and neutral-current interaction rates of supernova neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lai, Kwang-Chang; Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics; Lee, Fei-Fan

    2016-07-22

    The neutrino mass hierarchy is one of the neutrino fundamental properties yet to be determined. We introduce a method to determine neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the interaction rate of neutral current (NC) interactions, ν(ν-bar)+p→ν(ν-bar)+p, and inverse beta decays (IBD), ν-bar{sub e}+p→n+e{sup +}, of supernova neutrinos in scintillation detectors. Neutrino flavor conversions inside the supernova are sensitive to neutrino mass hierarchy. Due to Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects, the full swapping of ν-bar{sub e} flux with the ν-bar{sub x} (x=μ, τ) one occurs in the inverted hierarchy, while such a swapping does not occur in the normal hierarchy. As a result, more highmore » energy IBD events occur in the detector for the inverted hierarchy than the high energy IBD events in the normal hierarchy. By comparing IBD interaction rate with the mass hierarchy independent NC interaction rate, one can determine the neutrino mass hierarchy.« less

  2. Prospects of Light Sterile Neutrino Oscillation and CP Violation Searches at the Fermilab Short Baseline Neutrino Facility

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cianci, Davio; Ross-Lonergan, Mark; Karagiorgi, Georgia; Furmanski, Andy

    2017-01-01

    While current and last generation neutrino experiments have vastly improved our knowledge of the three neutrino oscillation paradigm, certain anomalous experimental signatures such as the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies have arisen which have consistently evaded a standard three neutrino explanation. One possible scenario to explain these anomalies is the addition of one or more, mostly sterile, light neutrino mass states, leading to observable oscillations associated to new frequencies at relatively short baselines. This talk will describe how Fermilab's Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program will be uniquely poised to test the existence of light sterile neutrinos in scenarios including one, two or three such new states. To quantify SBN's sensitivity reach, we compare the experiment's sensitivity to current, globally-allowed parameters for sterile neutrino oscillations. We also explore the possibility of including antineutrino beam running in the SBN run plan and study its impact on the potential physics reach, in particular from the perspective of new CP-violating phases which appear in these extended oscillation scenarios.

  3. Probing neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the charged-current and neutral-current interaction rates of supernova neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lai, Kwang-Chang; Lee, Fei-Fan; Lee, Feng-Shiuh; Lin, Guey-Lin; Liu, Tsung-Che; Yang, Yi

    2016-07-01

    The neutrino mass hierarchy is one of the neutrino fundamental properties yet to be determined. We introduce a method to determine neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the interaction rate of neutral current (NC) interactions, ν(bar nu) + p → ν(bar nu) + p, and inverse beta decays (IBD), bar nue + p → n + e+, of supernova neutrinos in scintillation detectors. Neutrino flavor conversions inside the supernova are sensitive to neutrino mass hierarchy. Due to Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects, the full swapping of bar nue flux with the bar nux (x = μ, τ) one occurs in the inverted hierarchy, while such a swapping does not occur in the normal hierarchy. As a result, more high energy IBD events occur in the detector for the inverted hierarchy than the high energy IBD events in the normal hierarchy. By comparing IBD interaction rate with the mass hierarchy independent NC interaction rate, one can determine the neutrino mass hierarchy.

  4. Sterile neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kopp, J.; Machado, P. A. N., E-mail: pedro.machado@uam.es; Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Calle Nicolás Cabrera 13-15, Cantoblanco E-28049 Madrid

    2016-06-21

    We characterize statistically the indications of a presence of one or more light sterile neutrinos from MiniBooNE and LSND data, together with the reactor and gallium anomalies, in the global context. The compatibility of the aforementioned signals with null results from solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator experiments is evaluated. We conclude that a severe tension is present in the global fit, and therefore the addition of eV-scale sterile neutrinos does not satisfactorily explain the anomalies.

  5. Neutrino-induced reactions on nuclei

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gallmeister, K.; Mosel, U.; Weil, J.

    2016-09-01

    Background: Long-baseline experiments such as the planned deep underground neutrino experiment (DUNE) require theoretical descriptions of the complete event in a neutrino-nucleus reaction. Since nuclear targets are used this requires a good understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions. Purpose: Develop a consistent theory and code framework for the description of lepton-nucleus interactions that can be used to describe not only inclusive cross sections, but also the complete final state of the reaction. Methods: The Giessen-Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) implementation of quantum-kinetic transport theory is used, with improvements in its treatment of the nuclear ground state and of 2p2h interactions. For the latter an empirical structure function from electron scattering data is used as a basis. Results: Results for electron-induced inclusive cross sections are given as a necessary check for the overall quality of this approach. The calculated neutrino-induced inclusive double-differential cross sections show good agreement data from neutrino and antineutrino reactions for different neutrino flavors at MiniBooNE and T2K. Inclusive double-differential cross sections for MicroBooNE, NOvA, MINERvA, and LBNF/DUNE are given. Conclusions: Based on the GiBUU model of lepton-nucleus interactions a good theoretical description of inclusive electron-, neutrino-, and antineutrino-nucleus data over a wide range of energies, different neutrino flavors, and different experiments is now possible. Since no tuning is involved this theory and code should be reliable also for new energy regimes and target masses.

  6. An Investigation of Neutrino-driven Convection and the Core Collapse Supernova Mechanism Using Multigroup Neutrino Transport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mezzacappa, A.; Calder, A. C.; Bruenn, S. W.; Blondin, J. M.; Guidry, M. W.; Strayer, M. R.; Umar, A. S.

    1998-03-01

    We investigate neutrino-driven convection in core collapse supernovae and its ramifications for the explosion mechanism. We begin with a postbounce model that is optimistic in two important respects: (1) we begin with a 15 M⊙ precollapse model, which is representative of the class of stars with compact iron cores; (2) we implement Newtonian gravity. Our precollapse model is evolved through core collapse and bounce in one dimension using multigroup (neutrino energy-dependent) flux-limited diffusion (MGFLD) neutrino transport and Newtonian Lagrangian hydrodynamics, providing realistic initial conditions for the postbounce convection and evolution. Our two-dimensional simulation begins at 12 ms after bounce and proceeds for 500 ms. We couple two-dimensional piecewise parabolic method (PPM) hydrodynamics to precalculated one-dimensional MGFLD neutrino transport. (The neutrino distributions used for matter heating and deleptonization in our two-dimensional run are obtained from an accompanying one-dimensional simulation. The accuracy of this approximation is assessed.) For the moment, we sacrifice dimensionality for realism in other aspects of our neutrino transport. MGFLD is an implementation of neutrino transport that simultaneously (1) is multigroup and (2) simulates with sufficient realism the transport of neutrinos in opaque, semitransparent, and transparent regions. Both are crucial to the accurate determination of postshock neutrino heating, which sensitively depends on the luminosities, spectra, and flux factors of the electron neutrinos and antineutrinos emerging from their respective neutrinospheres. By 137 ms after bounce, we see neutrino-driven convection rapidly developing beneath the shock. By 212 ms after bounce, this convection becomes large scale, characterized by higher entropy, expanding upflows and lower entropy, denser, finger-like downflows. The upflows reach the shock and distort it from sphericity. The radial convection velocities at this time

  7. Measurement of the Cosmic Ray and Neutrino-Induced Muon Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    SNO collaboration; Aharmim, B.; Ahmed, S. N.; Andersen, T. C.; Anthony, A. E.; Barros, N.; Beier, E. W.; Bellerive, A.; Beltran, B.; Bergevin, M.; Biller, S. D.; Boudjemline, K.; Boulay, M. G.; Burritt, T. H.; Cai, B.; Chan, Y. D.; Chen, M.; Chon, M. C.; Cleveland, B. T.; Cox-Mobrand, G. A.; Currat, C. A.; Dai, X.; Dalnoki-Veress, F.; Deng, H.; Detwiler, J.; Doe, P. J.; Dosanjh, R. S.; Doucas, G.; Drouin, P.-L.; Duncan, F. A.; Dunford, M.; Elliott, S. R.; Evans, H. C.; Ewan, G. T.; Farine, J.; Fergani, H.; Fleurot, F.; Ford, R. J.; Formaggio, J. A.; Gagnon, N.; Goon, J. TM.; Grant, D. R.; Guillian, E.; Habib, S.; Hahn, R. L.; Hallin, A. L.; Hallman, E. D.; Hargrove, C. K.; Harvey, P. J.; Harvey, P. J.; Heeger, K. M.; Heintzelman, W. J.; Heise, J.; Helmer, R. L.; Hemingway, R. J.; Henning, R.; Hime, A.; Howard, C.; Howe, M. A.; Huang, M.; Jamieson, B.; Jelley, N. A.; Klein, J. R.; Kos, M.; Kruger, A.; Kraus, C.; Krauss, C. B.; Kutter, T.; Kyba, C. C. M.; Lange, R.; Law, J.; Lawson, I. T.; Lesko, K. T.; Leslie, J. R.; Levine, I.; Loach, J. C.; Luoma, S.; MacLellan, R.; Majerus, S.; Mak, H. B.; Maneira, J.; Marino, A. D.; Martin, R.; McCauley, N.; McDonald, A. B.; McGee, S.; Mifflin, C.; Miller, M. L.; Monreal, B.; Monroe, J.; Noble, A. J.; Oblath, N. S.; Okada, C. E.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Opachich, Y.; Orebi Gann, G. D.; Oser, S. M.; Ott, R. A.; Peeters, S. J. M.; Poon, A. W. P.; Prior, G.; Rielage, K.; Robertson, B. C.; Robertson, R. G. H.; Rollin, E.; Schwendener, M. H.; Secrest, J. A.; Seibert, S. R.; Simard, O.; Simpson, J. J.; Sinclair, D.; Skensved, P.; Smith, M. W. E.; Sonley, T. J.; Steiger, T. D.; Stonehill, L. C.; Tagg, N.; Tesic, G.; Tolich, N.; Tsui, T.; Van de Water, R. G.; VanDevender, B. A.; Virtue, C. J.; Waller, D.; Waltham, C. E.; Wan Chan Tseung, H.; Wark, D. L.; Watson, P.; Wendland, J.; West, N.; Wilkerson, J. F.; Wilson, J. R.; Wouters, J. M.; Wright, A.; Yeh, M.; Zhang, F.; Zuber, K.

    2009-07-10

    Results are reported on the measurement of the atmospheric neutrino-induced muon flux at a depth of 2 kilometers below the Earth's surface from 1229 days of operation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). By measuring the flux of through-going muons as a function of zenith angle, the SNO experiment can distinguish between the oscillated and un-oscillated portion of the neutrino flux. A total of 514 muon-like events are measured between -1 {le} cos {theta}{sub zenith} 0.4 in a total exposure of 2.30 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup 2} s. The measured flux normalization is 1.22 {+-} 0.09 times the Bartol three-dimensional flux prediction. This is the first measurement of the neutrino-induced flux where neutrino oscillations are minimized. The zenith distribution is consistent with previously measured atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters. The cosmic ray muon flux at SNO with zenith angle cos {theta}{sub zenith} > 0.4 is measured to be (3.31 {+-} 0.01 (stat.) {+-} 0.09 (sys.)) x 10{sup -10} {micro}/s/cm{sup 2}.

  8. Study of Neutrino-Induced Neutrons in Dark Matter Detectors for Supernova Burst Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kwan, Newton; Scholberg, Kate

    2017-09-01

    When supernova burst neutrinos (1-50 MeV) pass through the Earth, they occasionally interact with the passive shielding surrounding dark matter detectors. When the neutrinos interact, one or two roughly 2 MeV neutrons are scattered isotropically and uniformly, often leaving undetected. Occasionally, these neutrino-induced neutrons (NINs) interact with the detector and leave a background signal similar to a WIMP. The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of NINs on active dark matter detectors during a supernova burst.

  9. Constraints and tests of the OPERA superluminal neutrinos.

    PubMed

    Bi, Xiao-Jun; Yin, Peng-Fei; Yu, Zhao-Huan; Yuan, Qiang

    2011-12-09

    The superluminal neutrinos detected by OPERA indicate Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) of the neutrino sector at the order of 10(-5). We study the implications of the result in this work. We find that such a large LIV implied by OPERA data will make the neutrino production process π → μ + ν(μ) kinematically forbidden for a neutrino energy greater than about 5 GeV. The OPERA detection of neutrinos at 40 GeV can constrain the LIV parameter to be smaller than 3×10(-7). Furthermore, the neutrino decay in the LIV framework will modify the neutrino spectrum greatly. The atmospheric neutrino spectrum measured by the IceCube Collaboration can constrain the LIV parameter to the level of 10(-12). The future detection of astrophysical neutrinos of galactic sources is expected to be able to give an even stronger constraint on the LIV parameter of neutrinos.

  10. Seeking sterile neutrinos in Finslerian cosmology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Deng; Meng, Xin-He

    2017-11-01

    For the first time, to search for sterile neutrinos in the framework of Finler geometry, we constrain four cosmological models using the most stringent constraint we can provide so far. We find that the Finslerian massless sterile neutrino model can, respectively, give a better cosmological fit to data and alleviate the current H_0 tension more effectively than the other three models. For the Finslerian massless sterile neutrino model, we obtain the constraint N_eff=3.237^{+0.092}_{-0.185}, which is consistent with Δ N_eff > 0 at the 1.03σ confidence level (CL). This gives a very weak hint of massless sterile neutrinos and may imply the non-existence of massless sterile neutrinos in the Finslerian cosmological setting. For the Finslerian massive sterile neutrino model, we obtain the constraints N_eff=3.143^{+0.064}_{-0.066}, which favors Δ N_eff > 0 at the 1.47σ CL, and m_{ν , sterile}^eff < 0.121 eV at the 2σ CL which is much tighter than the Planck results. This very tight restriction appears to indicate the massive sterile neutrinos are also non-existent in the Finslerian scenarios. Consequently, one may conclude that the sterile neutrinos are possibly non-existent in the Finslerian universe. Our results are compatible with the recent results of the neutrino oscillation experiments implemented by the Daya Bay and MINOS collaborations and the cosmic ray one carried out by the IceCube collaboration.

  11. John Bahcall and the Solar Neutrino Problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bahcall, Neta

    2016-03-01

    ``I feel like dancing'', cheered John Bahcall upon hearing the exciting news from the SNO experiment in 2001. The results confirmed, with remarkable accuracy, John's 40-year effort to predict the rate of neutrinos from the Sun based on sophisticated Solar models. What began in 1962 by John Bahcall and Ray Davis as a pioneering project to test and confirm how the Sun shines, quickly turned into a four-decade-long mystery of the `Solar Neutrino Problem': John's models predicted a higher rate of neutrinos than detected by Davis and follow-up experiments. Was the theory of the Sun wrong? Were John's calculations in error? Were the neutrino experiments wrong? John worked tirelessly to understand the physics behind the Solar Neutrino Problem; he led the efforts to greatly increase the accurately of the solar model, to understand its seismology and neutrino fluxes, to use the neutrino fluxes as a test for new physics, and to advocate for important new experiments. It slowly became clear that none of the then discussed possibilities --- error in the Solar model or neutrino experiments --- was the culprit. The SNO results revealed that John's calculations, and hence the theory of the Solar model, have been correct all along. Comparison of the data with John's theory demanded new physics --- neutrino oscillations. The Solar Neutrino saga is one of the most amazing scientific stories of the century: exploring a simple question of `How the Sun Shines?' led to the discovery of new physics. John's theoretical calculations are an integral part of this journey; they provide the foundation for the Solar Neutrino Problem, for confirming how the Sun shines, and for the need of neutrino oscillations. His tenacious persistence, dedication, enthusiasm and love for the project, and his leadership and advocacy of neutrino physics over many decades are a remarkable story of scientific triumph. I know John is smiling today.

  12. The spectroscopy of solar sterile neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lopes, Ilídio

    2018-04-01

    We predict the sterile neutrino spectrum of some of the key solar nuclear reactions and discuss the possibility of these being observed by the next generation of solar neutrino experiments. By using an up-to-date standard solar model with good agreement with current helioseismology and solar neutrino flux data sets, we found that from solar neutrino fluxes arriving on Earth only 3-4% correspond to the sterile neutrino. The most intense solar sources of sterile neutrinos are the pp and ^7Be nuclear reactions with a total flux of 2.2× 109 and 1.8× 108{{cm}^2 {s}^{-1}}, followed by the ^{13}N and ^{15}O nuclear reactions with a total flux of 1.9× 107 and 1.7× 107{cm}^2 {s}^{-1}. Moreover, we compute the sterile neutrino spectra of the nuclear proton-proton nuclear reactions - pp, hep and ^8B and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen - ^{13}N, ^{15}O and ^{17}F and the spectral lines of ^7Be.

  13. Sterile neutrinos and B-L symmetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fileviez Pérez, Pavel; Murgui, Clara

    2018-02-01

    We revisit the relation between the neutrino masses and the spontaneous breaking of the B-L gauge symmetry. We discuss the main scenarios for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos and point out two simple mechanisms for neutrino masses. In this context the neutrino masses can be generated either at tree level or at quantum level and one predicts the existence of very light sterile neutrinos with masses below the eV scale. The predictions for lepton number violating processes such as μ → e and μ → eγ are discussed in detail. The impact from the cosmological constraints on the effective number of relativistic degree of freedom is investigated.

  14. Probing Neutrino Hierarchy and Chirality via Wakes.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Hong-Ming; Pen, Ue-Li; Chen, Xuelei; Inman, Derek

    2016-04-08

    The relic neutrinos are expected to acquire a bulk relative velocity with respect to the dark matter at low redshifts, and neutrino wakes are expected to develop downstream of the dark matter halos. We propose a method of measuring the neutrino mass based on this mechanism. This neutrino wake will cause a dipole distortion of the galaxy-galaxy lensing pattern. This effect could be detected by combining upcoming lensing surveys with a low redshift galaxy survey or a 21 cm intensity mapping survey, which can map the neutrino flow field. The data obtained with LSST and Euclid should enable us to make a positive detection if the three neutrino masses are quasidegenerate with each neutrino mass of ∼0.1  eV, and a future high precision 21 cm lensing survey would allow the normal hierarchy and inverted hierarchy cases to be distinguished, and even the right-handed Dirac neutrinos may be detectable.

  15. Overview and Status of Experimental Neutrino Physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stancu, Ion

    2002-10-01

    Seventy years after the existence of the neutrino has been postulated by Wolfgang Pauli, these elusive particles remain surrounded by mystery. One of the most fundamental questions about neutrinos is whether they have an identically vanishing mass, as assumed by the Standard Model, or not. Direct measurements have proven to be extremely difficult to perform, and have yielded so far only upper limits. However, if neutrino flavour oscillations do happen, this would automatically imply that at least one of the three neutrinos (the electron, muon or tau neutrino) must have a non-zero mass. The present experimental data indicate that both the solar and atmospheric neutrino deficits can be explained by the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations, while the positive signal reported by the accelerator-based LSND experiment remains to be verified by an independent measurement (MiniBooNE). This talk reviews the current status of the neutrino oscillations experiments, experiments which are quite likely to produce results with significant consequences for both the Standard Model and Cosmology.

  16. REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS: The nature of neutrino mass and the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gershtein, Semen S.; Kuznetsov, E. P.; Ryabov, Vladimir A.

    1997-08-01

    Various aspects of the neutrino mass problem are discussed in the light of existing model predictions and extensive experimental data. Generation mechanisms are considered and possible gauge-theory neutrino mass hierarchies, in particular the most popular 'flipped see-saw' models, are discussed. Based on the currently available astrophysical data on the integral density of matter in the Universe and on the spectral anisotropy of the relic cosmic radiation, the cosmological implications of a non-zero neutrino mass are described in detail. Results from various mass-measuring methods are presented. Considerable attention is given to heavy neutrino oscillations. Oscillation mechanisms both in vacuum and in matter are considered in detail. Experiments on oscillations at low and high energies and new generation large-flight-base facilities are described. The present state of research into oscillations of solar and atmospheric neutrinos is reviewed.

  17. Gravitationally confined relativistic neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vayenas, C. G.; Fokas, A. S.; Grigoriou, D.

    2017-09-01

    Combining special relativity, the equivalence principle, and Newton’s universal gravitational law with gravitational rather than rest masses, one finds that gravitational interactions between relativistic neutrinos with kinetic energies above 50 MeV are very strong and can lead to the formation of gravitationally confined composite structures with the mass and other properties of hadrons. One may model such structures by considering three neutrinos moving symmetrically on a circular orbit under the influence of their gravitational attraction, and by assuming quantization of their angular momentum, as in the Bohr model of the H atom. The model contains no adjustable parameters and its solution, using a neutrino rest mass of 0.05 eV/c2, leads to composite state radii close to 1 fm and composite state masses close to 1 GeV/c2. Similar models of relativistic rotating electron - neutrino pairs give a mass of 81 GeV/c2, close to that of W bosons. This novel mechanism of generating mass suggests that the Higgs mass generation mechanism can be modeled as a latent gravitational field which gets activated by relativistic neutrinos.

  18. Interactions of neutrinos with matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vannucci, F.

    2017-07-01

    Neutrinos are elementary particles electrically neutral which belong to the family of leptons. As a consequence and in first approximation they only undergo weak processes. This gives them very special properties. They are ideal tools to study precisely the weak interactions, but there is a price to pay: neutrinos are characterized by extremely low probabilities of interactions, they easily penetrate large amount of matter without being stopped. Consequently, it is hard to perform neutrino physics measurements. In practice the difficulty is twofold: in order to accumulate enough statistics, experiments must rely on huge fluxes traversing huge detectors, the number of interactions being obviously proportional to these two factors. As a corollary, backgrounds are difficult to handle because they appear much more commonly than good events. Nevertheless, neutrino interactions have been detected from a variety of sources, both man-made and natural, from very low to very large energies. The aim of this review is to survey our current knowledge about interaction cross sections of neutrinos with matter across all pertinent energy scales. We will see that neutrino interactions cover a large range of processes: nuclear capture, inverse beta-decay, quasi-elastic scattering, resonant pion production, deep inelastic scattering and ultra-high energy interactions. All the gathered information will be used to study weak properties of matter but it will also allow to explore the properties of the neutrinos themselves. In particular, the known three different flavors of neutrinos have different behaviors inside matter and this will be relevant to give some precious understanding about their intrinsic parameters in particular their masses and mixings. As a second order process, neutrinos can undergo electromagnetic interactions. This will also be discussed. Although the corresponding phenomena are not yet experimentally proven by actual measurements, the theory is able to calculate

  19. Constraints and Tests of the OPERA Superluminal Neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bi Xiaojun; Yin Pengfei; Yu Zhaohuan

    The superluminal neutrinos detected by OPERA indicate Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) of the neutrino sector at the order of 10{sup -5}. We study the implications of the result in this work. We find that such a large LIV implied by OPERA data will make the neutrino production process {pi}{yields}{mu}+{nu}{sub {mu}} kinematically forbidden for a neutrino energy greater than about 5 GeV. The OPERA detection of neutrinos at 40 GeV can constrain the LIV parameter to be smaller than 3x10{sup -7}. Furthermore, the neutrino decay in the LIV framework will modify the neutrino spectrum greatly. The atmospheric neutrino spectrum measured bymore » the IceCube Collaboration can constrain the LIV parameter to the level of 10{sup -12}. The future detection of astrophysical neutrinos of galactic sources is expected to be able to give an even stronger constraint on the LIV parameter of neutrinos.« less

  20. Phenomenology of ultrahigh energy neutrino interactions and fluxes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hussain, Shahid

    There are several models that predict the existence of high and ultrahigh energy (UHE) neutrinos; neutrinos that have amazingly high energies---energies above 10 15 eV. No man-made machines, existing or planned, can produce any particles of this high energies. It is the energies of these neutrinos that make them very interesting for the particle physics and astrophysics community; these neutrinos can be a unique tool to study the unknown regimes of energy, space, and time. Consequently, there is intense experimental activity focused on the detection of these neutrinos; no UHE neutrinos have been detected by these experiments so far. However, most of the UHE neutrino flux models predict that the fluxes of these neutrinos might be too small to be detected by the current detectors. Therefore, more powerful detectors are being built and we are at the beginning of a new and exciting era in neutrino astronomy. The interactions and fluxes of UHE neutrinos both are unknown experimentally. Our focus here is to explore, by numerically calculating observable signals from these neutrinos, different scenarios that can arise by the inter play of UHE neutrino interaction and flux models. Given several AGN and cosmogenic neutrino flux models, we look at two possibilities for neutrino interactions: (i) Neutrinos have standard model weak interactions at ultrahigh energies. (ii) neutrino interactions are enhanced around a TeV mass-scale, as implied by low scale gravity models with extra dimensions. The standard model weak and low scale gravity enhanced neutrino-nucleon interactions of UHE neutrinos both produce observable signals. In standard model, the charged current neutrino-nucleon interactions give muons, taus, and particle showers, and the neutral current interactions give particle showers. In low scale gravity, the micro black hole formation (and its subsequent decay) and the graviton exchange both give particle showers. Muons, taus, and the showers can be detected by the

  1. Los Alamos Science, Number 25 -- 1997: Celebrating the Neutrino

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Cooper, N. G. ed.

    1997-01-01

    This issue is devoted to the neutrino and its remaining mysteries. It is divided into the following areas: (1) The Reines-Cowan experiment -- detecting the poltergeist; (2) The oscillating neutrino -- an introduction to neutrino masses and mixing; (3) A brief history of neutrino experiments at LAMPF; (4) A thousand eyes -- the story of LSND (Los Alamos neutrino oscillation experiment); (5) The evidence for oscillations; (6) The nature of neutrinos in muon decay and physics beyond the Standard Model; (7) Exorcising ghosts -- in pursuit of the missing solar neutrinos; (8) MSW -- a possible solution to the solar neutrino problem; (8) Neutrinos and supernovae; and (9) Dark matter and massive neutrinos.

  2. Electrons for Neutrinos: Using Electron Scattering to Develop New Energy Reconstruction for Future Deuterium-Based Neutrino Detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Silva, Adrian; Schmookler, Barak; Papadopoulou, Afroditi; Schmidt, Axel; Hen, Or; Khachatryan, Mariana; Weinstein, Lawrence

    2017-09-01

    Using wide phase-space electron scattering data, we study a novel technique for neutrino energy reconstruction for future neutrino oscillation experiments. Accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments require detailed understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions, which are complicated by the underlying nuclear physics that governs the process. One area of concern is that neutrino energy must be reconstructed event-by-event from the final-state kinematics. In charged-current quasielastic scattering, Fermi motion of nucleons prevents exact energy reconstruction. However, in scattering from deuterium, the momentum of the electron and proton constrain the neutrino energy exactly, offering a new avenue for reducing systematic uncertainties. To test this approach, we analyzed d (e ,e' p) data taken with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab Hall B and made kinematic selection cuts to obtain quasielastic events. We estimated the remaining inelastic background by using d (e ,e' pπ-) events to produce a simulated dataset of events with an undetected π-. These results demonstrate the feasibility of energy reconstruction in a hypothetical future deuterium-based neutrino detector. Supported by the Paul E. Gray UROP Fund, MIT.

  3. Thermalizing Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter.

    PubMed

    Hansen, Rasmus S L; Vogl, Stefan

    2017-12-22

    Sterile neutrinos produced through oscillations are a well motivated dark matter candidate, but recent constraints from observations have ruled out most of the parameter space. We analyze the impact of new interactions on the evolution of keV sterile neutrino dark matter in the early Universe. Based on general considerations we find a mechanism which thermalizes the sterile neutrinos after an initial production by oscillations. The thermalization of sterile neutrinos is accompanied by dark entropy production which increases the yield of dark matter and leads to a lower characteristic momentum. This resolves the growing tensions with structure formation and x-ray observations and even revives simple nonresonant production as a viable way to produce sterile neutrino dark matter. We investigate the parameters required for the realization of the thermalization mechanism in a representative model and find that a simple estimate based on energy and entropy conservation describes the mechanism well.

  4. Thermalizing Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hansen, Rasmus S. L.; Vogl, Stefan

    2017-12-01

    Sterile neutrinos produced through oscillations are a well motivated dark matter candidate, but recent constraints from observations have ruled out most of the parameter space. We analyze the impact of new interactions on the evolution of keV sterile neutrino dark matter in the early Universe. Based on general considerations we find a mechanism which thermalizes the sterile neutrinos after an initial production by oscillations. The thermalization of sterile neutrinos is accompanied by dark entropy production which increases the yield of dark matter and leads to a lower characteristic momentum. This resolves the growing tensions with structure formation and x-ray observations and even revives simple nonresonant production as a viable way to produce sterile neutrino dark matter. We investigate the parameters required for the realization of the thermalization mechanism in a representative model and find that a simple estimate based on energy and entropy conservation describes the mechanism well.

  5. Neutrinos: Nature's Identity Thieves?

    ScienceCinema

    Lincoln, Don

    2017-12-09

    The oscillation of neutrinos from one variety to another has long been suspected, but was confirmed only about 15 years ago. In order for these oscillations to occur, neutrinos must have a mass, no matter how slight. Since neutrinos have long been thought to be massless, in a very real way, this phenomena is a clear signal of physics beyond the known. In this video, Fermilab's Dr Don Lincoln explains how we know it occurs and hints at the rich experimental program at several international laboratories designed to understand this complex mystery.

  6. Neutrinos: Nature's Identity Thieves?

    ScienceCinema

    Lincoln, Don

    2018-01-16

    The oscillation of neutrinos from one variety to another has long been suspected, but was confirmed only about 15 years ago. In order for these oscillations to occur, neutrinos must have a mass, no matter how slight. Since neutrinos have long been thought to be massless, in a very real way, this phenomena is a clear signal of physics beyond the known. In this video, Fermilab's Dr Don Lincoln explains how we know it occurs and hints at the rich experimental program at several international laboratories designed to understand this complex mystery.

  7. Neutrino Oscillation in a Space-Time with Torsion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alimohammadi, M.; Shariati, A.

    Using Einstein-Cartan-Dirac theory, we study the effect of torsion on neutrino oscillation. We see that torsion cannot induce neutrino oscillation, but affects it whenever oscillation exists for other reasons. We show that the torsion effect on neutrino oscillation is as important as the neutrino mass effect, whenever the ratio of neutrino number density to neutrino energy is ~ 1069 cm-3/eV, or the number density of the matter is ~ 1069cm-3.

  8. Future Long-Baseline Neutrino Facilities and Detectors

    DOE PAGES

    Diwan, Milind; Edgecock, Rob; Hasegawa, Takuya; ...

    2013-01-01

    We review the ongoing effort in the US, Japan, and Europe of the scientific community to study the location and the detector performance of the next-generation long-baseline neutrino facility. For many decades, research on the properties of neutrinos and the use of neutrinos to study the fundamental building blocks of matter has unveiled new, unexpected laws of nature. Results of neutrino experiments have triggered a tremendous amount of development in theory: theories beyond the standard model or at least extensions of it and development of the standard solar model and modeling of supernova explosions as well as the development ofmore » theories to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Neutrino physics is one of the most dynamic and exciting fields of research in fundamental particle physics and astrophysics. The next-generation neutrino detector will address two aspects: fundamental properties of the neutrino like mass hierarchy, mixing angles, and the CP phase, and low-energy neutrino astronomy with solar, atmospheric, and supernova neutrinos. Such a new detector naturally allows for major improvements in the search for nucleon decay. A next-generation neutrino observatory needs a huge, megaton scale detector which in turn has to be installed in a new, international underground laboratory, capable of hosting such a huge detector.« less

  9. Neutrinos as the messengers of CPT violation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borissov, Liubomir Anguelov

    CPT violation has the potential to explain all three existing neutrino oscillation signals without enlarging the neutrino sector. CPT violation in the Dirac mass terms of the three neutrino flavors preserves Lorentz invariance, but generates in dependent masses for neutrinos and antineutrinos. This specific signature can be motivated by braneworld scenarios with extra dimensions, where neutrinos are the natural messengers for Standard Model physics of CPT violation in the bulk. A simple model of maximal CPT violation is sufficient to explain the exisiting neutrino data, while accommodating the recent results from the KamLAND experiment and making dramatic predictions for the ongoing MiniBooNE experiment. In addition, the model fits the existing SuperKamiokande data, at least as well as the standard atmospheric neutrino oscillation models. Another attractive feature of the presented model is that it provides a new promising mechanism for baryogenesis, which obviates two of the three Sakharov conditions necessary to generate the baryon asymmetry of the universe. CPT-violating scenarios can give new insights about the possible nature of neutrinos. Majorana neutrino masses are still allowed, but in general, there are no longer Majorana neutrinos in the conventional sense. However, CPT-violating models still have interesting consequences for neutrinoless double beta decay. Compared to the usual case, while the larger mass scale (from LSND) may appear, a greater degree of suppression can also occur.

  10. The Angra Neutrino Project: precise measurement of {theta}{sub 13} and safeguards applications of neutrino detectors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Casimiro, E.; Anjos, J. C.

    2009-04-20

    We present an introduction to the Angra Neutrino Project. The goal of the project is to explore the use of neutrino detectors to monitor the reactor activity. The Angra Project, willl employ as neutrino sources the reactors of the nuclear power complex in Brazil, located in Angra dos Reis, some 150 Km south from the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Angra collaboration will develop and operate a low-mass neutrino detector to monitor the nuclear reactor activity, in particular to measure the reactor thermal power and the reactor fuel isotopic composition.

  11. Los Alamos Science, Number 25 -- 1997: Celebrating the neutrino

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cooper, N.G.

    1997-12-31

    This issue is devoted to the neutrino and its remaining mysteries. It is divided into the following areas: (1) The Reines-Cowan experiment -- detecting the poltergeist; (2) The oscillating neutrino -- an introduction to neutrino masses and mixing; (3) A brief history of neutrino experiments at LAMPF; (4) A thousand eyes -- the story of LSND (Los Alamos neutrino oscillation experiment); (5) The evidence for oscillations; (6) The nature of neutrinos in muon decay and physics beyond the Standard Model; (7) Exorcising ghosts -- in pursuit of the missing solar neutrinos; (8) MSW -- a possible solution to the solarmore » neutrino problem; (8) Neutrinos and supernovae; and (9) Dark matter and massive neutrinos.« less

  12. Configuring the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barger, Vernon; Bhattacharya, Atri; Chatterjee, Animesh; Gandhi, Raj; Marfatia, Danny; Masud, Mehedi

    2014-01-01

    We study the neutrino oscillation physics performance of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment in various configurations. In particular, we compare the case of a surface detector at the far site augmented by a near detector, to that with the far site detector placed deep underground but no near detector. In the latter case, information from atmospheric neutrino events is also utilized. For values of θ13 favored by reactor experiments and a 100 kt-yr exposure, we find roughly equivalent sensitivities to the neutrino mass hierarchy, the octant of θ23, and to CP violation. We also find that as the exposure is increased, the near detector helps increase the sensitivity to CP violation substantially more than atmospheric neutrinos.

  13. Experimental Anomalies in Neutrino Physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Palamara, Ornella

    2014-03-01

    In recent years, experimental anomalies ranging in significance (2.8-3.8 σ) have been reported from a variety of experiments studying neutrinos over baselines less than 1 km. Results from the LSND and MiniBooNE short-baseline νe /νe appearance experiments show anomalies which cannot be described by oscillations between the three standard model neutrinos (the ``LSND anomaly''). In addition, a re-analysis of the anti-neutrino flux produced by nuclear power reactors has led to an apparent deficit in νe event rates in a number of reactor experiments (the ``reactor anomaly''). Similarly, calibration runs using 51Cr and 37Ar radioactive sources in the Gallium solar neutrino experiments GALLEX and SAGE have shown an unexplained deficit in the electron neutrino event rate over very short distances (the ``Gallium anomaly''). The puzzling results from these experiments, which together may suggest the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model and hint at exciting new physics, including the possibility of additional low-mass sterile neutrino states, have raised the interest in the community for new experimental efforts that could eventually solve this puzzle. Definitive evidence for sterile neutrinos would be a revolutionary discovery, with implications for particle physics as well as cosmology. Proposals to address these signals by employing accelerator, reactor and radioactive source experiments are in the planning stages or underway worldwide. In this talk some of these will be reviewed, with emphasis on the accelerator programs.

  14. Neutrino scattering and the reactor antineutrino anomaly

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garcés, Estela; Cañas, Blanca; Miranda, Omar; Parada, Alexander

    2017-12-01

    Low energy threshold reactor experiments have the potential to give insight into the light sterile neutrino signal provided by the reactor antineutrino anomaly and the gallium anomaly. In this work we analyze short baseline reactor experiments that detect by elastic neutrino electron scattering in the context of a light sterile neutrino signal. We also analyze the sensitivity of experimental proposals of coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CENNS) detectors in order to exclude or confirm the sterile neutrino signal with reactor antineutrinos.

  15. Searches for sterile neutrinos with NOvA

    DOE PAGES

    Davies, Gavin S.; Aurisano, Adam; Kafka, Gareth K.; ...

    2016-11-15

    Contradictory evidence has been presented on the issue of neutrino mixing between the three known active neutrinos and light sterile neutrino species. Apparent short-baseline neutrino oscillations observed by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments, the collective evidence of the reactor neutrino anomaly, and the gallium anomaly all point towards sterile neutrinos with mass at the 1 eV level. While these results are tantalizing, they are not conclusive as they are in tension with null results from other short-baseline experiments, and with disappearance searches in longbaseline and atmospheric experiments. The NOvA (NuMI Off-Axis v e Appearance) experiment may help clarify the situationmore » by searching for disappearance of active neutrinos from the NuMI (Neutrinos from the Main Injector) beam over a baseline of 810 km. We describe the method used by NOvA to look for oscillations into sterile neutrinos at the Far Detector (FD) through the disappearance of neutral-current (NC) neutrino events, including preliminary results of this search. In addition, the Near Detector (ND) is well suited for searching for anomalous short-baseline oscillations and probing the LSND and MiniBooNE sterile neutrino allowed regions using a variety of final states. We also present a novel method for selecting samples with high purity at the ND using convolutional neural networks. Furthermore, based on this method, the sensitivity to anomalous short-baseline nt appearance are shown, and searches for anomalous v e appearance and v μ disappearance at the NOvA ND are presented.« less

  16. An all-sky, three-flavor search for neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts with the icecube neutrino observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hellauer, Robert Eugene, III

    Ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), defined by energy greater than 10. 18 eV, have been observed for decades, but their sources remain unknown. Protons and heavy ions, which comprise cosmic rays, interact with galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields and, consequently, do not point back to their sources upon measurement. Neutrinos, which are inevitably produced in photohadronic interactions, travel unimpeded through the universe and disclose the directions of their sources. Among the most plausible candidates for the origins of UHECRs is a class of astrophysical phenomena known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBs are the most violent and energetic events witnessed in the observable universe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located in the glacial ice 1450 m to 2450 m below the South Pole surface, is the largest neutrino detector in operation. IceCube detects charged particles, such as those emitted in high energy neutrino interactions in the ice, by the Cherenkov light radiated by these particles. The measurement of neutrinos of 100 TeV energy or greater in IceCube correlated with gamma-ray photons from GRBs, measured by spacecraft detectors, would provide evidence of hadronic interaction in these powerful phenomena and confirm their role in ultra high energy cosmic ray production. This work presents the first IceCube GRB-neutrino coincidence search optimized for charged-current interactions of electron and tau neutrinos as well as neutral-current interactions of all neutrino flavors, which produce nearly spherical Cherenkov light showers in the ice. These results for three years of data are combined with the results of previous searches over four years of data optimized for charged-current muon neutrino interactions, which produce extended Cherenkov light tracks. Several low significance events correlated with GRBs were detected, but are consistent with the background expectation from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. The combined results produce limits that

  17. Future Reactor Neutrino Experiments (RRNOLD)1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jaffe, David E.

    The prospects for future reactor neutrino experiments that would use tens of kilotons of liquid scintillator with a ∼ 50 km baseline are discussed. These experiments are generically dubbed "RRNOLD" for Radical Reactor Neutrino Oscillation Liquid scintillator Detector experiment. Such experiments are designed to resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy and make sub-percent measurements sin2θ12, Δm232 and Δm122 . RRNOLD would also be sensitive to neutrinos from other sources and have notable sensitivity to proton decay.

  18. Nonlinear Dynamics of the Cosmic Neutrino Background

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Inman, Derek

    At least two of the three neutrino species are known to be massive, but their exact masses are currently unknown. Cosmic neutrinos decoupled from the rest of the primordial plasma early on when the Universe was over a billion times hotter than it is today. These relic particles, which have cooled and are now non-relativistic, constitute the Cosmic Neutrino Background and permeate the Universe. While they are not observable directly, their presence can be inferred by measuring the suppression of the matter power spectrum. This suppression is a linear effect caused by the large thermal velocities of neutrinos, which prevent them from collapsing gravitationally on small scales. Unfortunately, it is difficult to measure because of degeneracies with other cosmological parameters and biases arising from the fact that we typically observe point-like galaxies rather than a continous matter field. It is therefore important to look for new effects beyond linear suppression that may be more sensitive to neutrinos. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the nonlinear dynamics of the cosmological neutrino background in the following ways: (i) the development of a new injection scheme for neutrinos in cosmological N-body simulations which circumvents many issues associated with simulating neutrinos at large redshifts, (ii) the numerical study of the relative velocity field between cold dark matter and neutrinos including its reconstruction from density fields, (iii) the theoretical description of neutrinos as a dispersive fluid and its use in modelling the nonlinear evolution of the neutrino density power spectrum, (iv) the derivation of the dipole correlation function using linear response which allows for the Fermi-Dirac velocity distribution to be properly included, and (v) the numerical study and detection of the dipole correlation function in the TianNu simulation. In totality, this thesis is a comprehensive study of neutrino density and velocity fields that may

  19. Neutrino Masses and Mixings and Astrophysics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fuller, George M.

    1998-10-01

    Here we discuss the implications of light neutrino masses and neutrino flavor/type mixing for dark matter, big bang nucleosynthesis, and models of heavy element nucleosynthesis in super novae. We will also argue the other way and discuss possible constraints on neutrino physics from these astrophysical considerations.

  20. MINERvA: Bringing neutrinos into sharp focus

    Science.gov Websites

    Flux of the Matter The One-Percenters and Those who Fake it Neutrinos in Nuclei: studying group effects small green Related Links Neutrino Division KEK Theory Group on Neutrino Interactions MIPP: Hadron the realm of neutrino experiments, due to a combination of its compact detector design, use of one of

  1. Review of Neutrino Mass Measurements

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Giuliani, A.; INFN-Milano, Via Valleggio 11, I-22100 Como

    2006-02-08

    After a brief summary of the recent achievements of neutrino physics, the concept of neutrino mass scale is clarified. The methods for the determination of the neutrino mass values are summarized and critically compared, in particular in the different and complementary contexts of cosmology, double and single beta decay. The attention is then focussed on the laboratory approaches to investigate neutrino mass. The role of neutrinoless double beta decay is explained and a short review of the present and most promising future experiments in this field is given. Single beta decay sensitivity is discussed, with brief descriptions of the KATRINmore » tritium experiment and of the recently proposed MARE rhenium project.« less

  2. A search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations at Δm 2 > 0.1 eV 2

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Patterson, Ryan Benton

    2007-11-01

    The evidence is compelling that neutrinos undergo flavor change as they propagate. In recent years, experiments have observed this phenomenon of neutrino oscillations using disparate neutrino sources: the sun, fission reactors, accelerators, and secondary cosmic rays. The standard model of particle physics needs only simple extensions - neutrino masses and mixing - to accommodate all neutrino oscillation results to date, save one. The 3.8σ-significantmore » $$\\bar{v}$$ e excess reported by the LSND collaboration is consistent with $$\\bar{v}$$ μ →$$\\bar{v}$$ e oscillations with a mass-squared splitting of Δm 2 ~ 1 eV 2. This signal, which has not been independently verified, is inconsistent with other oscillation evidence unless more daring standard model extensions (e.g. sterile neutrinos) are considered.« less

  3. A search for neutrino oscillations using the CHOOZ 1 km baseline reactor neutrino experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    George, Jean

    1999-10-01

    Neutrino oscillation searches are an active field of research due to the implications their discovery may have for the solar neutrino anomaly as well as for the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. Their discovery may also have broad ramifications for the Standard Model of Particle Physics as a whole. Results from an oscillation search using the CHOOZ long baseline reactor neutrino experiment are presented in this thesis. These results are based on the data taken from June 1997 through April 1998 when the two reactors ran at combined thermal power levels ranging from zero power to their full power level of 8.5 GW. Electron flavored antineutrinos emanating from the reactors were detected through the inverse beta decay channel using a liquid scintillating calorimeter located at a distance of approximately 1 km from the reactor sources. The underground experimental site (300 MWE) provided natural shielding from the background of cosmic ray muons-leading to a background rate more than an order of magnitude lower than the full power signal rate. From the agreement between the detected and expected neutrino event rates no evidence for neutrino oscillations was found (at the 90% C.L.) for the oscillation parameter space governed by Δm 2 > 0.8 × 10-3 eV2 for maximal mixing and by sin2 2Θ > 0.18 for large values of Δm2.

  4. Neutrino-Argon Interaction with GENIE Event Generator

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chesneanu, Daniela; National Institute for Nuclear Physics and Engineering 'Horia Hulubei' Bucharest-Magurele

    2010-11-24

    Neutrinos are very special particles, have only weak interactions, except gravity, and are produced in very different processes in Nuclear and Particle Physics. Neutrinos are, also, messengers from astrophysical objects, as well as relics from Early Universe. Therefore, its can give us information on processes happening in the Universe, during its evolution, which cannot be studied otherwise. The underground instrumentation including a variety of large and very large detectors, thanks to technical breakthroughs, have achieved new fundamental results like the solution of the solar neutrino puzzle and the evidence for Physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary interactions in themore » neutrino sector with non-vanishing neutrino masses and lepton flavour violation.Two of the LAGUNA(Large Apparatus studying Grand Unification and Neutrino Astrophysics) detectors, namely: GLACIER (Giant Liquid Argon Charge Imaging ExpeRiment) and LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astrophysics) could be emplaced in 'Unirea' salt mine from Slanic-Prahova, Romania. A detailed analysis of the conditions and advantages is necessary. A few results have been presented previously. In the present work, we propose to generate events and compute the cross sections for interactions between neutrino and Argon-40, to estimate possible detection performances and event types. For doing this, we use the code GENIE(G lowbar enerates E lowbar vents for N lowbar eutrino I lowbar nteraction E lowbar xperiments). GENIE Code is an Object-Oriented Neutrino MC Generator supported and developed by an international collaboration of neutrino interaction experts.« less

  5. Dirac neutrinos and SN 1987A

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Turner, Michael S.

    1991-01-01

    Previous work has shown that the cooling of SN 1987A excludes a Dirac-neutrino mass greater than theta(20 keV) for nu(sub e), nu(sub mu), or nu(sub tau). The emission of wrong-helicity, Dirac neutrinos from SN 1987A, is re-examined. It is concluded that the effect of a Dirac neutrino on the cooling of SN 1987A has been underestimated due to neutrino degeneracy and additional emission processes. The limit that follows from the cooling of SN 1987A is believed to be greater (probably much greater) than 10 keV. This result is significant in light of the recent evidence for a 17 keV mass eigenstate that mixes with the electron neutrino.

  6. Calculation of the decay rate of tachyonic neutrinos against charged-lepton-pair and neutrino-pair Cerenkov radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jentschura, Ulrich D.; Nándori, István; Ehrlich, Robert

    2017-10-01

    We consider in detail the calculation of the decay rate of high-energy superluminal neutrinos against (charged) lepton pair Cerenkov radiation, and neutrino pair Cerenkov radiation, i.e., against the decay channels ν \\to ν {e}+ {e}- and ν \\to ν \\overline{ν } ν . Under the hypothesis of a tachyonic nature of neutrinos, these decay channels put constraints on the lifetime of high-energy neutrinos for terrestrial experiments as well as on cosmic scales. For the oncoming neutrino, we use the Lorentz-covariant tachyonic relation {E}ν =\\sqrt{{p}2-{m}ν 2}, where m ν is the tachyonic mass parameter. We derive both threshold conditions as well as on decay and energy loss rates, using the plane-wave fundamental bispinor solutions of the tachyonic Dirac equation. Various intricacies of rest frame versus lab frame calculations are highlighted. The results are compared to the observations of high-energy IceCube neutrinos of cosmological origin.

  7. Neutrinos in astrophysics and cosmology

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Balantekin, A. B.

    Neutrinos play a crucial role in many aspects of astrophysics and cosmology. Since they control the electron fraction, or equivalently neutron-to-proton ratio, neutrino properties impact yields of r-process nucleosynthesis. Similarly the weak decoupling temperature in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis epoch is exponentially dependent on the neutron-to-proton ratio. In these conference proceedings, I briefly summarize some of the recent work exploring the role of neutrinos in astrophysics and cosmology.

  8. MINERνA neutrino detector calibration

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Patrick, Cheryl

    MINERνA is a neutrino scattering experiment that uses Fermilab’s NuMI beamline. Its goal is to measure cross-sections for neutrino scattering from different nuclei. Precise knowledge of these cross-sections is vital for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. In order to measure these values to a high degree of accuracy, it is essential that the detector be carefully calibrated. Here, we describe in-situ calibration and cross-checks.

  9. The neutrino mass hierarchy measurement with a neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea: A feasibility study

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tsirigotis, A. G.; Collaboration: KM3NeT Collaboration

    With the measurement of a non zero value of the θ{sub 13} neutrino mixing parameter, interest in neutrinos as source of the baryon asymmetry of the universe has increased. Among the measurements of a rich and varied program in near future neutrino physics is the determination of the mass hierarchy. We present the status of a study of the feasibility of using a densely instrumented undersea neutrino detector to determine the mass hierarchy, utilizing the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect on atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The detector will use technology developed for KM3NeT. We present the systematic studies of the optimization of amore » detector in the required 5–10 GeV energy regime. These studies include new tracking and interaction identification algorithms as well as geometrical optimizations of the detector.« less

  10. Probing Majorana neutrino textures at DUNE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bora, Kalpana; Borah, Debasish; Dutta, Debajyoti

    2017-10-01

    We study the possibility of probing different texture zero neutrino mass matrices at the long baseline neutrino experiment DUNE, particularly focusing on its sensitivity to the octant of atmospheric mixing angle θ23 and leptonic Dirac C P phase δcp. Assuming a diagonal charged lepton basis and Majorana nature of light neutrinos, we first classify the possible light neutrino mass matrices with one and two texture zeros and then numerically evaluate the parameter space which satisfies the texture zero conditions. Apart from using the latest global fit 3 σ values of neutrino oscillation parameters, we also use the latest bound on the sum of absolute neutrino masses (∑i |mi|) from the Planck mission data and the updated bound on effective neutrino mass Me e from neutrinoless double beta decay (0 ν β β ) experiments to find the allowed Majorana texture zero mass matrices. For the allowed texture zero mass matrices from all these constraints, we then feed the corresponding light neutrino parameter values satisfying the texture zero conditions into the numerical analysis in order to study the capability of DUNE to allow or exclude them once it starts taking data. We find that DUNE will be able to exclude some of these texture zero mass matrices which restrict (θ23-δcp) to a very specific range of values, depending on the values of the parameters that nature has chosen.

  11. Long Baseline Neutrino Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mezzetto, Mauro

    2016-05-01

    Following the discovery of neutrino oscillations by the Super-Kamiokande collaboration, recently awarded with the Nobel Prize, two generations of long baseline experiments had been setup to further study neutrino oscillations. The first generation experiments, K2K in Japan, Minos in the States and Opera in Europe, focused in confirming the Super-Kamiokande result, improving the precision with which oscillation parameters had been measured and demonstrating the ντ appearance process. Second generation experiments, T2K in Japan and very recently NOνA in the States, went further, being optimized to look for genuine three neutrino phenomena like non-zero values of θ13 and first glimpses to leptonic CP violation (LCPV) and neutrino mass ordering (NMO). The discovery of leptonic CP violation will require third generation setups, at the moment two strong proposals are ongoing, Dune in the States and Hyper-Kamiokande in Japan. This review will focus a little more in these future initiatives.

  12. COLA with massive neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wright, Bill S.; Winther, Hans A.; Koyama, Kazuya

    2017-10-01

    The effect of massive neutrinos on the growth of cold dark matter perturbations acts as a scale-dependent Newton's constant and leads to scale-dependent growth factors just as we often find in models of gravity beyond General Relativity. We show how to compute growth factors for ΛCDM and general modified gravity cosmologies combined with massive neutrinos in Lagrangian perturbation theory for use in COLA and extensions thereof. We implement this together with the grid-based massive neutrino method of Brandbyge and Hannestad in MG-PICOLA and compare COLA simulations to full N-body simulations of ΛCDM and f(R) gravity with massive neutrinos. Our implementation is computationally cheap if the underlying cosmology already has scale-dependent growth factors and it is shown to be able to produce results that match N-body to percent level accuracy for both the total and CDM matter power-spectra up to klesssim 1 h/Mpc.

  13. Neutrino Emission from Supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Janka, Hans-Thomas

    Supernovae are the most powerful cosmic sources of MeV neutrinos. These elementary particles play a crucial role when the evolution of a massive star is terminated by the collapse of its core to a neutron star or a black hole and the star explodes as supernova. The release of electron neutrinos, which are abundantly produced by electron captures, accelerates the catastrophic infall and causes a gradual neutronization of the stellar plasma by converting protons to neutrons as dominant constituents of neutron star matter. The emission of neutrinos and antineutrinos of all flavors carries away the gravitational binding energy of the compact remnant and drives its evolution from the hot initial to the cold final state. The absorption of electron neutrinos and antineutrinos in the surroundings of the newly formed neutron star can power the supernova explosion and determines the conditions in the innermost supernova ejecta, making them an interesting site for the nucleosynthesis of iron-group elements and trans-iron nuclei.

  14. The Neutrino: A Better Understanding Through Astrophysics: Final Report

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kneller, James P.

    The final report for the award "The Neutrino: A Better Understanding Through Astrophysics" is given. The goals of the work were the following: to construct new theoretical approaches to the problem of neutrino propagation in media including where neutrino-neutrino interactions are important; to pioneer the use of new approaches, including super-scattering operators, for the evolution of neutrino thermal and statistical ensembles; to implement these new approaches in computer codes to study neutrino evolution in supernovae and other hot, dense environments; to increase the realism of simulated signals of a Galactic supernovae neutrino burst in current and future neutrino detectors; tomore » study the simulated signals to determine the ability to extract information on the missing neutrino mixing parameters and the dynamics of the supernova explosion; and to study sterile neutrinos and non-standard interactions of neutrinos in supernovae and their effect upon the signal. Accomplishments made in these areas are described.« less

  15. Neutrino masses in the minimal gauged (B -L ) supersymmetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, Yu-Li; Feng, Tai-Fu; Yang, Jin-Lei; Zhang, Hai-Bin; Zhao, Shu-Min; Zhu, Rong-Fei

    2018-03-01

    We present the radiative corrections to neutrino masses in a minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model with local U (1 )B -L symmetry. At tree level, three tiny active neutrinos and two nearly massless sterile neutrinos can be obtained through the seesaw mechanism. Considering the one-loop corrections to the neutrino masses, the numerical results indicate that two sterile neutrinos obtain KeV masses and the small active-sterile neutrino mixing angles. The lighter sterile neutrino is a very interesting dark matter candidate in cosmology. Meanwhile, the active neutrinos mixing angles and mass squared differences agree with present experimental data.

  16. Application of Reactor Antineutrinos: Neutrinos for Peace

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suekane, F.

    2013-02-01

    In nuclear reactors, 239Pu are produced along with burn-up of nuclear fuel. 239Pu is subject of safeguard controls since it is an explosive component of nuclear weapon. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is watching undeclared operation of reactors to prevent illegal production and removal of 239Pu. In operating reactors, a huge numbers of anti electron neutrinos (ν) are produced. Neutrino flux is approximately proportional to the operating power of reactor in short term and long term decrease of the neutrino flux per thermal power is proportional to the amount of 239Pu produced. Thus rector ν's carry direct and real time information useful for the safeguard purposes. Since ν can not be hidden, it could be an ideal medium to monitor the reactor operation. IAEA seeks for novel technologies which enhance their ability and reactor neutrino monitoring is listed as one of such candidates. Currently neutrino physicists are performing R&D of small reactor neutrino detectors to use specifically for the safeguard use in response to the IAEA interest. In this proceedings of the neutrino2012 conference, possibilities of such reactor neutrinos application and current world-wide R&D status are described.

  17. Influence of flavor oscillations on neutrino beam instabilities

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mendonça, J. T., E-mail: titomend@ist.utl.pt; Haas, F.; Bret, A.

    2014-09-15

    We consider the collective neutrino plasma interactions and study the electron plasma instabilities produced by a nearly mono-energetic neutrino beam in a plasma. We describe the mutual interaction between neutrino flavor oscillations and electron plasma waves. We show that the neutrino flavor oscillations are not only perturbed by electron plasmas waves but also contribute to the dispersion relation and the growth rates of neutrino beam instabilities.

  18. Cosmological neutrino simulations at extreme scale

    DOE PAGES

    Emberson, J. D.; Yu, Hao-Ran; Inman, Derek; ...

    2017-08-01

    Constraining neutrino mass remains an elusive challenge in modern physics. Precision measurements are expected from several upcoming cosmological probes of large-scale structure. Achieving this goal relies on an equal level of precision from theoretical predictions of neutrino clustering. Numerical simulations of the non-linear evolution of cold dark matter and neutrinos play a pivotal role in this process. We incorporate neutrinos into the cosmological N-body code CUBEP3M and discuss the challenges associated with pushing to the extreme scales demanded by the neutrino problem. We highlight code optimizations made to exploit modern high performance computing architectures and present a novel method ofmore » data compression that reduces the phase-space particle footprint from 24 bytes in single precision to roughly 9 bytes. We scale the neutrino problem to the Tianhe-2 supercomputer and provide details of our production run, named TianNu, which uses 86% of the machine (13,824 compute nodes). With a total of 2.97 trillion particles, TianNu is currently the world’s largest cosmological N-body simulation and improves upon previous neutrino simulations by two orders of magnitude in scale. We finish with a discussion of the unanticipated computational challenges that were encountered during the TianNu runtime.« less

  19. 11.2 Solar Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakahata, Masayuki

    This document is part of Subvolume A `Theory and Experiments' of Volume 21 `Elementary Particles' of Landolt-Börnstein - Group I `Elementary Particles, Nuclei and Atoms'. It contains of the Chapter `11 Experimental Results on Neutrino Masses and Mixings' the Section `11.2 Solar Neutrinos' with the content:

  20. Supernova signatures of neutrino mass ordering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scholberg, Kate

    2018-01-01

    A suite of detectors around the world is poised to measure the flavor-energy-time evolution of the ten-second burst of neutrinos from a core-collapse supernova occurring in the Milky Way or nearby. Next-generation detectors to be built in the next decade will have enhanced flavor sensitivity and statistics. Not only will the observation of this burst allow us to peer inside the dense matter of the extreme event and learn about the collapse processes and the birth of the remnant, but the neutrinos will bring information about neutrino properties themselves. This review surveys some of the physical signatures that the currently-unknown neutrino mass pattern will imprint on the observed neutrino events at Earth, emphasizing the most robust and least model-dependent signatures of mass ordering.

  1. Experimental Constraints on Neutrino Spectra Following Fission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Napolitano, Jim; Daya Bay Collaboration

    2016-09-01

    We discuss new initiatives to constrain predictions of fission neutrino spectra from nuclear reactors. These predictions are germane to the understanding of reactor flux anomalies; are needed to reduce systematic uncertainty in neutrino oscillation spectra; and inform searches for the diffuse supernova neutrino background. The initiatives include a search for very high- Q beta decay components to the neutrino spectrum from the Daya Bay power plant; plans for a measurement of the β- spectrum from 252Cf fission products; and precision measurements of the 235U fission neutrino spectrum from PROSPECT and other very short baseline reactor experiments.

  2. Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE): Conceptual Design Report. Volume 1: The LBNF and DUNE Projects

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Acciarri, R.

    2016-01-22

    This document presents the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) put forward by an international neutrino community to pursue the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF/DUNE), a groundbreaking science experiment for long-baseline neutrino oscillation studies and for neutrino astrophysics and nucleon decay searches. The DUNE far detector will be a very large modular liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) located deep underground, coupled to the LBNF multi-megawatt wide-band neutrino beam. DUNE will also have a high-resolution and high-precision near detector.

  3. Neutrinos as Probes of Lorentz Invariance

    DOE PAGES

    Díaz, Jorge S.

    2014-01-01

    Neutrinos can be used to search for deviations from exact Lorentz invariance. The worldwide experimental program in neutrino physics makes these particles a remarkable tool to search for a variety of signals that could reveal minute relativity violations. This paper reviews the generic experimental signatures of the breakdown of Lorentz symmetry in the neutrino sector.

  4. Primordial nucleosynthesis and neutrino physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, Christel Johanna

    We study primordial nucleosynthesis abundance yields for assumed ranges of cosmological lepton numbers, sterile neutrino mass-squared differences and active-sterile vacuum mixing angles. We fix the baryon-to-photon ratio at the value derived from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and then calculate the deviation of the 2 H, 4 He, and 7 Li abundance yields from those expected in the zero lepton number(s), no-new-neutrino-physics case. We conclude that high precision (< 5% error) measurements of the primordial 2 H abundance from, e.g., QSO absorption line observations coupled with high precision (< 1% error) baryon density measurements from the CMB could have the power to either: (1) reveal or rule out the existence of a light sterile neutrino if the sign of the cosmological lepton number is known; or (2) place strong constraints on lepton numbers, sterile neutrino mixing properties and resonance sweep physics. Similar conclusions would hold if the primordial 4 He abundance could be determined to better than 10%. We have performed new Big Bang Nucleosynthesis calculations which employ arbitrarily-specified, time-dependent neutrino and antineutrino distribution functions for each of up to four neutrino flavors. We self-consistently couple these distributions to the thermodynamics, the expansion rate and scale factor-time/temperature relationship, as well as to all relevant weak, electromagnetic, and strong nuclear reaction processes in the early universe. With this approach, we can treat any scenario in which neutrino or antineutrino spectral distortion might arise. These scenarios might include, for example, decaying particles, active-sterile neutrino oscillations, and active-active neutrino oscillations in the presence of significant lepton numbers. Our calculations allow lepton numbers and sterile neutrinos to be constrained with observationally-determined primordial helium and deuterium abundances. We have modified a standard BBN code to perform these

  5. Dynamical friction in the primordial neutrino sea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Okoli, Chiamaka; Scrimgeour, Morag I.; Afshordi, Niayesh; Hudson, Michael J.

    2017-06-01

    Standard big bang cosmology predicts a cosmic neutrino background at Tν ≃ 1.95 K. Given the current neutrino oscillation measurements, we know most neutrinos move at large, but non-relativistic, velocities. Therefore, dark matter haloes moving in the sea of primordial neutrinos form a neutrino wake behind them, which would slow them down, due to the effect of dynamical friction. In this paper, we quantify this effect for realistic haloes, in the context of the halo model of structure formation, and show that it scales as m_ν ^4× relative velocity and monotonically grows with the halo mass. Galaxy redshift surveys can be sensitive to this effect (at >3σ confidence level, depending on survey properties, neutrino mass and hierarchy) through redshift space distortions of distinct galaxy populations.

  6. Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bari, Pasquale Di; Ludl, Patrick Otto; Palomares-Ruiz, Sergio

    2016-11-21

    We revisit a model in which neutrino masses and mixing are described by a two right-handed (RH) neutrino seesaw scenario, implying a strictly hierarchical light neutrino spectrum. A third decoupled RH neutrino, N{sub DM} with mass M{sub DM}, plays the role of cold dark matter (DM) and is produced by the mixing with a source RH neutrino, N{sub S} with mass M{sub S}, induced by Higgs portal interactions. The same interactions are also responsible for N{sub DM} decays. We discuss in detail the constraints coming from DM abundance and stability conditions showing that in the hierarchical case, for M{sub DM}≫M{submore » S}, there is an allowed window on M{sub DM} values necessarily implying a contribution, from DM decays, to the high-energy neutrino flux recently detected by IceCube. We also show how the model can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis in the quasi-degenerate limit. In this case, the DM mass should be within the range 300 GeV ≲M{sub S}« less

  7. Non-standard neutrino interactions at DUNE

    DOE PAGES

    de Gouvea, Andre; Kelly, Kevin J.

    2016-03-15

    Here, we explore the effects of non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) and how they modify neutrino propagation in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). We find that NSI can significantly modify the data to be collected by the DUNE experiment as long as the new physics parameters are large enough. For example, if the DUNE data are consistent with the standard three-massive-neutrinos paradigm, order 0.1 (in units of the Fermi constant) NSI effects will be ruled out. On the other hand, if large NSI effects are present, DUNE will be able to not only rule out the standard paradigm but alsomore » measure the new physics parameters, sometimes with good precision. We find that, in some cases, DUNE is sensitive to new sources of CP-invariance violation. We also explored whether DUNE data can be used to distinguish different types of new physics beyond nonzero neutrino masses. In more detail, we asked whether NSI can be mimicked, as far as the DUNE setup is concerned, by the hypothesis that there is a new light neutrino state.« less

  8. Light sterile neutrinos and neutrinoless double-beta decay

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giunti, Carlo

    2017-10-01

    The LSND, Gallium and reactor neutrino anomalies can be explained by short-baseline neutrino oscillations due to the mixing of the active neutrinos with sterile neutrinos at the eV scale. I review the results of a 3+1 global fit of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data that includes the recent measurements of the MINOS, IceCube, and NEOS experiments, and I discuss the implications for neutrinoless double-beta decay.

  9. Decoherence effect in neutrinos produced in microquasar jets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mosquera, M. E.; Civitarese, O.

    2018-04-01

    We study the effect of decoherence upon the neutrino spectra produced in microquasar jets. In order to analyse the precession of the polarization vector of neutrinos we have calculated its time evolution by solving the corresponding equations of motion, and by assuming two different scenarios, namely: (i) the mixing between two active neutrinos, and (ii) the mixing between one active and one sterile neutrino. The results of the calculations corresponding to these scenarios show that the onset of decoherence does not depends on the activation of neutrino-neutrino interactions when realistic values of the coupling are used in the calculations. We discuss also the case of neutrinos produced in windy microquasars and compare the results which those obtained with more conventional models of microquasars.

  10. Earth Versus Neutrinos: Measuring the Total Muon-Neutrino-to-Nucleon Cross Section at Ultra-High Energies through Differential Earth Absorption of Muon Neutrinos from Cosmic Rays Using the IceCube Detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miarecki, Sandra Christine

    The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole was constructed to measure the flux of high-energy neutrinos and to try to identify their cosmic sources. In addition to these astrophysical neutrinos, IceCube also detects the neutrinos that result from cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere. These atmospheric neutrinos can be used to measure the total muon neutrino-to-nucleon cross section by measuring neutrino absorption in the Earth. The measurement involves isolating a sample of 10,784 Earth-transiting muons detected by IceCube in its 79-string configuration. The cross-section is determined using a two-dimensional fit in measured muon energy and zenith angle and is presented as a multiple of the Standard Model expectation as calculated by Cooper-Sarkar, Mertsch, and Sarkar in 2011. A multiple of 1.0 would indicate agreement with the Standard Model. The results of this analysis find the multiple to be 1.30 (+0.21 -0.19 statistical) (+0.40 -0.44 systematic) for the neutrino energy range of 6.3 to 980 TeV, which is in agreement with the Standard Model expectation.

  11. Status of the neutrino decay solution to the solar neutrino problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Choubey, S.; Goswami, S.; Majumdar, D.

    2000-06-01

    We re-examine the neutrino decay solution to the solar neutrino problem in the light of the SuperKamiokande (SK) data. For the decay solution the SK spectrum data by its own can provide a fit comparable to the fit obtained from the MSW solution. However when one combines the results from the total rates of the 37Cl and 71Ga experiments the fit becomes much poorer.

  12. The International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Long, K.

    2008-02-21

    The International Design Study for a future Neutrino Factory and super-beam facility (the ISS) established the physics case for a high-precision programme of long-baseline neutrino-oscillation measurements. The ISS also identified baseline specifications for the Neutrino Factory accelerator complex and the neutrino detector systems. This paper summarises the objectives of the International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory (the IDS-NF). The IDS-NF will build on the work of the ISS to deliver a Reference Design Report for the Neutrino Factory by 2012/13 and an Interim Design Report by 2010/11.

  13. Predictive models of radiative neutrino masses

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Julio, J., E-mail: julio@lipi.go.id

    2016-06-21

    We discuss two models of radiative neutrino mass generation. The first model features one–loop Zee model with Z{sub 4} symmetry. The second model is the two–loop neutrino mass model with singly- and doubly-charged scalars. These two models fit neutrino oscillation data well and predict some interesting rates for lepton flavor violation processes.

  14. Recent results from the sudbury neutrino observatory

    DOE PAGES

    Poon, A. W.

    2003-12-17

    The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) measures both the flux of the electron-type neutrinos and the total flux of all active flavours of neutrinos originating from the Sun. A model-independent test of neutrino flavour transformation was performed by comparing these two measurements. In 2002, this flavour transformation was definitively demonstrated. In this talk, results from these measurements and the current status of the SNO detector are presented.

  15. The halo model in a massive neutrino cosmology

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Massara, Elena; Villaescusa-Navarro, Francisco; Viel, Matteo, E-mail: emassara@sissa.it, E-mail: villaescusa@oats.inaf.it, E-mail: viel@oats.inaf.it

    2014-12-01

    We provide a quantitative analysis of the halo model in the context of massive neutrino cosmologies. We discuss all the ingredients necessary to model the non-linear matter and cold dark matter power spectra and compare with the results of N-body simulations that incorporate massive neutrinos. Our neutrino halo model is able to capture the non-linear behavior of matter clustering with a ∼20% accuracy up to very non-linear scales of k = 10 h/Mpc (which would be affected by baryon physics). The largest discrepancies arise in the range k = 0.5 – 1 h/Mpc where the 1-halo and 2-halo terms are comparable and are present also inmore » a massless neutrino cosmology. However, at scales k < 0.2 h/Mpc our neutrino halo model agrees with the results of N-body simulations at the level of 8% for total neutrino masses of < 0.3 eV. We also model the neutrino non-linear density field as a sum of a linear and clustered component and predict the neutrino power spectrum and the cold dark matter-neutrino cross-power spectrum up to k = 1 h/Mpc with ∼30% accuracy. For masses below 0.15 eV the neutrino halo model captures the neutrino induced suppression, casted in terms of matter power ratios between massive and massless scenarios, with a 2% agreement with the results of N-body/neutrino simulations. Finally, we provide a simple application of the halo model: the computation of the clustering of galaxies, in massless and massive neutrinos cosmologies, using a simple Halo Occupation Distribution scheme and our halo model extension.« less

  16. SEARCHES FOR POINT-LIKE AND EXTENDED NEUTRINO SOURCES CLOSE TO THE GALACTIC CENTER USING THE ANTARES NEUTRINO TELESCOPE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Adrián-Martínez, S.; Ardid, M.; Bou-Cabo, M.

    2014-05-01

    A search for cosmic neutrino sources using six years of data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope has been performed. Clusters of muon neutrinos over the expected atmospheric background have been looked for. No clear signal has been found. The most signal-like accumulation of events is located at equatorial coordinates R.A. = –46.°8 and decl. = –64.°9 and corresponds to a 2.2σ background fluctuation. In addition, upper limits on the flux normalization of an E {sup –2} muon neutrino energy spectrum have been set for 50 pre-selected astrophysical objects. Finally, motivated by an accumulation of seven events relatively close tomore » the Galactic Center in the recently reported neutrino sample of the IceCube telescope, a search for point sources in a broad region around this accumulation has been carried out. No indication of a neutrino signal has been found in the ANTARES data and upper limits on the flux normalization of an E {sup –2} energy spectrum of neutrinos from point sources in that region have been set. The 90% confidence level upper limits on the muon neutrino flux normalization vary between 3.5 and 5.1 × 10{sup –8} GeV cm{sup –2} s{sup –1}, depending on the exact location of the source.« less

  17. On the Detection of the Free Neutrino

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Reines, F.; Cowan, C. L., Jr.

    1953-08-06

    The experiment previously proposed [to Detect the Free Neutrino] has been initiated, with a Hanford pile as a neutrino source. It appears probable that neutrino detection has been accomplished, and confirmatory work is in progress. (K.S.)

  18. Discovering Tau and Muon Solar Neutrino Flares above Backgrounds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fargion, D.; Moscato, F.

    2005-01-01

    Solar neutrino flares astronomy is at the edge of its discover. High energy flare particles (protons, alpha) whose self scattering within the solar corona is source of a rich prompt charged pions are also source of sharp solar neutrino "burst" (at tens-hundred MeV) produced by their pion-muon primary decay in flight. This brief (minute) solar neutrino "burst" at largest peak overcome by four-five order of magnitude the steady atmospheric neutrino noise at the Earth. Later on, solar flare particles hitting the terrestrial atmosphere may marginally increase the atmospheric neutrino flux without relevant consequences. Largest prompt "burst" solar neutrino flare may be detected in present or better in future largest neutrino underground neutrino detectors. Our estimate for the recent and exceptional October - November 2003 solar flares gives a number of events above or just near unity for Super-Kamiokande. The neutrino spectra may reflect in a subtle way the neutrino flavour mixing in flight. A surprising tau appearance may even occur for a hard ({E}_{nu}_{mu}--> {E}_{nu}_{tau} > 4 GeV) flare spectra. A comparison of the solar neutrino flare (at their birth place on Sun and after oscillation on the arrival on the Earth) with other neutrino foreground is here described and it offer an independent road map to disentangle the neutrino flavour puzzles and its secret flavour mixing angles .

  19. Testing decay of astrophysical neutrinos with incomplete information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bustamante, Mauricio; Beacom, John F.; Murase, Kohta

    2017-03-01

    Neutrinos mix and have mass differences, so decays from one to another must occur. But how fast? The best direct limits on nonradiative decays, based on solar and atmospheric neutrinos, are weak, τ ≳10-3 s (m /eV ) or much worse. Greatly improved sensitivity, τ ˜1 03 s (m /eV ), will eventually be obtained using neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources, but large uncertainties—in neutrino properties, source properties, and detection aspects—do not allow this yet. However, there is a way forward now. We show that IceCube diffuse neutrino measurements, supplemented by improvements expected in the near term, can increase sensitivity to τ ˜10 s (m /eV ) for all neutrino mass eigenstates. We provide a road map for the necessary analyses and show how to manage the many uncertainties. If limits are set, this would definitively rule out the long-considered possibility that neutrino decay affects solar, atmospheric, or terrestrial neutrino experiments.

  20. Constraining astrophysical neutrino flavor composition from leptonic unitarity

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Xu, Xun-Jie; He, Hong-Jian; Rodejohann, Werner, E-mail: xunjie.xu@gmail.com, E-mail: hjhe@tsinghua.edu.cn, E-mail: werner.rodejohann@mpi-hd.mpg.de

    2014-12-01

    The recent IceCube observation of ultra-high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has begun the era of neutrino astronomy. In this work, using the unitarity of leptonic mixing matrix, we derive nontrivial unitarity constraints on the flavor composition of astrophysical neutrinos detected by IceCube. Applying leptonic unitarity triangles, we deduce these unitarity bounds from geometrical conditions, such as triangular inequalities. These new bounds generally hold for three flavor neutrinos, and are independent of any experimental input or the pattern of lepton mixing. We apply our unitarity bounds to derive general constraints on the flavor compositions for three types of astrophysical neutrino sources (and theirmore » general mixture), and compare them with the IceCube measurements. Furthermore, we prove that for any sources without ν{sub τ} neutrinos, a detected ν{sub μ} flux ratio < 1/4 will require the initial flavor composition with more ν{sub e} neutrinos than ν{sub μ} neutrinos.« less

  1. Reactor monitoring with Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cribier, Michel

    2011-12-01

    The fundamental knowledge on neutrinos acquired in the recent years open the possibility of applied neutrino physics. Among it the automatic and non intrusive monitoring of nuclear reactor by its antineutrino signal could be very valuable to IAEA in charge of the control of nuclear power plants. Several efforts worldwide have already started.

  2. Progress towards Low Energy Neutrino Spectroscopy (LENS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blackmon, Jeff

    2011-10-01

    The Low-Energy Neutrino Spectroscopy (LENS) experiment will precisely measure the energy spectrum of low-energy solar neutrinos via charged-current neutrino reactions on indium. LENS will test solar physics through the fundamental equality of the neutrino fluxes and the precisely known solar luminosity in photons, will probe the metallicity of the solar core through the CNO neutrino fluxes, and will test for the existence of mass-varying neutrinos. The LENS detector concept applies indium-loaded scintillator in an optically-segmented lattice geometry to achieve precise time and spatial resolution and unprecedented sensitivity for low-energy neutrino events. The LENS collaboration is currently developing a prototype, miniLENS, in the Kimballton Underground Research Facility (KURF). The miniLENS program aims to demonstrate the performance and selectivity of the technology and to benchmark Monte Carlo simulations that will guide scaling to the full LENS instrument. We will present the motivation and concept for LENS and will provide an overview of the R&D efforts currently centered around miniLENS at KURF.

  3. Lepton-number-charged scalars and neutrino beamstrahlung

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berryman, Jeffrey M.; de Gouvêa, André; Kelly, Kevin J.; Zhang, Yue

    2018-04-01

    Experimentally, baryon number minus lepton number, B -L , appears to be a good global symmetry of nature. We explore the consequences of the existence of gauge-singlet scalar fields charged under B -L -dubbed lepton-number-charged scalars (LeNCSs)—and postulate that these couple to the standard model degrees of freedom in such a way that B -L is conserved even at the nonrenormalizable level. In this framework, neutrinos are Dirac fermions. Including only the lowest mass-dimension effective operators, some of the LeNCSs couple predominantly to neutrinos and may be produced in terrestrial neutrino experiments. We examine several existing constraints from particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology to the existence of a LeNCS carrying B -L charge equal to two, and discuss the emission of LeNCSs via "neutrino beamstrahlung," which occurs every once in a while when neutrinos scatter off of ordinary matter. We identify regions of the parameter space where existing and future neutrino experiments, including the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, are at the frontier of searches for such new phenomena.

  4. Updated Global Analysis of Neutrino Oscillations in the Presence of eV-Scale Sterile Neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Dentler, Mona; Hernández-Cabezudo, Alvaro; Kopp, Joachim

    We discuss the possibility to explain the anomalies in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments in terms of sterile neutrinos. We work in a 3+1 framework and pay special attention to recent new data from reactor experiments, IceCube and MINOS+. We find that results from the DANSS and NEOS reactor experiments support the sterile neutrino explanation of the reactor anomaly, based on an analysis that relies solely on the relative comparison of measured reactor spectra. Global data from themore » $$\

  5. Detection of supernova neutrinos at spallation neutron sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Ming-Yang; Guo, Xin-Heng; Young, Bing-Lin

    2016-07-01

    After considering supernova shock effects, Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects, neutrino collective effects, and Earth matter effects, the detection of supernova neutrinos at the China Spallation Neutron Source is studied and the expected numbers of different flavor supernova neutrinos observed through various reaction channels are calculated with the neutrino energy spectra described by the Fermi-Dirac distribution and the “beta fit” distribution respectively. Furthermore, the numerical calculation method of supernova neutrino detection on Earth is applied to some other spallation neutron sources, and the total expected numbers of supernova neutrinos observed through different reactions channels are given. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11205185, 11175020, 11275025, 11575023)

  6. Where do the Neutrinos go?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Freedman, Stuart

    2011-10-01

    Everybody knows that nuclear physics is the study the kind of matter found inside the atomic nucleus whether they it is at the center of atoms or the core of neutron stars. Nevertheless, nuclear physicists have made important discoveries about the neutrino. Figuring out where the neutrinos go in nuclear physics has challenged nuclear scientists, policy makers and those responsible for funding the enterprise. I will consider these and other challenges and how insightful scientific management has contributed the feast of wonderful discoveries about the neutrino.

  7. Resonant Production of Sterile Neutrinos in the Early Universe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gilbert, Lauren; Grohs, Evan; Fuller, George M.

    2016-06-01

    This study examines the cosmological impacts of a light resonantly produced sterile neutrino in the early universe. Such a neutrino could be produced through lepton number-driven Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) conversion of active neutrinos around big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), resulting in a non-thermal spectrum of both sterile and electron neutrinos. During BBN, the neutron-proton ratio depends sensitively on the electron neutrino flux. If electron neutrinos are being converted to sterile neutrinos, this makes the n/p ratio a probe of possible new physics. We use observations of primordial Yp and D/H to place limits on this process.

  8. Overview of the Neutrinos from Stored Muons Facility - nuSTORM

    DOE PAGES

    Adey, D.; Appleby, R. B.; Bayes, R.; ...

    2017-07-19

    Neutrino beams produced from the decay of muons in a racetrack-like decay ring (the so called Neutrino Factory) provide a powerful way to study neutrino oscillation physics and, in addition, provide unique beams for neutrino interaction studies. The Neutrinos from STORed Muons (nuSTORM) facility uses a neutrino factory-like design. Due to the particular nature of nuSTORM, it can also provide an intense, very pure, muon neutrino beam from pion decay. This so-called 'Neo-conventional' muon-neutrino beam from nuSTORM makes nuSTORM a hybrid neutrino factory. Here in this paper we describe the facility and give a detailed description of the neutrino beamsmore » that are available and the precision to which they can be characterized. We then show its potential for a neutrino interaction physics program and present sensitivity plots that indicate how well the facility can perform for short-baseline oscillation searches. Lastly, we comment on the performance potential of a 'Neo-conventional' muon neutrino beam optimized for long-baseline neutrino-oscillation physics.« less

  9. Three-generation study of neutrino spin-flavor conversion in supernovae and implication for the neutrino magnetic moment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ando, Shin'ichiro; Sato, Katsuhiko

    2003-01-01

    We investigate resonant spin-flavor (RSF) conversions of supernova neutrinos which are induced by the interaction of neutrino magnetic moment and supernova magnetic fields. From the formulation which includes all three-flavor neutrinos and antineutrinos, we give a new crossing diagram that includes not only ordinary Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) resonance but also a magnetically induced RSF effect. With the diagram, it is found that four conversions occur in supernovae: two are induced by the RSF effect and two by the pure MSW effect. We also numerically calculate neutrino conversions in supernova matter, using neutrino mixing parameters inferred from recent experimental results and a realistic supernova progenitor model. The results indicate that until 0.5 sec after the core bounce, the RSF-induced ν¯e↔ντ transition occurs efficiently (adiabatic resonance), when μν≳10- 12μB(B0/5×109 G)-1, where B0 is the strength of the magnetic field at the surface of iron core. We also evaluate the energy spectrum as a function of μνB0 at the super-Kamiokande detector and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory using the calculated conversion probabilities, and find that the spectral deformation might have the possibility to provide useful information on the neutrino magnetic moment as well as the magnetic field strength in supernovae.

  10. Observation of Muon Neutrino Charged Current Events in an Off-Axis Horn-Focused Neutrino Beam Using the NOvA Prototype Detector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Diaz, Enrique Arrieta

    2014-01-01

    The NOνA is a long base-line neutrino oscillation experiment. It will study the oscillations between muon and electron neutrinos through the Earth. NOνA consists of two detectors separated by 810 km. Each detector will measure the electron neutrino content of the neutrino (NuMI) beam. Differences between the measurements will reveal details about the oscillation channel. The NOνA collaboration built a prototype detector on the surface at Fermilab in order to develop calibration, simulation, and reconstruction tools, using real data. This 220 ton detector is 110 mrad off the NuMI beam axis. This off-axis location allows the observation of neutrino interactionsmore » with energies around 2 GeV, where neutrinos come predominantly from charged kaon decays. During the period between October 2011 and April 2012, the prototype detector collected neutrino data from 1.67 × 10 20 protons on target delivered by the NuMI beam. This analysis selected a number of candidate charged current muon neutrino events from the prototype data, which is 30% lower than predicted by the NOνA Monte Carlo simulation. The analysis suggests that the discrepancy comes from an over estimation of the neutrino flux in the Monte Carlo simulation, and in particular, from neutrinos generated in charged kaon decays. The ratio of measured divided by the simulated flux of muon neutrinos coming from charged kaon decays is: 0.70 +0.108 -0.094. The NOνA collaboration may use the findings of this analysis to introduce a more accurate prediction of the neutrino flux produced by the NuMI beam in future Monte Carlo simulations.« less

  11. Neutrino trident production: a powerful probe of new physics with neutrino beams.

    PubMed

    Altmannshofer, Wolfgang; Gori, Stefania; Pospelov, Maxim; Yavin, Itay

    2014-08-29

    The production of a μ+ μ- pair from the scattering of a muon neutrino off the Coulomb field of a nucleus, known as neutrino trident production, is a subweak process that has been observed in only a couple of experiments. As such, we show that it constitutes an exquisitely sensitive probe in the search for new neutral currents among leptons, putting the strongest constraints on well-motivated and well-hidden extensions of the standard model gauge group, including the one coupled to the difference of the lepton number between the muon and tau flavor, Lμ-Lτ. The new gauge boson Z', increases the rate of neutrino trident production by inducing additional (μγαμ)(νγ(α)ν) interactions, which interfere constructively with the standard model contribution. Existing experimental results put significant restrictions on the parameter space of any model coupled to muon number Lμ, and disfavor a putative resolution to the muon g-2 discrepancy via the loop of Z' for any mass mZ'≳400  MeV. The reach to the models' parameter space can be widened with future searches of the trident production at high-intensity neutrino facilities such as the LBNE.

  12. Observational constraints on varying neutrino-mass cosmology

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Geng, Chao-Qiang; Lee, Chung-Chi; Myrzakulov, R.

    We consider generic models of quintessence and we investigate the influence of massive neutrino matter with field-dependent masses on the matter power spectrum. In case of minimally coupled neutrino matter, we examine the effect in tracker models with inverse power-law and double exponential potentials. We present detailed investigations for the scaling field with a steep exponential potential, non-minimally coupled to massive neutrino matter, and we derive constraints on field-dependent neutrino masses from the observational data.

  13. Cosmological lepton asymmetry, primordial nucleosynthesis and sterile neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abazajian, Kevork; Bell, Nicole F.; Fuller, George M.; Wong, Yvonne Y. Y.

    2005-09-01

    We study post weak decoupling coherent active-sterile and active-active matter-enhanced neutrino flavor transformation in the early Universe. We show that flavor conversion efficiency at Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein resonances is likely to be high (adiabatic evolution) for relevant neutrino parameters and energies. However, we point out that these resonances cannot sweep smoothly and continuously with the expansion of the Universe. We show how neutrino flavor conversion in this way can leave both the active and sterile neutrinos with nonthermal energy spectra, and how, in turn, these distorted energy spectra can affect the neutron-to-proton ratio, primordial nucleosynthesis, and cosmological mass/closure constraints on sterile neutrinos. We demonstrate that the existence of a light sterile neutrino which mixes with active neutrinos can change fundamentally the relationship between the cosmological lepton numbers and the primordial nucleosynthesis He4 yield.

  14. Searching for Sterile Neutrinos with MINOS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Timmons, Ashley

    2016-01-01

    This document presents the latest results for a 3+1 sterile neutrino search using themore » $$10.56 \\times 10^{20}$$ protons-on-target data set taken from 2005 - 2012. By searching for oscillations driven by a large mass splitting, MINOS is sensitive to the existence of sterile neutrinos through any energy dependent deviations using a charged current sample, as well as looking at any relative deficit between neutral current events between the far and near detectors. This document will discuss the novel analysis that enabled a search for sterile neutrinos setting a limit in the previously unexplored regions in the parameter space $$\\{\\Delta m^{2}_{41}, \\sin^2\\theta_{24}\\}$$. The results presented can be compared to the parameter space suggested by LSND and MiniBooNE and complements other previous experimental searches for sterile neutrinos in the electron neutrino appearance channel.« less

  15. Short and Long Baseline Neutrino Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Autiero, Dario

    2005-04-01

    These two lectures discuss the past and current neutrino oscillation experiments performed with man-made neutrino sources, like accelerators and nuclear reactors. The search for neutrino oscillations is a remarkable effort, which has been performed over three decades. It is therefore interesting to discuss the short and long baseline neutrino experiments in their historical context and to see how this line of research evolved up to the present generation of experiments, looking at what was learnt from past experiments and how this experience is used in the current ones. The first lecture focuses on the past generation of short baseline experiments (NOMAD and CHORUS) performed at CERN and ends with LSND and MINIBOONE. The second lecture discusses how after the CHOOZ and the atmospheric neutrino results the line of the long baseline experiments developed and presents in details the K2K and MINOS experiments and the CNGS program.

  16. Search for sterile neutrinos at RENO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yeo, In Sung; RENO Collaboration

    2017-09-01

    The RENO experiment was designed to measure a neutrino mixing angle, θ13, by detecting electron antineutrinos emitted from the Hanbit nuclear reactors in Korea, and succeeded to measure θ13 from the disappearance mode in three neutrino frame. We investigate the possibility of sterile neutrinos existence at RENO experiment and compare data with Monte Carlo generated in four neutrino frame. In this talk, we present some recent results using chi-square analysis method. The probability deficit curve as a function of an effective baseline and the excluded contour plot in sin2(2 θ14) - Δ(m41)2 space will be shown.

  17. Search for Neutrinos from the Sun

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Davis, Raymond Jr.

    1968-09-01

    A solar neutrino detection system has been built to observe the neutrino radiation from the sun. The detector uses 3,900,000 liters of tetrachloroethylene as the neutrino capturing medium. Argon is removed from the liquid by sweeping with helium gas, and counted in a small low level proportional counter. The recovery efficiency of the system was tested with Ar{sup 36} by the isotope dilution method, and also with Ar{sup 37} produced in the liquid by fast neutrons. These tests demonstrate that Ar{sup 37} produced in the liquid by neutrino capture can be removed with a 95 percent efficiency by the procedure used.

  18. The SOX experiment in the neutrino physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Di Noto, L.; Agostini, M.; Althenmüller, K.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Berton, N.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo-Berguño, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Cadonati, L.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Cavalcante, P.; Chavarria, A.; Chepurnov, A.; Cribier, M.; DAngelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Durero, M.; Empl, A.; Etenko, A.; Farinon, S.; Fischer, V.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Gaffiot, J.; Galbiati, C.; Gazzana, S.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Göger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Grandi, L.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Houdy, Th.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Al.; Ianni, An.; Jonquères, N.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Lasserre, T.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, T.; Lewke, T.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Maricic, J.; Meindl, Q.; Mention, G.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Musenich, R.; Muratova, V.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Otis, K.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Perasso, S.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Rossi, N.; Saldanha, R.; Salvo, C.; Schönert, S.; Scola, L.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Veyssière, C.; Vivier, M.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wright, A.; Wurm, M.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2015-01-01

    SOX (Short distance neutrino Oscillations with BoreXino) is a new experiment that takes place at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) and it exploits the Borexino detector to study the neutrino oscillations at short distance. In different phases, by using two artificial sources 51Cr and 144Ce-144Pr, neutrino and antineutrino fluxes of measured intensity will be detected by Borexino in order to observe possible neutrino oscillations in the sterile state. In this paper an overview of the experiment is given and one of the two calorimeters that will be used to measure the source activity is described. At the end the expected sensitivity to determine the neutrino sterile mass is shown.

  19. The Era of Kilometer-Scale Neutrino Detectors

    DOE PAGES

    Halzen, Francis; Katz, Uli

    2013-01-01

    Neutrino astronomy beyond the Sun was first imagined in the late 1950s; by the 1970s, it was realized that kilometer-scale neutrino detectors were required. The first such instrument, IceCube, transforms a cubic kilometer of deep and ultra-transparent Antarctic ice into a particle detector. KM3NeT, an instrument that aims to exploit several cubic kilometers of the deep Mediterranean sea as its detector medium, is in its final design stages. The scientific missions of these instruments include searching for sources of cosmic rays and for dark matter, observing Galactic supernova explosions, and studying the neutrinos themselves. Identifying the accelerators that produce Galacticmore » and extragalactic cosmic rays has been a priority mission of several generations of high-energy gamma-ray and neutrino telescopes; success has been elusive so far. Detecting the gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes associated with cosmic rays reaches a new watershed with the completion of IceCube, the first neutrino detector with sensitivity to the anticipated fluxes. In this paper, we will first revisit the rationale for constructing kilometer-scale neutrino detectors. We will subsequently recall the methods for determining the arrival direction, energy and flavor of neutrinos, and will subsequently describe the architecture of the IceCube and KM3NeT detectors.« less

  20. Can one measure the Cosmic Neutrino Background?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Faessler, Amand; Hodák, Rastislav; Kovalenko, Sergey; Šimkovic, Fedor

    The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) yields information about our Universe at around 380,000 years after the Big Bang (BB). Due to the weak interaction of the neutrinos with matter, the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) should give information about a much earlier time of our Universe, around one second after the BB. Probably, the most promising method to "see" the CNB is the capture of the electron neutrinos from the Background by Tritium, which then decays into 3He and an electron with the energy of the the Q-value = 18.562 keV plus the electron neutrino rest mass. The "KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino" (KATRIN) experiment, which is in preparation, seems presently the most sensitive proposed method for measuring the electron antineutrino mass. At the same time, KATRIN can also look by the reaction νe(˜1.95K) + 3H → 3He + e-(Q = 18.6keV + mνec2). The capture of the Cosmic Background Neutrinos (CNB) should show in the electron spectrum as a peak by the electron neutrino rest mass above Q. Here, the possibility to see the CNB with KATRIN is studied. A detection of the CNB by KATRIN seems not to be possible at the moment. But KATRIN should be able to determine an upper limit for the local electron neutrino density of the CNB.

  1. Another look at the impact of an eV-mass sterile neutrino on the effective neutrino mass of neutrinoless double-beta decays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Jun-Hao; Zhou, Shun

    2018-01-01

    The possible existence of an eV-mass sterile neutrino, slightly mixing with ordinary active neutrinos, is not yet excluded by neutrino oscillation experiments. Assuming neutrinos to be Majorana particles, we explore the impact of such a sterile neutrino on the effective neutrino mass of neutrinoless double-beta decays 〈m〉ee‧≡ m 1|V e1|2eiρ + m 2|V e2|2 + m 3|V e3|2eiσ + m 4|V e4|2eiω, where mi and Vei (for i = 1, 2, 3, 4) denote respectively the absolute masses and the first-row elements of the 4 × 4 neutrino flavor mixing matrix V, for which a full parametrization involves three Majorana-type CP-violating phases {ρ,σ,ω}. A zero effective neutrino mass |〈m〉ee‧| = 0 is possible, no matter whether three active neutrinos take the normal or inverted mass ordering, and its implications for the parameter space are examined in great detail. In particular, given the best-fit values of m4 ≈ 1.3eV and |Ve4|2 ≈ 0.019 from the latest global analysis of neutrino oscillation data, a three-dimensional view of |〈m〉ee‧| in the (mlightest,ρ)-plane is presented and further compared with that of the counterpart |〈m〉ee| in the absence of any sterile neutrino.

  2. Unruh effect for mixing neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cozzella, Gabriel; Fulling, Stephen A.; Landulfo, André G. S.; Matsas, George E. A.; Vanzella, Daniel A. T.

    2018-05-01

    Recently, the inverse β -decay rate calculated with respect to uniformly accelerated observers (experiencing the Unruh thermal bath) was revisited. Concerns have been raised regarding the compatibility of inertial and accelerated observers' results when neutrino mixing is taken into account. Here, we show that these concerns are unfounded by discussing the properties of the Unruh thermal bath with mixing neutrinos and explicitly calculating the decay rates according to both sets of observers, confirming thus that they are in agreement. The Unruh effect is perfectly valid for mixing neutrinos.

  3. Real-time detection of solar neutrinos with Borexino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marcocci, S.; Agostini, M.; Altenmüller, K.; Appel, S.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Carlini, M.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Di Noto, L.; Drachnev, I.; Etenko, A.; Fomenko, K.; Formozov, A.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Galbiati, C.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Goeger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jedrzejczak, K.; Jeschke, D.; Kaiser, M.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Muratova, V.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Roncin, R.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Semenov, D.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Thurn, J.; Toropova, M.; Unzhakov, E.; Vishneva, A.; B. Vogelaar, R.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Weinz, S.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Yokley, Z.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.; Borexino Collaboration

    2017-01-01

    Solar neutrinos have been fundamental in the discovery of neutrino flavor oscillations and are a unique tool to probe the nuclear reactions that fuel the Sun. The Borexino experiment, located in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, is an ultra-pure liquid scintillator detector conceived for the real time spectroscopy of low energy solar neutrinos. Thanks to its unprecedented background levels, Borexino could measure in real time the fluxes of different components of the solar neutrino spectrum, thus probing both solar neutrino oscillations and the Standard Solar Model. We review these fundamental results and also discuss the prospects for the Phase-II of Borexino, which is entering the precision era of solar neutrino measurements.

  4. Generalized mass ordering degeneracy in neutrino oscillation experiments

    DOE PAGES

    Coloma, Pilar; Schwetz, Thomas

    2016-09-07

    Here, we consider the impact of neutral-current (NC) nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI) on the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. We show that in the presence of NSI there is an exact degeneracy which makes it impossible to determine the neutrino mass ordering and the octant of the solar mixing angle θ 12 at oscillation experiments. The degeneracy holds at the probability level and for arbitrary matter density profiles, and hence solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator neutrino experiments are affected simultaneously. The degeneracy requires order-1 corrections from NSI to the NC electron neutrino-quark interaction and can be tested in electronmore » neutrino NC scattering experiments.« less

  5. IceCube: An Instrument for Neutrino Astronomy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    IceCube Collaboration; Halzen, F.; Klein, S.

    Neutrino astronomy beyond the Sun was first imagined in the late 1950s; by the 1970s, it was realized that kilometer-scale neutrino detectors were required. The first such instrument, IceCube, is near completion and taking data. The IceCube project transforms a cubic kilometer of deep and ultra-transparent Antarctic ice into a particle detector. A total of 5,160 optical sensors are embedded into a gigaton of Antarctic ice to detect the Cherenkov light emitted by secondary particles produced when neutrinos interact with nuclei in the ice. Each optical sensor is a complete data acquisition system, including a phototube, digitization electronics, control andmore » trigger systems and LEDs for calibration. The light patterns reveal the type (flavor) of neutrino interaction and the energy and direction of the neutrino, making neutrino astronomy possible. The scientific missions of IceCube include such varied tasks as the search for sources of cosmic rays, the observation of Galactic supernova explosions, the search for dark matter, and the study of the neutrinos themselves. These reach energies well beyond those produced with accelerator beams.« less

  6. Lepton-number-charged scalars and neutrino beamstrahlung

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Berryman, Jeffrey M.; de Gouvea, Andre; Kelly, Kevin J.

    Experimentally, baryon number minus lepton number, $B-L$, appears to be a good global symmetry of nature. We explore the consequences of the existence of gauge-singlet scalar fields charged under $B-L$ $-$dubbed lepton-number-charged scalars, LeNCS $-$and postulate that these couple to the standard model degrees of freedom in such a way that $B-L$ is conserved even at the non-renormalizable level. In this framework, neutrinos are Dirac fermions. Including only the lowest mass-dimension effective operators, some of the LeNCS couple predominantly to neutrinos and may be produced in terrestrial neutrino experiments. We examine several existing constraints from particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmologymore » to the existence of a LeNCS carrying $B-L$ charge equal to two, and discuss the emission of LeNCS's via "neutrino beamstrahlung," which occurs every once in a while when neutrinos scatter off of ordinary matter. In conclusion, we identify regions of the parameter space where existing and future neutrino experiments, including the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, are at the frontier of searches for such new phenomena.« less

  7. Lepton-number-charged scalars and neutrino beamstrahlung

    DOE PAGES

    Berryman, Jeffrey M.; de Gouvea, Andre; Kelly, Kevin J.; ...

    2018-04-23

    Experimentally, baryon number minus lepton number, $B-L$, appears to be a good global symmetry of nature. We explore the consequences of the existence of gauge-singlet scalar fields charged under $B-L$ $-$dubbed lepton-number-charged scalars, LeNCS $-$and postulate that these couple to the standard model degrees of freedom in such a way that $B-L$ is conserved even at the non-renormalizable level. In this framework, neutrinos are Dirac fermions. Including only the lowest mass-dimension effective operators, some of the LeNCS couple predominantly to neutrinos and may be produced in terrestrial neutrino experiments. We examine several existing constraints from particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmologymore » to the existence of a LeNCS carrying $B-L$ charge equal to two, and discuss the emission of LeNCS's via "neutrino beamstrahlung," which occurs every once in a while when neutrinos scatter off of ordinary matter. In conclusion, we identify regions of the parameter space where existing and future neutrino experiments, including the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, are at the frontier of searches for such new phenomena.« less

  8. Stacked search for time shifted high energy neutrinos from gamma ray bursts with the Antares neutrino telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adrián-Martínez, S.; Albert, A.; André, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid, M.; Aubert, J.-J.; Baret, B.; Barrios-Marti, J.; Basa, S.; Bertin, V.; Biagi, S.; Bormuth, R.; Bouwhuis, M. C.; Bruijn, R.; Brunner, J.; Busto, J.; Capone, A.; Caramete, L.; Carr, J.; Chiarusi, T.; Circella, M.; Coniglione, R.; Costantini, H.; Coyle, P.; Creusot, A.; Dekeyser, I.; Deschamps, A.; De Bonis, G.; Distefano, C.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Drouhin, D.; Dumas, A.; Eberl, T.; Elsässer, D.; Enzenhöfer, A.; Fehn, K.; Felis, I.; Fermani, P.; Folger, F.; Fusco, L. A.; Galatà, S.; Gay, P.; Geißelsöder, S.; Geyer, K.; Giordano, V.; Gleixner, A.; Gracia-Ruiz, R.; Graf, K.; Hallmann, S.; van Haren, H.; Heijboer, A. J.; Hello, Y.; Hernández-Rey, J. J.; Hößl, J.; Hofestädt, J.; Hugon, C.; James, C. W.; de Jong, M.; Kadler, M.; Kalekin, O.; Katz, U.; Kießling, D.; Kooijman, P.; Kouchner, A.; Kreter, M.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Lahmann, R.; Lefèvre, D.; Leonora, E.; Loucatos, S.; Marcelin, M.; Margiotta, A.; Marinelli, A.; Martínez-Mora, J. A.; Mathieu, A.; Michael, T.; Migliozzi, P.; Moussa, A.; Müller, C.; Nezri, E.; Păvălaş, G. E.; Pellegrino, C.; Perrina, C.; Piattelli, P.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Racca, C.; Riccobene, G.; Richter, R.; Roensch, K.; Saldaña, M.; Samtleben, D. F. E.; Sánchez-Losa, A.; Sanguineti, M.; Sapienza, P.; Schmid, J.; Schnabel, J.; Schüssler, F.; Seitz, T.; Sieger, C.; Spurio, M.; Steijger, J. J. M.; Stolarczyk, Th.; Taiuti, M.; Tamburini, C.; Trovato, A.; Tselengidou, M.; Tönnis, C.; Vallage, B.; Vallée, C.; Van Elewyck, V.; Visser, E.; Vivolo, D.; Wagner, S.; Wilms, J.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zúñiga, J.

    2017-01-01

    A search for high-energy neutrino emission correlated with gamma-ray bursts outside the electromagnetic prompt-emission time window is presented. Using a stacking approach of the time delays between reported gamma-ray burst alerts and spatially coincident muon-neutrino signatures, data from the Antares neutrino telescope recorded between 2007 and 2012 are analysed. One year of public data from the IceCube detector between 2008 and 2009 have been also investigated. The respective timing profiles are scanned for statistically significant accumulations within 40 days of the Gamma Ray Burst, as expected from Lorentz Invariance Violation effects and some astrophysical models. No significant excess over the expected accidental coincidence rate could be found in either of the two data sets. The average strength of the neutrino signal is found to be fainter than one detectable neutrino signal per hundred gamma-ray bursts in the Antares data at 90% confidence level.

  9. Neutrino masses from neutral top partners

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Batell, Brian; McCullough, Matthew

    2015-10-01

    We present theories of "natural neutrinos" in which neutral fermionic top partner fields are simultaneously the right-handed neutrinos (RHN), linking seemingly disparate aspects of the Standard Model structure: (a) The RHN top partners are responsible for the observed small neutrino masses, (b) they help ameliorate the tuning in the weak scale and address the little hierarchy problem, and (c) the factor of 3 arising from Nc in the top-loop Higgs mass corrections is countered by a factor of 3 from the number of vectorlike generations of RHN. The RHN top partners may arise in pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone-Boson Higgs models such as the twin Higgs, as well as more general composite, little, and orbifold Higgs scenarios, and three simple example models are presented. This framework firmly predicts a TeV-scale seesaw, as the RHN masses are bounded to be below the TeV scale by naturalness. The generation of light neutrino masses relies on a collective breaking of the lepton number, allowing for comparatively large neutrino Yukawa couplings and a rich associated phenomenology. The structure of the neutrino mass mechanism realizes in certain limits the inverse or linear classes of seesaw. Natural neutrino models are testable at a variety of current and future experiments, particularly in tests of lepton universality, searches for lepton flavor violation, and precision electroweak and Higgs coupling measurements possible at high energy e+e- and hadron colliders.

  10. NOvA Short-Baseline Tau Neutrino Appearance Search

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Keloth, Rijeesh; Aurisano, Adam; Sousa, Alexander

    Standard three-flavor neutrino oscillations have well explained by a wide range of neutrino experiments. However, the anomalous results, such as electron-antineutrino excess seen by LSND and MiniBooNE do not fit the three-flavor paradigm. This can be explained by an additional fourth flavor sterile neutrino at a larger scale than the existing three flavor neutrinos. The NOvA experiment consists of two finely segmented, liquid scintillator detectors operating 14 .6 mrad off-axis from the NuMI muon-neutrino beam. The Near Detector is located on the Fermilab campus, 1 km from the NuMI target, while the Far Detector is located at Ash River, MN,more » 810 km from the NuMI target. The NOvA experiment is primarily designed to measure electron-neutrino appearance at the Far Detector using the Near Detector to control systematic uncertainties; however, the Near Detector is well suited for searching for anomalous short-baseline oscillations. This poster will present a novel method for selecting tau neutrino interactions with high purity at the Near Detector using a convolutional neural network. Using this method, the sensitivity to anomalous short-baseline tau-neutrino appearance due to sterile neutrino oscillations will be presented.« less

  11. Simple picture for neutrino flavor transformation in supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duan, Huaiyu; Fuller, George M.; Qian, Yong-Zhong

    2007-10-01

    We can understand many recently discovered features of flavor evolution in dense, self-coupled supernova neutrino and antineutrino systems with a simple, physical scheme consisting of two quasistatic solutions. One solution closely resembles the conventional, adiabatic single-neutrino Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) mechanism, in that neutrinos and antineutrinos remain in mass eigenstates as they evolve in flavor space. The other solution is analogous to the regular precession of a gyroscopic pendulum in flavor space, and has been discussed extensively in recent works. Results of recent numerical studies are best explained with combinations of these solutions in the following general scenario: (1) Near the neutrino sphere, the MSW-like many-body solution obtains. (2) Depending on neutrino vacuum mixing parameters, luminosities, energy spectra, and the matter density profile, collective flavor transformation in the nutation mode develops and drives neutrinos away from the MSW-like evolution and toward regular precession. (3) Neutrino and antineutrino flavors roughly evolve according to the regular precession solution until neutrino densities are low. In the late stage of the precession solution, a stepwise swapping develops in the energy spectra of νe and νμ/ντ. We also discuss some subtle points regarding adiabaticity in flavor transformation in dense-neutrino systems.

  12. Radiative neutrino masses from order-4 CP symmetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ivanov, Igor P.

    2018-02-01

    Generalized CP symmetry of order 4 (CP4) is surprisingly powerful in shaping scalar and quark sectors of multi-Higgs models. Here, we extend this framework to the neutrino sector. We build two simple Majorana neutrino mass models with unbroken CP4, which are analogous to Ma's scotogenic model. Both models use three Higgs doublets and two or three right-handed (RH) neutrinos. The minimal CP4 symmetric scotogenic model uses only two RH neutrinos, leads to three non-zero light neutrino masses, and contains a built-in mechanism to further suppress them via phase alignment. With three RH neutrinos, one generates a type I seesaw mass matrix of rank 1, which is then corrected by the same scotogenic mechanism, naturally leading to two neutrino mass scales with mild hierarchy. These minimal CP4-based constructions emerge as a primer for introducing additional symmetry structures and exploring their phenomenological consequences.

  13. Thermodynamic Laws of Neutrino and Photon Emission.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walsh, P. J.; Gallo, C. F.

    1980-01-01

    Compares neutrino and photon emissions, develops the thermodynamic blackbody laws of neutrino emission analogous to laws governing photon emission, points out that combined radiation from a "true blackbody" consists of both photon and neutrino emissions of comparable magnitude, and speculates upon the existence of blackbody neutrino…

  14. What Can We Learn By Observing Supernova Neutrinos?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beacom, John

    1999-10-01

    A core-collapse supernova emits of the order of 10^58 neutrinos of all flavors over about 10 seconds, with an average energy of about 11 MeV for ν_e, 16 MeV for barν_e, and 25 MeV for ν_μ, ν_τ, barν_μ, and barν_τ. The present and near-term solar neutrino detectors can readily observe a supernova anywhere in our Galaxy. The expected supernova rate in our Galaxy is about 3 per century. What can we learn by observing the neutrinos from the next Galactic supernova? Besides the nuclear and astrophysical aspects of the collapse mechanism, there will be an unprecedented opportunity to measure neutrino properties, in particular their masses. The ν_μ and ν_τ masses can be measured by time-of-flight relative to the νe and barνe neutrinos, with a nearly model-independent sensitivity down to about 30 eV. If the time development of the supernova neutrino luminosities were better known from theory, this could be reduced to 10 eV or less. In either case, it will be essential to map out the neutrino energy spectra by measuring the signals on several different nuclear targets. Direct information on the absolute scale of the neutrino masses is especially crucial now since the apparently positive signals from neutrino oscillation experiments indicate nonzero differences in neutrino masses, with no information on the overall scale.

  15. Hierarchical majorana neutrinos from democratic mass matrices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Masaki J. S.

    2016-09-01

    In this paper, we obtain the light neutrino masses and mixings consistent with the experiments, in the democratic texture approach. The essential ansatz is that νRi are assumed to transform as ;right-handed fields; 2R +1R under the S3L ×S3R symmetry. The symmetry breaking terms are assumed to be diagonal and hierarchical. This setup only allows the normal hierarchy of the neutrino mass, and excludes both of inverted hierarchical and degenerated neutrinos. Although the neutrino sector has nine free parameters, several predictions are obtained at the leading order. When we neglect the smallest parameters ζν and ζR, all components of the mixing matrix UPMNS are expressed by the masses of light neutrinos and charged leptons. From the consistency between predicted and observed UPMNS, we obtain the lightest neutrino masses m1 = (1.1 → 1.4) meV, and the effective mass for the double beta decay 〈mee 〉 ≃ 4.5 meV.

  16. Enhanced tau neutrino appearance through invisible decay

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pagliaroli, Giulia; Di Marco, Natalia; Mannarelli, Massimo

    2016-06-01

    The decay of neutrino mass eigenstates leads to a change of the conversion and survival probability of neutrino flavor eigenstates. Exploiting the recent results released by the long-baseline OPERA experiment we perform the statistical investigation of the neutrino invisible decay hypothesis in the νμ→ντ appearance channel. We find that the neutrino decay provides an enhancement of the expected tau appearance signal with respect to the standard oscillation scenario for the long-baseline OPERA experiment. The increase of the νμ→ντ conversion probability by the decay of one of the mass eigenstates is due to a reduction of the "destructive interference" among the different massive neutrino components. Despite data showing a very mild preference for invisible decays with respect to the oscillations only hypothesis, we provide an upper limit for the neutrino decay lifetime in this channel of τ3/m3≳1.3 ×10-13 s /eV at the 90% confidence level.

  17. Neutrino Astronomy with the MACRO Detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ambrosio, M.; Antolini, R.; Auriemma, G.; Bakari, D.; Baldini, A.; Barbarino, G. C.; Barish, B. C.; Battistoni, G.; Bellotti, R.; Bemporad, C.; Bernardini, P.; Bilokon, H.; Bisi, V.; Bloise, C.; Bower, C.; Brigida, M.; Bussino, S.; Cafagna, F.; Calicchio, M.; Campana, D.; Carboni, M.; Cecchini, S.; Cei, F.; Chiarella, V.; Choudhary, B. C.; Coutu, S.; De Cataldo, G.; Dekhissi, H.; De Marzo, C.; De Mitri, I.; Derkaoui, J.; De Vincenzi, M.; di Credico, A.; Enriquez, O.; Favuzzi, C.; Forti, C.; Fusco, P.; Giacomelli, G.; Giannini, G.; Giglietto, N.; Giorgini, M.; Grassi, M.; Gray, L.; Grillo, A.; Guarino, F.; Gustavino, C.; Habig, A.; Hanson, K.; Heinz, R.; Iarocci, E.; Katsavounidis, E.; Katsavounidis, I.; Kearns, E.; Kim, H.; Kyriazopoulou, S.; Lamanna, E.; Lane, C.; Levin, D. S.; Lipari, P.; Longley, N. P.; Longo, M. J.; Loparco, F.; Maaroufi, F.; Mancarella, G.; Mandrioli, G.; Manzoor, S.; Margiotta, A.; Marini, A.; Martello, D.; Marzari-Chiesa, A.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Michael, D. G.; Mikheyev, S.; Miller, L.; Monacelli, P.; Montaruli, T.; Monteno, M.; Mufson, S.; Musser, J.; Nicolò, D.; Nolty, R.; Okada, C.; Orth, C.; Osteria, G.; Ouchrif, M.; Palamara, O.; Patera, V.; Patrizii, L.; Pazzi, R.; Peck, C. W.; Perrone, L.; Petrera, S.; Pistilli, P.; Popa, V.; Rainò, A.; Reynoldson, J.; Ronga, F.; Satriano, C.; Satta, L.; Scapparone, E.; Scholberg, K.; Sciubba, A.; Serra, P.; Sioli, M.; Sitta, M.; Spinelli, P.; Spinetti, M.; Spurio, M.; Steinberg, R.; Stone, J. L.; Sulak, L. R.; Surdo, A.; Tarlè, G.; Togo, V.; Vakili, M.; Vilela, E.; Walter, C. W.; Webb, R.

    2001-01-01

    High-energy gamma-ray astronomy is now a well-established field, and several sources have been discovered in the region from a few giga-electron volts up to several tera-electron volts. If sources involving hadronic processes exist, the production of photons would be accompanied by neutrinos too. Other possible neutrino sources could be related to the annihilation of weakly interacting, massive particles (WIMPs) at the center of galaxies with black holes. We present the results of a search for pointlike sources using 1100 upward-going muons produced by neutrino interactions in the rock below and inside the Monopole Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observatory (MACRO) detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory. These data show no evidence of a possible neutrino pointlike source or of possible correlations between gamma-ray bursts and neutrinos. They have been used to set flux upper limits for candidate pointlike sources which are in the range 10-14-10-15 cm-2 s-1.

  18. Geophysical searches for three-neutrino oscillations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cudell, J. R.; Gaisser, T. K.

    1985-01-01

    The possibilities of using cosmic ray induced neutrinos to detect oscillations in deep underground experiments were considered. The matter effects are nonnegligible in the two neutrino case, they reduce a mixing angle of 45 deg to 7.5 deg for 1 GeV neutrinos of squared mass difference 10/4 eV59 going through the Earth making the oscillation totally unobservable. They produce a natural oscillation length of about 6000 km in the case of massless neutrinos. Adding a third neutrino flavor considerably modifies the oscillation pattern and suggests that scales down to 5 x 10/5 eV could be observed even when we take into account matter effects and the electron contribution to the incoming flux. The effect of matter on the probability curves for different cases are shown by varying the masses and the mixing matrix. The ratio upward upsilon + upsilon/downward upsilon + upsilon as a function of the zenith angle at Cleveland, neglecting angular smearing and energy threshold effects is predicted.

  19. Neutrino physics today, important issues and the future

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Parke, Stephen J.; /Fermilab

    2010-10-01

    The status and the most important issues in neutrino physics will be summarized as well as how the current, pressing questions will be addressed by future experiments. Since the discovery of neutrino flavor transitions by the SuperKamiokande experiment in 1998, which demonstrates that neutrinos change and hence their clocks tick, i.e. they are not traveling at the speed of light and hence are not massless, the field of neutrino physics has made remarkable progress in untangling the nature of the neutrino. However, there are still many important questions to answer.

  20. Future long-baseline neutrino oscillations: View from Asia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayato, Yoshinari

    2015-07-01

    Accelerator based long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments have been playing important roles in revealing the nature of neutrinos. However, it turned out that the current experiments are not sufficient to study two major remaining problems, the CP violation in the lepton sector and the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. Therefore, several new experiments have been proposed. Among of them, two accelerator based long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, the J-PARC neutrino beam and Hyper-Kamiokande, and MOMENT, have been proposed in Asia. These two projects are reviewed in this article.

  1. Solar Neutrino flare detection in Hyperkamiokande and SK

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fargion, Daniele

    2016-07-01

    The possible buid and near activity of a Megaton neutrino detection in HyperKamiokande and the older SK implementation by Gadolinium liqid might open to future detection of largest solar flare (pion trace at tens MeV) electron neutrino and antineutrino. The multiwave detection of X-gamma and neutrino event might offer a deep view of such solar acelleration and of neutrino flavor mix along its flight. The possoble near future discover of such events will open a third neutrino astronomy windows after rarest SN 1987A and persistent Solar nuclear signals.

  2. Propagation and Detection of Neutrinos from Distant Objects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bottino, A.; Kim, C. W.; Kim, Jewan; Lam, W. P.

    We discuss how an initial composition of wave packets representing the neutrinos, emitted by distant objects such as supernovae, is modified as the neutrinos travel a long distance to the earth and how these modifications affect the detection of such neutrinos. In particular, observed neutrino masses are shown to depend on the mass square difference of the i-th and j-th flavors i.e., mi2 - mj2, L (the distance traveled), and a resolution time of the detector as well as on how neutrinos emerge from the star.

  3. Detection of extended galactic sources with an underwater neutrino telescope

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Leisos, A.; Tsirigotis, A. G.; Tzamarias, S. E.

    2014-11-18

    In this study we investigate the discovery capability of a Very Large Volume Neutrino Telescope to Galactic extended sources. We focus on the brightest HESS gamma rays sources which are considered also as very high energy neutrino emitters. We use the unbinned method taking into account both the spatial and the energy distribution of high energy neutrinos and we investigate parts of the Galactic plane where nearby potential neutrino emitters form neutrino source clusters. Neutrino source clusters as well as isolated neutrino sources are combined to estimate the observation period for 5 sigma discovery of neutrino signals from these objects.

  4. Mass relation for neutrinos

    PubMed

    Babu; Barr

    2000-08-07

    A generalization of the well-known Georgi-Jarlskog relation (m(&mgr;)/m(tau)) = 3(m(s)/m(b)) to neutrinos is found in the context of SO(10). This new relation is (m(nu(&mgr;))/m(nu(tau))) = 16(m(c)/m(t)), which is consistent with present data, assuming the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein solution to the solar neutrino problem.

  5. Large extra dimensions, sterile neutrinos and solar neutrino data.

    PubMed

    Caldwell, D O; Mohapatra, R N; Yellin, S J

    2001-07-23

    Solar, atmospheric, and LSND neutrino oscillation results require a light sterile neutrino, nu(B), which can exist in the bulk of extra dimensions. Solar nu(e), confined to the brane, can oscillate in the vacuum to the zero mode of nu(B) and via successive Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein transitions to Kaluza-Klein states of nu(B). This new way to fit solar data is provided by both low and intermediate string scale models. From average rates seen in the three types of solar experiments, the Super-Kamiokande spectrum is predicted with 73% probability, but dips characteristic of the 0.06 mm extra dimension should be seen in the SNO spectrum.

  6. COHERENT constraints to conventional and exotic neutrino physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Papoulias, D. K.; Kosmas, T. S.

    2018-02-01

    The process of neutral-current coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, consistent with the Standard Model (SM) expectation, has been recently measured by the COHERENT experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source. On the basis of the observed signal and our nuclear calculations for the relevant Cs and I isotopes, the extracted constraints on both conventional and exotic neutrino physics are updated. The present study concentrates on various SM extensions involving vector and tensor nonstandard interactions as well as neutrino electromagnetic properties, with an emphasis on the neutrino magnetic moment and the neutrino charge radius. Furthermore, models addressing a light sterile neutrino state and scenarios with new propagator fields—such as vector Z' and scalar bosons—are examined, and the corresponding regions excluded by the COHERENT experiment are presented.

  7. Search for Sterile Neutrinos Using the MiniBooNE Beam

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sorel, Michel

    2005-01-01

    The possible existence of light sterile neutrinos in Nature is motivated, and the prospects to extend sterile neutrino searches beyond current limits is substantiated, using the MiniBooNE neutrino beam and detector at Fermilab. We report on the neutrino flux predictions for the MiniBooNE experiment, on the characterization of the charged-current, quasi-elastic interactions of muon neutrinos ({nu}{sub {mu}}n {yields} {mu}{sup -}p) observed, and on the experiment's sensitivity to sterile neutrinos via muon neutrino disappearance.

  8. Revisiting cosmological bounds on sterile neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vincent, Aaron C.; Martínez, Enrique Fernández; Hernández, Pilar

    2015-04-01

    We employ state-of-the art cosmological observables including supernova surveys and BAO information to provide constraints on the mass and mixing angle of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino species, showing that cosmology can effectively rule out sterile neutrinos which decay between BBN and the present day. The decoupling of an additional heavy neutrino species can modify the time dependence of the Universe's expansion between BBN and recombination and, in extreme cases, lead to an additional matter-dominated period; while this could naively lead to a younger Universe with a larger Hubble parameter, it could later be compensated by the extra radiation expectedmore » in the form of neutrinos from sterile decay. However, recombination-era observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the shift parameter R{sub CMB} and the sound horizon r{sub s} from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) severely constrain this scenario. We self-consistently include the full time-evolution of the coupled sterile neutrino and standard model sectors in an MCMC, showing that if decay occurs after BBN, the sterile neutrino is essentially bounded by the constraint sin{sup 2}θ ∼< 0.026 (m{sub s}/eV){sup −2}.« less

  9. Short distance neutrino oscillations with Borexino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Caminata, A.; Agostini, M.; Altenmüller, K.; Appel, S.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Berton, N.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; Cribier, M.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; di Noto, L.; Durero, M.; Empl, A.; Etenko, A.; Farinon, S.; Fischer, V.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Gaffiot, J.; Galbiati, C.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Göger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Houdy, Th.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jonquères, N.; Kaiser, M.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Lachenmaier, T.; Lasserre, T.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Link, J.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Maricic, J.; Mention, G.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Muratova, V.; Musenich, R.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Scola, L.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Veyssière, C.; Vivier, M.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2016-07-01

    The Borexino detector has convincingly shown its outstanding performances in the low energy, sub-MeV regime through its unprecedented accomplishments in the solar and geo-neutrinos detection. These performances make it the ideal tool to accomplish a state-of-the-art experiment able to test unambiguously the long-standing issue of the existence of a sterile neutrino, as suggested by the several anomalous results accumulated over the past two decades, i.e. the outputs of the LSND and Miniboone experiments, the results of the source calibration of the two Gallium solar neutrino experiments, and the recently hinted reactor anomaly. The SOX project will exploit two sources, based on Chromium and Cerium, respectively, which deployed under the experiment, in a location foreseen on purpose at the time of the construction of the detector, will emit two intense beams of neutrinos (Cr) and anti-neutrinos (Ce). Interacting in the active volume of the liquid scintillator, each beam would create an unmistakable spatial wave pattern in case of oscillation of the νe (or ν̅e) into the sterile state: such a pattern would be the smoking gun proving the existence of the new sterile member of the neutrino family. Otherwise, its absence will allow setting a very stringent limit on its existence.

  10. THE SEARCH FOR MASSIVE NEUTRINOS - Short Contribution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kirsten, T.

    Double beta decay (DBD) has the potential to distinguish whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles. However, neutrinoless DBD (in violation of lepton number conservation) has not yet been observed. From the respective upper limits, limits on the neutrino restmass can be deduced if the neutrino is of Majorana type.

  11. Testing constrained sequential dominance models of neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Björkeroth, Fredrik; King, Stephen F.

    2015-12-01

    Constrained sequential dominance (CSD) is a natural framework for implementing the see-saw mechanism of neutrino masses which allows the mixing angles and phases to be accurately predicted in terms of relatively few input parameters. We analyze a class of CSD(n) models where, in the flavour basis, two right-handed neutrinos are dominantly responsible for the ‘atmospheric’ and ‘solar’ neutrino masses with Yukawa couplings to ({ν }e,{ν }μ ,{ν }τ ) proportional to (0,1,1) and (1,n,n-2), respectively, where n is a positive integer. These coupling patterns may arise in indirect family symmetry models based on A 4. With two right-handed neutrinos, using a χ 2 test, we find a good agreement with data for CSD(3) and CSD(4) where the entire Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing matrix is controlled by a single phase η, which takes simple values, leading to accurate predictions for mixing angles and the magnitude of the oscillation phase | {δ }{CP}| . We carefully study the perturbing effect of a third ‘decoupled’ right-handed neutrino, leading to a bound on the lightest physical neutrino mass {m}1{{≲ }}1 meV for the viable cases, corresponding to a normal neutrino mass hierarchy. We also discuss a direct link between the oscillation phase {δ }{CP} and leptogenesis in CSD(n) due to the same see-saw phase η appearing in both the neutrino mass matrix and leptogenesis.

  12. Neutrino Detection Primer

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-03-01

    particle accelerators. They arise as decay products of pions, K- mesons , and other unstable particles produced in the primary collisions of high energy...34 \\ = GF • (1-9) Here h is Planck’s constant, c the velocity of light , G the weak 1-11 interaction constant, and F the flux of neutrinos to be detected...momentum of a body (a ferromagnet, 4-1 say), F the neutrino flux, h the reduced Planck constant, c the speed of light , one has for the torque on the

  13. ANTARES: The first undersea neutrino telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ageron, M.; Aguilar, J. A.; Al Samarai, I.; Albert, A.; Ameli, F.; André, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Anvar, S.; Ardid, M.; Arnaud, K.; Aslanides, E.; Assis Jesus, A. C.; Astraatmadja, T.; Aubert, J.-J.; Auer, R.; Barbarito, E.; Baret, B.; Basa, S.; Bazzotti, M.; Becherini, Y.; Beltramelli, J.; Bersani, A.; Bertin, V.; Beurthey, S.; Biagi, S.; Bigongiari, C.; Billault, M.; Blaes, R.; Bogazzi, C.; de Botton, N.; Bou-Cabo, M.; Boudahef, B.; Bouwhuis, M. C.; Brown, A. M.; Brunner, J.; Busto, J.; Caillat, L.; Calzas, A.; Camarena, F.; Capone, A.; Caponetto, L.; Cârloganu, C.; Carminati, G.; Carmona, E.; Carr, J.; Carton, P. H.; Cassano, B.; Castorina, E.; Cecchini, S.; Ceres, A.; Chaleil, Th.; Charvis, Ph.; Chauchot, P.; Chiarusi, T.; Circella, M.; Compère, C.; Coniglione, R.; Coppolani, X.; Cosquer, A.; Costantini, H.; Cottini, N.; Coyle, P.; Cuneo, S.; Curtil, C.; D'Amato, C.; Damy, G.; van Dantzig, R.; de Bonis, G.; Decock, G.; Decowski, M. P.; Dekeyser, I.; Delagnes, E.; Desages-Ardellier, F.; Deschamps, A.; Destelle, J.-J.; di Maria, F.; Dinkespiler, B.; Distefano, C.; Dominique, J.-L.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Dorosti, Q.; Drogou, J.-F.; Drouhin, D.; Druillole, F.; Durand, D.; Durand, R.; Eberl, T.; Emanuele, U.; Engelen, J. J.; Ernenwein, J.-P.; Escoffier, S.; Falchini, E.; Favard, S.; Fehr, F.; Feinstein, F.; Ferri, M.; Ferry, S.; Fiorello, C.; Flaminio, V.; Folger, F.; Fritsch, U.; Fuda, J.-L.; Galatá, S.; Galeotti, S.; Gay, P.; Gensolen, F.; Giacomelli, G.; Gojak, C.; Gómez-González, J. P.; Goret, Ph.; Graf, K.; Guillard, G.; Halladjian, G.; Hallewell, G.; van Haren, H.; Hartmann, B.; Heijboer, A. J.; Heine, E.; Hello, Y.; Henry, S.; Hernández-Rey, J. J.; Herold, B.; Hößl, J.; Hogenbirk, J.; Hsu, C. C.; Hubbard, J. R.; Jaquet, M.; Jaspers, M.; de Jong, M.; Jourde, D.; Kadler, M.; Kalantar-Nayestanaki, N.; Kalekin, O.; Kappes, A.; Karg, T.; Karkar, S.; Karolak, M.; Katz, U.; Keller, P.; Kestener, P.; Kok, E.; Kok, H.; Kooijman, P.; Kopper, C.; Kouchner, A.; Kretschmer, W.; Kruijer, A.; Kuch, S.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Lachartre, D.; Lafoux, H.; Lagier, P.; Lahmann, R.; Lahonde-Hamdoun, C.; Lamare, P.; Lambard, G.; Languillat, J.-C.; Larosa, G.; Lavalle, J.; Le Guen, Y.; Le Provost, H.; Levansuu, A.; Lefèvre, D.; Legou, T.; Lelaizant, G.; Lévéque, C.; Lim, G.; Lo Presti, D.; Loehner, H.; Loucatos, S.; Louis, F.; Lucarelli, F.; Lyashuk, V.; Magnier, P.; Mangano, S.; Marcel, A.; Marcelin, M.; Margiotta, A.; Martinez-Mora, J. A.; Masullo, R.; Mazéas, F.; Mazure, A.; Meli, A.; Melissas, M.; Migneco, E.; Mongelli, M.; Montaruli, T.; Morganti, M.; Moscoso, L.; Motz, H.; Musumeci, M.; Naumann, C.; Naumann-Godo, M.; Neff, M.; Niess, V.; Nooren, G. J. L.; Oberski, J. E. J.; Olivetto, C.; Palanque-Delabrouille, N.; Palioselitis, D.; Papaleo, R.; Păvălaş, G. E.; Payet, K.; Payre, P.; Peek, H.; Petrovic, J.; Piattelli, P.; Picot-Clemente, N.; Picq, C.; Piret, Y.; Poinsignon, J.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Presani, E.; Prono, G.; Racca, C.; Raia, G.; van Randwijk, J.; Real, D.; Reed, C.; Réthoré, F.; Rewiersma, P.; Riccobene, G.; Richardt, C.; Richter, R.; Ricol, J. S.; Rigaud, V.; Roca, V.; Roensch, K.; Rolin, J.-F.; Rostovtsev, A.; Rottura, A.; Roux, J.; Rujoiu, M.; Ruppi, M.; Russo, G. V.; Salesa, F.; Salomon, K.; Sapienza, P.; Schmitt, F.; Schöck, F.; Schuller, J.-P.; Schüssler, F.; Sciliberto, D.; Shanidze, R.; Shirokov, E.; Simeone, F.; Sottoriva, A.; Spies, A.; Spona, T.; Spurio, M.; Steijger, J. J. M.; Stolarczyk, Th.; Streeb, K.; Sulak, L.; Taiuti, M.; Tamburini, C.; Tao, C.; Tasca, L.; Terreni, G.; Tezier, D.; Toscano, S.; Urbano, F.; Valdy, P.; Vallage, B.; van Elewyck, V.; Vannoni, G.; Vecchi, M.; Venekamp, G.; Verlaat, B.; Vernin, P.; Virique, E.; de Vries, G.; van Wijk, R.; Wijnker, G.; Wobbe, G.; de Wolf, E.; Yakovenko, Y.; Yepes, H.; Zaborov, D.; Zaccone, H.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zúñiga, J.

    2011-11-01

    The ANTARES Neutrino Telescope was completed in May 2008 and is the first operational Neutrino Telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. The main purpose of the detector is to perform neutrino astronomy and the apparatus also offers facilities for marine and Earth sciences. This paper describes the design, the construction and the installation of the telescope in the deep sea, offshore from Toulon in France. An illustration of the detector performance is given.

  14. Hyperon production from neutrino-nucleon reaction

    DOE PAGES

    Wu, Jia -Jun; Zou, Bing -Song

    2015-04-10

    The neutrino induced hyperon production processes ν¯ e/μ + p → e +/μ + + π + Λ/Σ may provide a unique clean place for studying low energy πΛ/Σ interaction and hyperon resonances below KN threshold. The production rates for some neutrino induced hyperon production processes are estimated with theoretical models. Lastly, suggestions are made for the study of hyperon production from neutrino–nucleon reaction at present and future neutrino facilities.

  15. Dips in the diffuse supernova neutrino background

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Farzan, Yasaman; Palomares-Ruiz, Sergio, E-mail: yasaman@theory.ipm.ac.ir, E-mail: Sergio.Palomares.Ruiz@ific.uv.es

    2014-06-01

    Scalar (fermion) dark matter with mass in the MeV range coupled to ordinary neutrinos and another fermion (scalar) is motivated by scenarios that establish a link between radiatively generated neutrino masses and the dark matter relic density. With such a coupling, cosmic supernova neutrinos, on their way to us, could resonantly interact with the background dark matter particles, giving rise to a dip in their redshift-integrated spectra. Current and future neutrino detectors, such as Super-Kamiokande, LENA and Hyper-Kamiokande, could be able to detect this distortion.

  16. The ESS neutrino facility for CP violation discovery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baussan, Eric; Bouquerel, Elian; Dracos, Marcos

    2017-09-01

    The comparatively large value of the neutrino mixing angle θ 13 measured in 2012 by neutrino reactor experiments has opened the possibility to observe for the first time CP violation in the leptonic sector. The measured value of θ 13 also privileges the 2nd oscillation maximum for the discovery of CP violation instead of the usually used 1st oscillation maximum. The sensitivity at the 2nd oscillation maximum is about three times higher than at the 1st oscillation maximum implying a significantly lower sensitivity to systematic errors. Measuring at the 2nd oscillation maximum necessitates a very intense neutrino beam with the appropriate energy. The world’s most intense pulsed spallation neutron source, the European Spallation Source, has a proton linac with 5 MW power and 2 GeV energy. This linac also has the potential to become the proton driver of the world’s most intense neutrino beam with very high potential for the discovery of neutrino CP violation. The physics performance of that neutrino Super Beam in conjunction with a megaton Water Cherenkov neutrino detector installed ca 1000 m down in a mine at a distance of about 500 km from ESS has been evaluated. In addition, the use of such a detector will make it possible to extent the physics program to proton decay, atmospheric neutrinos and astrophysics searches. The ESS proton linac upgrade, the accumulator ring needed for proton pulse compression, the target station optimization and the physics potential are described. In addition to the production of neutrinos, this facility will also be a copious source of muons which could be used to feed a low energy nuSTORM facility, a future neutrino factory or a muon collider. The ESS linac, under construction, will reach full operation at 5 MW by 2023 after which the upgrades for the neutrino facility could start.

  17. Sensitivity to neutrino decay with atmospheric neutrinos at the INO-ICAL detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Choubey, Sandhya; Goswami, Srubabati; Gupta, Chandan; Lakshmi, S. M.; Thakore, Tarak

    2018-02-01

    Sensitivity of the magnetized Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) to invisible decay of the mass eigenstate ν3 using atmospheric neutrinos is explored. A full three-generation analysis including Earth matter effects is performed in a framework with both decay and oscillations. The wide energy range and baselines offered by atmospheric neutrinos are shown to be excellent for constraining the ν3 lifetime. We find that with an exposure of 500 kton -yr the ICAL atmospheric experiment could constrain the ν3 lifetime to τ3/m3>1.51 ×10-10 s /eV at the 90% C.L. This is 2 orders of magnitude tighter than the bound from MINOS. The effect of invisible decay on the precision measurement of θ23 and |Δ m322| is also studied.

  18. Sterile neutrino searches via displaced vertices at LHCb

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antusch, Stefan; Cazzato, Eros; Fischer, Oliver

    2017-11-01

    We explore the sensitivity of displaced vertex searches at LHCb for testing sterile neutrino extensions of the Standard Model towards explaining the observed neutrino masses. We derive estimates for the constraints on sterile neutrino parameters from a recently published displaced vertex search at LHCb based on run 1 data. They yield the currently most stringent limit on active-sterile neutrino mixing in the sterile neutrino mass range between 4.5 GeV and 10 GeV. Furthermore, we present forecasts for the sensitivities that could be obtained from the run 2 data and also for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC.

  19. No Collective Neutrino Flavor Conversions during the Supernova Accretion Phase

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chakraborty, Sovan; Fischer, Tobias; Mirizzi, Alessandro; Saviano, Ninetta; Tomàs, Ricard

    2011-10-01

    We perform a dedicated study of the supernova (SN) neutrino flavor evolution during the accretion phase, using results from recent neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations. In contrast to what was expected in the presence of only neutrino-neutrino interactions, we find that the multiangle effects associated with the dense ordinary matter suppress collective oscillations. The matter suppression implies that neutrino oscillations will start outside the neutrino decoupling region and therefore will have a negligible impact on the neutrino heating and the explosion dynamics. Furthermore, the possible detection of the next galactic SN neutrino signal from the accretion phase, based on the usual Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in the SN mantle and Earth matter effects, can reveal the neutrino mass hierarchy in the case that the mixing angle θ13 is not very small.

  20. No collective neutrino flavor conversions during the supernova accretion phase.

    PubMed

    Chakraborty, Sovan; Fischer, Tobias; Mirizzi, Alessandro; Saviano, Ninetta; Tomàs, Ricard

    2011-10-07

    We perform a dedicated study of the supernova (SN) neutrino flavor evolution during the accretion phase, using results from recent neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations. In contrast to what was expected in the presence of only neutrino-neutrino interactions, we find that the multiangle effects associated with the dense ordinary matter suppress collective oscillations. The matter suppression implies that neutrino oscillations will start outside the neutrino decoupling region and therefore will have a negligible impact on the neutrino heating and the explosion dynamics. Furthermore, the possible detection of the next galactic SN neutrino signal from the accretion phase, based on the usual Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in the SN mantle and Earth matter effects, can reveal the neutrino mass hierarchy in the case that the mixing angle θ(13) is not very small.

  1. Neutrino flux predictions for the NuMI beam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aliaga, L.; Kordosky, M.; Golan, T.; Altinok, O.; Bellantoni, L.; Bercellie, A.; Betancourt, M.; Bravar, A.; Budd, H.; Carneiro, M. F.; Dytman, S.; Díaz, G. A.; Endress, E.; Felix, J.; Fields, L.; Fine, R.; Gago, A. M.; Galindo, R.; Gallagher, H.; Gran, R.; Harris, D. A.; Higuera, A.; Hurtado, K.; Kiveni, M.; Kleykamp, J.; Le, T.; Maher, E.; Manly, S.; Mann, W. A.; Marshall, C. M.; Martinez Caicedo, D. A.; McFarland, K. S.; McGivern, C. L.; McGowan, A. M.; Messerly, B.; Miller, J.; Mislivec, A.; Morfín, J. G.; Mousseau, J.; Naples, D.; Nelson, J. K.; Norrick, A.; Nuruzzaman, Paolone, V.; Park, J.; Patrick, C. E.; Perdue, G. N.; Ransome, R. D.; Ray, H.; Ren, L.; Rimal, D.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Ruterbories, D.; Schellman, H.; Solano Salinas, C. J.; Sánchez Falero, S.; Tice, B. G.; Valencia, E.; Walton, T.; Wolcott, J.; Wospakrik, M.; Zhang, D.; MinerνA Collaboration

    2016-11-01

    Knowledge of the neutrino flux produced by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beamline is essential to the neutrino oscillation and neutrino interaction measurements of the MINERvA, MINOS + , NOvA and MicroBooNE experiments at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. We have produced a flux prediction which uses all available and relevant hadron production data, incorporating measurements of particle production off of thin targets as well as measurements of particle yields from a spare NuMI target exposed to a 120 GeV proton beam. The result is the most precise flux prediction achieved for a neutrino beam in the one to tens of GeV energy region. We have also compared the prediction to in situ measurements of the neutrino flux and find good agreement.

  2. Search for sterile neutrinos with the SOX experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Caminata, A.; Agostini, M.; Altenmüller, K.; Appel, S.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Berton, N.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; Choi, K.; Cribier, M.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Di Noto, L.; Drachnev, I.; Durero, M.; Empl, A.; Etenko, A.; Farinon, S.; Fischer, V.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Gaffiot, J.; Galbiati, C.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Goeger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Houdy, Th.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jonquères, N.; Jedrzejczak, K.; Kaiser, M.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kornoukhov, V.; Kryn, D.; Lachenmaier, T.; Lasserre, T.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Link, J.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Maricic, J.; Mention, G.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Muratova, V.; Musenich, R.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Otis, K.; Pagani, L.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Roncin, R.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Scola, L.; Semenov, D.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Thurn, J.; Toropova, M.; Unzhakov, E.; Veyssière, C.; Vivier, M.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Weinz, S.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Yokley, Z.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2016-01-01

    In the recent years, the Borexino detector has proven its outstanding performances in detecting neutrinos and antineutrinos in the low energy regime. Consequently, it is an ideal tool to investigate the existence of sterile neutrinos, whose presence has been suggested by several anomalies over the past two decades. The SOX ( Short distance neutrino Oscillations with boreXino) project will investigate the presence of sterile neutrinos placing a neutrino and an antineutrino sources in a location under the detector foreseen for this purpose since the construction of Borexino. Interacting in the detector active volume, each beam would create a well detectable spatial wave pattern in case of oscillation of neutrino or antineutrino in a sterile state. Otherwise, the experiment will set a very stringent limit on the existence of a sterile state.

  3. Neutrinos from cosmic ray interactions in the Sun

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Edsjö, J.; Elevant, J.; Niblaeus, C.

    Cosmic rays hitting the solar atmosphere generate neutrinos that interact and oscillate in the Sun and oscillate on the way to Earth. These neutrinos could potentially be detected with neutrino telescopes and will be a background for searches for neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun. We calculate the flux of neutrinos from these cosmic ray interactions in the Sun and also investigate the interactions near a detector on Earth that give rise to muons. We compare this background with both regular Earth-atmospheric neutrinos and signals from dark matter annihilation in the Sun. Our calculation is performed with anmore » event-based Monte Carlo approach that should be suitable as a simulation tool for experimental collaborations. Our program package is released publicly along with this paper.« less

  4. Flavor instabilities in the neutrino line model

    DOE PAGES

    Duan, Huaiyu; Shalgar, Shashank

    2015-05-27

    A dense neutrino medium can experience collective flavor oscillations through nonlinear neutrino-neutrino refraction. To make this multi-dimensional flavor transport problem more tractable, all existing studies have assumed certain symmetries (e.g., the spatial homogeneity and directional isotropy in the early universe) to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. In this article we show that, if both the directional and spatial symmetries are not enforced in the neutrino line model, collective oscillations can develop in the physical regimes where the symmetry-preserving oscillation modes are stable. Our results suggest that collective neutrino oscillations in real astrophysical environments (such as core-collapse supernovae and black-holemore » accretion discs) can be qualitatively different from the predictions based on existing models in which spatial and directional symmetries are artificially imposed.« less

  5. Neutrino masses from a pseudo-Dirac bino

    DOE PAGES

    Coloma, Pilar; Ipek, Seyda

    2016-09-09

    We show that, in U(1) R-symmetric supersymmetric models, the bino and its Dirac partner (the singlino) can play the role of right-handed neutrinos and generate the neutrino masses and mixing, without the need for traditional bilinear or trilinear R-parity violating operators. The two particles form a pseudo-Dirac pair, the “bi νo.” An inverse seesaw texture is generated for the neutrino-biνo sector, and the lightest neutrino is predicted to be massless. Lastly, unlike in most models with heavy right-handed neutrinos, the bi νo can be sizably produced at the LHC through its interactions with colored particles, while respecting low energy constraintsmore » from neutrinoless double-beta decay and charged lepton flavor violation.« less

  6. Flavor instabilities in the neutrino line model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duan, Huaiyu; Shalgar, Shashank

    2015-07-01

    A dense neutrino medium can experience collective flavor oscillations through nonlinear neutrino-neutrino refraction. To make this multi-dimensional flavor transport problem more tractable, all existing studies have assumed certain symmetries (e.g., the spatial homogeneity and directional isotropy in the early universe) to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. In this work we show that, if both the directional and spatial symmetries are not enforced in the neutrino line model, collective oscillations can develop in the physical regimes where the symmetry-preserving oscillation modes are stable. Our results suggest that collective neutrino oscillations in real astrophysical environments (such as core-collapse supernovae and black-hole accretion discs) can be qualitatively different from the predictions based on existing models in which spatial and directional symmetries are artificially imposed.

  7. Collective neutrino oscillations and r-process nucleosynthesis in supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duan, Huaiyu

    2012-10-01

    Neutrinos can oscillate collectively in a core-collapse supernova. This phenomenon can occur much deeper inside the supernova envelope than what is predicted from the conventional matter-induced Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect, and hence may have an impact on nucleosynthesis. The oscillation patterns and the r-process yields are sensitive to the details of the emitted neutrino fluxes, the sign of the neutrino mass hierarchy, the modeling of neutrino oscillations and the astrophysical conditions. The effects of collective neutrino oscillations on the r-process will be illustrated using representative late-time neutrino spectra and outflow models.

  8. Neutrino Factory Plans at CERN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Riche, J. A.

    2002-10-01

    The considerable interest raised by the discovery of neutrino oscillations and recent progress in studies of muon colliders has triggered interest in considering a neutrino factory at CERN. This paper explains the reference scenario, indicates the other possible choices and mentions the R&D that are foreseen.

  9. Atmospheric neutrino oscillations for Earth tomography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winter, Walter

    2016-07-01

    Modern proposed atmospheric neutrino oscillation experiments, such as PINGU in the Antarctic ice or ORCA in Mediterranean sea water, aim for precision measurements of the oscillation parameters including the ordering of the neutrino masses. They can, however, go far beyond that: Since neutrino oscillations are affected by the coherent forward scattering with matter, neutrinos can provide a new view on the interior of the earth. We show that the proposed atmospheric oscillation experiments can measure the lower mantle density of the earth with a precision at the level of a few percent, including the uncertainties of the oscillation parameters and correlations among different density layers. While the earth's core is, in principle, accessible by the angular resolution, new technology would be required to extract degeneracy-free information.

  10. The CAPTAIN liquid argon neutrino experiment

    DOE PAGES

    Liu, Qiuguang

    2015-01-01

    The CAPTAIN liquid argon experiment is designed to make measurements of scientific importance to long-baseline neutrino physics and physics topics that will be explored by large underground detectors. The experiment employs two detectors – a primary detector with approximately 10-ton of liquid argon that will be deployed at different facilities for physics measurements and a prototype detector with 2-ton of liquid argon for configuration testing. The physics programs for CAPTAIN include measuring neutron interactions at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, measuring neutrino interactions in medium energy regime (1.5–5 GeV) at Fermilab's NuMI beam, and measuring neutrino interactions in low energymore » regime (< 50 MeV) at stopped pion sources for supernova neutrino studies.« less

  11. Relativistic N-body simulations with massive neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adamek, Julian; Durrer, Ruth; Kunz, Martin

    2017-11-01

    Some of the dark matter in the Universe is made up of massive neutrinos. Their impact on the formation of large scale structure can be used to determine their absolute mass scale from cosmology, but to this end accurate numerical simulations have to be developed. Due to their relativistic nature, neutrinos pose additional challenges when one tries to include them in N-body simulations that are traditionally based on Newtonian physics. Here we present the first numerical study of massive neutrinos that uses a fully relativistic approach. Our N-body code, gevolution, is based on a weak-field formulation of general relativity that naturally provides a self-consistent framework for relativistic particle species. This allows us to model neutrinos from first principles, without invoking any ad-hoc recipes. Our simulation suite comprises some of the largest neutrino simulations performed to date. We study the effect of massive neutrinos on the nonlinear power spectra and the halo mass function, focusing on the interesting mass range between 0.06 eV and 0.3 eV and including a case for an inverted mass hierarchy.

  12. Addressing the Majorana vs. Dirac Question Using Neutrino Decays

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kayser, Boris

    We explain why it is so hard to determine whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles as long as the only neutrinos we study are ultra-relativistic. We then show how non-relativistic neutrinos could help, and focus on the angular distributions in the decays of an as-yet-to-be-discovered heavy neutrino $N$. We find that these angular distributions could very well tell us whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles.

  13. Neutrino production in electromagnetic cascades: An extra component of cosmogenic neutrino at ultrahigh energies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Kai; Liu, Ruo-Yu; Li, Zhuo; Dai, Zi-Gao

    2017-03-01

    Muon pairs can be produced in the annihilation of ultrahigh energy (UHE, E ≳1 018 eV ) photons with low energy cosmic background radiation in the intergalactic space, giving birth to neutrinos. Although the branching ratio of muon pair production is low, products of other channels, which are mainly electron/positron pairs, will probably transfer most of their energies into the new generated UHE photon in the subsequent interaction with the cosmic background radiation via Compton scattering in deep Klein-Nishina regime. The regeneration of these new UHE photons then provides a second chance to produce the muon pairs, enhancing the neutrino flux. We investigate the neutrino production in the propagation of UHE photons in the intergalactic space at different redshifts, considering various competing processes such as pair production, double pair production for UHE photons, and triplet production and synchrotron radiation for UHE electrons. Following the analytic method raised by Gould and Rephaeli, we firstly study the electromagnetic cascade initiated by an UHE photon, with paying particular attention to the leading particle in the cascade process. Regarding the least energetic outgoing particles as energy loss, we obtain the effective penetration length of the leading particle, as well as energy loss rate including the neutrino emission rate in the cascade process. Finally, we find that an extra component of UHE neutrinos will arise from the propagation of UHE cosmic rays due to the generated UHE photons and electron/positrons. However, the flux of this component is quite small, with a flux of at most 10% of that of the conventional cosmogenic neutrino at a few EeV, in the absence of a strong intergalactic magnetic field and a strong cosmic radio background. The precise contribution of extra component depends on several factors, e.g., cosmic radio background, intergalactic magnetic field, and the spectrum of proton, which are discussed in this work.

  14. Implications of Higgs Universality for neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stephenson, Gerard; Goldman, T.

    2017-09-01

    Higgs Universality means that the right-chiral Weyl spinors of each charge type couple universally to the Higgs doublet-left-chiral Weyl spinor weak singlets for quarks in the current basis,so the quark mass matrices are of the pairing form. We have shown that the known quark masses and weak current mixing can be recovered by invoking perturbative BSM corrections. The application to the charged leptons is immediate. Assuming the charged fermion-like mass terms for the neutrinos have a similar structure, but that Majorana mass terms for the sterile right-chiral spinors (which qualify as dark matter) must also be included, we show that the ratios of the resulting sterile neutrino masses vary as the square of the ratios of the charged fermion masses. The results are consistent with short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. Using that scale, we predict sterile neutrinos at masses of several keV/c2 and some tens of MeV /c2 , which may decay to a photon and a lighter neutrino.

  15. Multipole expansion method for supernova neutrino oscillations

    DOE PAGES

    Duan, Huaiyu; Shalgar, Shashank

    2014-10-31

    Here, we demonstrate a multipole expansion method to calculate collective neutrino oscillations in supernovae using the neutrino bulb model. We show that it is much more efficient to solve multi-angle neutrino oscillations in multipole basis than in angle basis. The multipole expansion method also provides interesting insights into multi-angle calculations that were accomplished previously in angle basis.

  16. The Mainz Neutrino Mass Experiment - New Results and Perspectives

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonn, J.; Bornschein, B.; Bornschein, L.; Fickinger, L.; Flatt, B.; Kraus, Ch.; Otten, E. W.; Schall, J. P.; Ulrich, H.; Weinheimer, Ch.; Kazachenko, O.; Kovalik, A.

    2002-12-01

    Non-zero neutrino masses, strongly favoured by the recent atmospheric and solar neutrino experiments, have strong consequences for particle physics as well as for astrophysics and cosmology. The investigation of the tritium β spectrum near its endpoint measures the mass of the "electron neutrino m(νe)" (m2 (ν e ) = Σ |Uei |2 mi2 with neutrino mixing matrix U and neutrino mass eigenstates mi) and is the most sensitive of these so-called direct methods providing information complementary to the searches for neutrinoless double β decay. Tritium β decay is the ideal method to distinguish between hierarchical and degenerate neutrino mass models. Furthermore, neutrino masses up to about 1 eV/c2 are especially interesting for cosmology because of their contribution to the missing dark matter in the universe...

  17. Collaborative Research: Neutrinos & Nucleosynthesis in Hot Dense Matter

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Reddy, Sanjay

    2013-09-06

    It is now firmly established that neutrinos, which are copiously produced in the hot and dense core of the supernova, play a role in the supernova explosion mechanism and in the synthesis of heavy elements through a phenomena known as r-process nucleosynthesis. They are also detectable in terrestrial neutrino experiments, and serve as a probe of the extreme environment and complex dynamics encountered in the supernova. The major goal of the UW research activity relevant to this project was to calculate the neutrino interaction rates in hot and dense matter of relevance to core collapse supernova. These serve as keymore » input physics in large scale computer simulations of the supernova dynamics and nucleosynthesis being pursued at national laboratories here in the United States and by other groups in Europe and Japan. Our calculations show that neutrino production and scattering rate are altered by the nuclear interactions and that these modifications have important implications for nucleosynthesis and terrestrial neutrino detection. The calculation of neutrino rates in dense matter are difficult because nucleons in the dense matter are strongly coupled. A neutrino interacts with several nucleons and the quantum interference between scattering off different nucleons depends on the nature of correlations between them in dense matter. To describe these correlations we used analytic methods based on mean field theory and hydrodynamics, and computational methods such as Quantum Monte Carlo. We found that due to nuclear effects neutrino production rates at relevant temperatures are enhanced, and that electron neutrinos are more easily absorbed than anti-electron neutrinos in dense matter. The latter, was shown to favor synthesis of heavy neutron-rich elements in the supernova.« less

  18. Performance of a liquid argon time projection chamber exposed to the CERN West Area Neutrino Facility neutrino beam

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Arneodo, F.; Cavanna, F.; Mitri, I. De

    2006-12-01

    We present the results of the first exposure of a Liquid Argon TPC to a multi-GeV neutrino beam. The data have been collected with a 50 liters ICARUS-like chamber located between the CHORUS and NOMAD experiments at the CERN West Area Neutrino Facility (WANF). We discuss both the instrumental performance of the detector and its capability to identify and reconstruct low-multiplicity neutrino interactions.

  19. Neutrino tomography - Tevatron mapping versus the neutrino sky. [for X-rays of earth interior

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilson, T. L.

    1984-01-01

    The feasibility of neutrino tomography of the earth's interior is discussed, taking the 80-GeV W-boson mass determined by Arnison (1983) and Banner (1983) into account. The opacity of earth zones is calculated on the basis of the preliminary reference earth model of Dziewonski and Anderson (1981), and the results are presented in tables and graphs. Proposed tomography schemes are evaluated in terms of the well-posedness of the inverse-Radon-transform problems involved, the neutrino generators and detectors required, and practical and economic factors. The ill-posed schemes are shown to be infeasible; the well-posed schemes (using Tevatrons or the neutrino sky as sources) are considered feasible but impractical.

  20. Sterile Neutrino Search in the NOvA Far Detector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Edayath, Sijith; Aurisano, Adam; Sousa, Alexandre

    2017-10-03

    The majority of neutrino oscillation experiments have obtained evidence for neutrino oscillations that are compatible with the three-flavor model. Explaining anomalous results from short-baseline experiments, such as LSND and MiniBooNE, in terms of neutrino oscillations requires the existence of sterile neutrinos. The search for sterile neutrino mixing conducted in NOvA uses a long baseline of 810 km between Near Detector (ND) at Fermilab and Far Detector (FD) in Minnesota. The signal for sterile neutrino oscillations is a deficit of neutral-current neutrino interactions at the FD with respect to the ND prediction. In this document, We will present the analysis improvementsmore » that we are implementing for future NC sterile neutrino searches with NOvA. These include: improved modelling of our detector response; the inclusion of NC 2p2h interaction modelling; implementing a better energy reconstruction techniques; and including possible oscillation due to sterile neutrinos in the ND . This improvements enable us to do a simultaneous ND-FD shape fit of the NC energy spectrum covering a wider sterile mass range than previous analyses.« less

  1. Constraining dynamical neutrino mass generation with cosmological data

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Koksbang, S.M.; Hannestad, S., E-mail: koksbang@phys.au.dk, E-mail: sth@phys.au.dk

    We study models in which neutrino masses are generated dynamically at cosmologically late times. Our study is purely phenomenological and parameterized in terms of three effective parameters characterizing the redshift of mass generation, the width of the transition region, and the present day neutrino mass. We also study the possibility that neutrinos become strongly self-interacting at the time where the mass is generated. We find that in a number of cases, models with large present day neutrino masses are allowed by current CMB, BAO and supernova data. The increase in the allowed mass range makes it possible that a non-zeromore » neutrino mass could be measured in direct detection experiments such as KATRIN. Intriguingly we also find that there are allowed models in which neutrinos become strongly self-interacting around the epoch of recombination.« less

  2. Neutrino flux predictions for the NuMI beam

    DOE PAGES

    Aliaga, L.; Kordosky, M.; Golan, T.; ...

    2016-11-29

    Knowledge of the neutrino flux produced by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beamline is essential to the neutrino oscillation and neutrino interaction measurements of the MINERvA, MINOS+, NOvA and MicroBooNE experiments at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. We have produced a flux prediction which uses all available and relevant hadron production data, incorporating measurements of particle production off of thin targets as well as measurements of particle yields from a spare NuMI target exposed to a 120 GeV proton beam. The result is the most precise flux prediction achieved for a neutrino beam in the one to tens of GeVmore » energy region. Lastly, we have also compared the prediction to in situ measurements of the neutrino flux and find good agreement.« less

  3. Sterile Neutrino Search with the Double Chooz Experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hellwig, D.; Matsubara, T.; Double Chooz Collaboration

    2017-09-01

    Double Chooz is a reactor antineutrino disappearance experiment located in Chooz, France. A far detector at a distance of about 1 km from reactor cores is operating since 2011; a near detector of identical design at a distance of about 400 m is operating since begin 2015. Beyond the precise measurement of θ 13, Double Chooz has a strong sensitivity to so called light sterile neutrinos. Sterile neutrinos are neutrino mass states not taking part in weak interactions, but may mix with known neutrino states. In this paper, we present an analysis method to search for sterile neutrinos and the expected sensitivity with the baselines of our detectors.

  4. Features of neutrino mixing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chiu, S. H.; Kuo, T. K.

    2018-03-01

    The elements (squared) of the neutrino mixing matrix are found to satisfy, as functions of the induced mass, a set of differential equations. They show clearly the dominance of pole terms when the neutrino masses "cross." Using the known vacuum mixing parameters as initial conditions, it is found that these equations have very good approximate solutions, for all values of the induced mass. The results are applicable to long baseline experiments.

  5. Seesaw roadmap to neutrino mass and dark matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Centelles Chuliá, Salvador; Srivastava, Rahul; Valle, José W. F.

    2018-06-01

    We describe the many pathways to generate Majorana and Dirac neutrino mass through generalized dimension-5 operators a la Weinberg. The presence of new scalars beyond the Standard Model Higgs doublet implies new possible field contractions, which are required in the case of Dirac neutrinos. We also notice that, in the Dirac neutrino case, the extra symmetries needed to ensure the Dirac nature of neutrinos can also be made responsible for stability of dark matter.

  6. Metal-loaded organic scintillators for neutrino physics

    DOE PAGES

    Buck, Christian; Yeh, Minfang

    2016-08-03

    Organic liquid scintillators are used in many neutrino physics experiments of the past and present. In particular for low energy neutrinos when realtime and energy information are required, liquid scintillators have several advantages compared to other technologies. In many cases the organic liquid needs to be loaded with metal to enhance the neutrino signal over background events. Several metal loaded scintillators of the past suffered from chemical and optical instabilities, limiting the performance of these neutrino detectors. Different ways of metal loading are described in the article with a focus on recent techniques providing metal loaded scintillators that can bemore » used under stable conditions for many years even in ton scale experiments. Lastly, we review applications of metal loaded scintillators in neutrino experiments and compare the performance as well as the prospects of different scintillator types.« less

  7. Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Akimov, D.; Albert, J. B.; An, P.

    The coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off nuclei has eluded detection for four decades, even though its predicted cross section is by far the largest of all low-energy neutrino couplings. This mode of interaction offers new opportunities to study neutrino properties and leads to a miniaturization of detector size, with potential technological applications. In this paper, we observed this process at a 6.7σ confidence level, using a low-background, 14.6-kilogram CsI[Na] scintillator exposed to the neutrino emissions from the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Characteristic signatures in energy and time, predicted by the standard model for this process,more » were observed in high signal-to-background conditions. Finally, improved constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions with quarks are derived from this initial data set.« less

  8. Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering

    DOE PAGES

    Akimov, D.; Albert, J. B.; An, P.; ...

    2017-08-03

    The coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off nuclei has eluded detection for four decades, even though its predicted cross section is by far the largest of all low-energy neutrino couplings. This mode of interaction offers new opportunities to study neutrino properties and leads to a miniaturization of detector size, with potential technological applications. In this paper, we observed this process at a 6.7σ confidence level, using a low-background, 14.6-kilogram CsI[Na] scintillator exposed to the neutrino emissions from the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Characteristic signatures in energy and time, predicted by the standard model for this process,more » were observed in high signal-to-background conditions. Finally, improved constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions with quarks are derived from this initial data set.« less

  9. Radiative model of neutrino mass with neutrino interacting MeV dark matter

    DOE PAGES

    Arhrib, Abdesslam; Bohm, Celine; Ma, Ernest; ...

    2016-04-26

    We consider the radiative generation of neutrino mass through the interactions of neutrinos with MeV dark matter. We construct a realistic renormalizable model with one scalar doublet (in additional to the standard model doublet) and one complex singlet together with three light singlet Majorana fermions, all transforming under a dark U(1)(D) symmetry which breaks softly to Z(2). We study in detail the scalar sector which supports this specific scenario and its rich phenomenology.

  10. νΛMDM: A model for sterile neutrino and dark matter reconciles cosmological and neutrino oscillation data after BICEP2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ko, P.; Tang, Yong

    2014-12-01

    We propose an ultraviolet complete theory for cold dark matter (CDM) and sterile neutrinos that can accommodate both cosmological data and neutrino oscillation experiments within 1σ level. We assume a new U(1)X dark gauge symmetry which is broken at ∼ O (MeV) scale resulting light dark photon. Such a light mediator for DM's self-scattering and scattering-off sterile neutrinos can resolve three controversies for cold DM on small cosmological scales: cusp vs. core, too-big-to-fail and missing satellites. We can also accommodate ∼ O (1) eV scale sterile neutrinos as the hot dark matter (HDM) and can fit some neutrino anomalies from neutrino oscillation experiments within 1σ. Finally, the right amount of HDM can make a sizable contribution to dark radiation, and also helps to reconcile the tension between the data on the tensor-to-scalar ratio reported by Planck and BICEP2 Collaborations.

  11. Charm contribution to the atmospheric neutrino flux

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Halzen, Francis; Wille, Logan

    2016-07-01

    We revisit the estimate of the charm particle contribution to the atmospheric neutrino flux that is expected to dominate at high energies because long-lived high-energy pions and kaons interact in the atmosphere before decaying into neutrinos. We focus on the production of forward charm particles which carry a large fraction of the momentum of the incident proton. In the case of strange particles, such a component is familiar from the abundant production of K+Λ pairs. These forward charm particles can dominate the high-energy atmospheric neutrino flux in underground experiments. Modern collider experiments have no coverage in the very large rapidity region where charm forward pair production dominates. Using archival accelerator data as well as IceCube measurements of atmospheric electron and muon neutrino fluxes, we obtain an upper limit on forward D¯0Λc pair production and on the associated flux of high-energy atmospheric neutrinos. We conclude that the prompt flux may dominate the much-studied central component and represent a significant contribution to the TeV atmospheric neutrino flux. Importantly, it cannot accommodate the PeV flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, or the excess of events observed by IceCube in the 30-200 TeV energy range indicating either structure in the flux of cosmic accelerators, or a presence of more than one component in the cosmic flux observed.

  12. MassiveNuS: cosmological massive neutrino simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Jia; Bird, Simeon; Zorrilla Matilla, José Manuel; Hill, J. Colin; Haiman, Zoltán; Madhavacheril, Mathew S.; Petri, Andrea; Spergel, David N.

    2018-03-01

    The non-zero mass of neutrinos suppresses the growth of cosmic structure on small scales. Since the level of suppression depends on the sum of the masses of the three active neutrino species, the evolution of large-scale structure is a promising tool to constrain the total mass of neutrinos and possibly shed light on the mass hierarchy. In this work, we investigate these effects via a large suite of N-body simulations that include massive neutrinos using an analytic linear-response approximation: the Cosmological Massive Neutrino Simulations (MassiveNuS). The simulations include the effects of radiation on the background expansion, as well as the clustering of neutrinos in response to the nonlinear dark matter evolution. We allow three cosmological parameters to vary: the neutrino mass sum Mν in the range of 0–0.6 eV, the total matter density Ωm, and the primordial power spectrum amplitude As. The rms density fluctuation in spheres of 8 comoving Mpc/h (σ8) is a derived parameter as a result. Our data products include N-body snapshots, halo catalogues, merger trees, ray-traced galaxy lensing convergence maps for four source redshift planes between zs=1–2.5, and ray-traced cosmic microwave background lensing convergence maps. We describe the simulation procedures and code validation in this paper. The data are publicly available at http://columbialensing.org.

  13. Can one measure the Cosmic Neutrino Background?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Faessler, Amand; Hodák, Rastislav; Kovalenko, Sergey; Šimkovic, Fedor

    The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) yields information about our Universe at around 380,000 years after the Big Bang (BB). Due to the weak interaction of the neutrinos with matter, the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) should give information about a much earlier time of our Universe, around one second after the BB. Probably, the most promising method to “see” the CNB is the capture of the electron neutrinos from the Background by Tritium, which then decays into 3He and an electron with the energy of the the Q-value = 18.562keV plus the electron neutrino rest mass. The “KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino” (KATRIN) experiment, which is in preparation, seems presently the most sensitive proposed method for measuring the electron antineutrino mass. At the same time, KATRIN can also look by the reaction νe(˜ 1.95K) +3H →3He + e-(Q = 18.6keV + m νec2). The capture of the Cosmic Background Neutrinos (CNB) should show in the electron spectrum as a peak by the electron neutrino rest mass above Q. Here, the possibility to see the CNB with KATRIN is studied. A detection of the CNB by KATRIN seems not to be possible at the moment. But KATRIN should be able to determine an upper limit for the local electron neutrino density of the CNB.

  14. The Prospect of Neutrinos with Gravitational Waves

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2017-10-01

    With the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, scientists celebrated the opening of a new window to the universe. But multi-messenger astronomy astronomy based on detections of not just photons, but other signals as well was not a new idea at the time: we had already detected tiny, lightweight neutrinos emitted from astrophysical sources. Will we be able to combine observations of neutrinos and gravitational waves in the future to provide a deeper picture of astrophysical events?Signs of a MergerArtists impression of the first stage of a binary neutron star merger. [NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)]If the answer is yes, the key will probably be short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs). Theory predicts that when a neutron star merges with another compact object (either another neutron star or a black hole), a number of signals may be observable. These include:gravitational waves as the binary spirals inward,a brief burst of gamma rays at merger (this is the SGRB),high-energy neutrino emission during the SGRB,optical and infrared emission after the merger in the form of a kilonova, andradio afterglows of the merger remnants.While weve observed the various electromagnetic components of this picture, the multi-messenger part is lacking: gravitational-wave detections havent been made in conjunction with electromagnetic counterparts thus far, and the only confirmed astrophysical sources of neutrinos are the Sun and Supernova 1987A.Pedicted neutrino fluxes during different stages of emission in an SGRB. [Kimura et al. 2017]Can we expect this to change in the future? A team of authors led by Shigeo Kimura (Pennsylvania State University) has now explored the likelihood that well be able to detect high-energy neutrinos in association with future gravitational-wave events.Detecting the SGRB NeutrinosKimura and collaborators first estimate the flux of high-energy neutrinos expected during various emission phases of an SGRB. They show that a period of late-time emission, known

  15. Neutrinos from Choked Jets Accompanied by Type-II Supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Hao-Ning; Kusenko, Alexander; Nagataki, Shigehiro; Fan, Yi-Zhong; Wei, Da-Ming

    2018-04-01

    The origin of the IceCube neutrinos is still an open question. Upper limits from diffuse gamma-ray observations suggest that the neutrino sources are either distant or hidden from gamma-ray observations. It is possible that the neutrinos are produced in jets that are formed in core-collapsing massive stars and fail to break out, the so-called choked jets. We study neutrinos from the jets choked in the hydrogen envelopes of red supergiant stars. Fast photo-meson cooling softens the neutrino spectrum, making it hard to explain the PeV neutrinos observed by IceCube in a one-component scenario, but a two-component model can explain the spectrum. Furthermore, we predict that a newly born jet-driven type-II supernova may be observed to be associated with a neutrino burst detected by IceCube.

  16. All-sky search for high-energy neutrinos from gravitational wave event GW170104 with the Antares neutrino telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albert, A.; André, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid, M.; Aubert, J.-J.; Avgitas, T.; Baret, B.; Barrios-Martí, J.; Basa, S.; Belhorma, B.; Bertin, V.; Biagi, S.; Bormuth, R.; Bourret, S.; Bouwhuis, M. C.; Brânzaş, H.; Bruijn, R.; Brunner, J.; Busto, J.; Capone, A.; Caramete, L.; Carr, J.; Celli, S.; Cherkaoui El Moursli, R.; Chiarusi, T.; Circella, M.; Coelho, J. A. B.; Coleiro, A.; Coniglione, R.; Costantini, H.; Coyle, P.; Creusot, A.; Díaz, A. F.; Deschamps, A.; De Bonis, G.; Distefano, C.; Di Palma, I.; Domi, A.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Drouhin, D.; Eberl, T.; El Bojaddaini, I.; El Khayati, N.; Elsässer, D.; Enzenhöfer, A.; Ettahiri, A.; Fassi, F.; Felis, I.; Fusco, L. A.; Gay, P.; Giordano, V.; Glotin, H.; Grégoire, T.; Gracia Ruiz, R.; Graf, K.; Hallmann, S.; van Haren, H.; Heijboer, A. J.; Hello, Y.; Hernández-Rey, J. J.; Hößl, J.; Hofestädt, J.; Hugon, C.; Illuminati, G.; James, C. W.; de Jong, M.; Jongen, M.; Kadler, M.; Kalekin, O.; Katz, U.; Kießling, D.; Kouchner, A.; Kreter, M.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Lachaud, C.; Lahmann, R.; Lefèvre, D.; Leonora, E.; Lotze, M.; Loucatos, S.; Marcelin, M.; Margiotta, A.; Marinelli, A.; Martínez-Mora, J. A.; Mele, R.; Melis, K.; Michael, T.; Migliozzi, P.; Moussa, A.; Navas, S.; Nezri, E.; Organokov, M.; Păvălaş, G. E.; Pellegrino, C.; Perrina, C.; Piattelli, P.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Quinn, L.; Racca, C.; Riccobene, G.; Sánchez-Losa, A.; Saldaña, M.; Salvadori, I.; Samtleben, D. F. E.; Sanguineti, M.; Sapienza, P.; Schüssler, F.; Sieger, C.; Spurio, M.; Stolarczyk, Th.; Taiuti, M.; Tayalati, Y.; Trovato, A.; Turpin, D.; Tönnis, C.; Vallage, B.; Van Elewyck, V.; Versari, F.; Vivolo, D.; Vizzoca, A.; Wilms, J.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zúñiga, J.

    2017-12-01

    Advanced LIGO detected a significant gravitational wave signal (GW170104) originating from the coalescence of two black holes during the second observation run on January 4th, 2017. An all-sky high-energy neutrino follow-up search has been made using data from the Antares neutrino telescope, including both upgoing and downgoing events in two separate analyses. No neutrino candidates were found within ± 500 s around the GW event time nor any time clustering of events over an extended time window of ± 3 months. The non-detection is used to constrain isotropic-equivalent high-energy neutrino emission from GW170104 to less than ˜ {1.2}× 10^{{55}} erg for a E^{-2} spectrum. This constraint is valid in the energy range corresponding to the 5-95% quantiles of the neutrino flux [3.2 TeV; 3.6 PeV], if the GW emitter was below the Antares horizon at the alert time.

  17. Precise Measurement of the Neutrino Mixing Parameter θ23 from Muon Neutrino Disappearance in an Off-Axis Beam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Adam, J.; Aihara, H.; Akiri, T.; Andreopoulos, C.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Assylbekov, S.; Autiero, D.; Barbi, M.; Barker, G. J.; Barr, G.; Bass, M.; Batkiewicz, M.; Bay, F.; Bentham, S. W.; Berardi, V.; Berger, B. E.; Berkman, S.; Bertram, I.; Bhadra, S.; Blaszczyk, F. d. M.; Blondel, A.; Bojechko, C.; Bordoni, S.; Boyd, S. B.; Brailsford, D.; Bravar, A.; Bronner, C.; Buchanan, N.; Calland, R. G.; Caravaca Rodríguez, J.; Cartwright, S. L.; Castillo, R.; Catanesi, M. G.; Cervera, A.; Cherdack, D.; Christodoulou, G.; Clifton, A.; Coleman, J.; Coleman, S. J.; Collazuol, G.; Connolly, K.; Cremonesi, L.; Dabrowska, A.; Danko, I.; Das, R.; Davis, S.; de Perio, P.; De Rosa, G.; Dealtry, T.; Dennis, S. R.; Densham, C.; Di Lodovico, F.; Di Luise, S.; Drapier, O.; Duboyski, T.; Duffy, K.; Dufour, F.; Dumarchez, J.; Dytman, S.; Dziewiecki, M.; Emery, S.; Ereditato, A.; Escudero, L.; Finch, A. J.; Floetotto, L.; Friend, M.; Fujii, Y.; Fukuda, Y.; Furmanski, A. P.; Galymov, V.; Giffin, S.; Giganti, C.; Gilje, K.; Goeldi, D.; Golan, T.; Gonin, M.; Grant, N.; Gudin, D.; Hadley, D. R.; Haesler, A.; Haigh, M. D.; Hamilton, P.; Hansen, D.; Hara, T.; Hartz, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Hastings, N. C.; Hayato, Y.; Hearty, C.; Helmer, R. L.; Hierholzer, M.; Hignight, J.; Hillairet, A.; Himmel, A.; Hiraki, T.; Hirota, S.; Holeczek, J.; Horikawa, S.; Huang, K.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Ieki, K.; Ieva, M.; Ikeda, M.; Imber, J.; Insler, J.; Irvine, T. J.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Ives, S. J.; Iwai, E.; Iyogi, K.; Izmaylov, A.; Jacob, A.; Jamieson, B.; Johnson, R. A.; Jo, J. H.; Jonsson, P.; Jung, C. K.; Kabirnezhad, M.; Kaboth, A. C.; Kajita, T.; Kakuno, H.; Kameda, J.; Kanazawa, Y.; Karlen, D.; Karpikov, I.; Kearns, E.; Khabibullin, M.; Khotjantsev, A.; Kielczewska, D.; Kikawa, T.; Kilinski, A.; Kim, J.; Kisiel, J.; Kitching, P.; Kobayashi, T.; Koch, L.; Kolaceke, A.; Konaka, A.; Kormos, L. L.; Korzenev, A.; Koseki, K.; Koshio, Y.; Kreslo, I.; Kropp, W.; Kubo, H.; Kudenko, Y.; Kumaratunga, S.; Kurjata, R.; Kutter, T.; Lagoda, J.; Laihem, K.; Lamont, I.; Laveder, M.; Lawe, M.; Lazos, M.; Lee, K. P.; Lindner, T.; Lister, C.; Litchfield, R. P.; Longhin, A.; Ludovici, L.; Macaire, M.; Magaletti, L.; Mahn, K.; Malek, M.; Manly, S.; Marino, A. D.; Marteau, J.; Martin, J. F.; Maruyama, T.; Marzec, J.; Mathie, E. L.; Matveev, V.; Mavrokoridis, K.; Mazzucato, E.; McCarthy, M.; McCauley, N.; McFarland, K. S.; McGrew, C.; Metelko, C.; Mezzetto, M.; Mijakowski, P.; Miller, C. A.; Minamino, A.; Mineev, O.; Mine, S.; Missert, A.; Miura, M.; Monfregola, L.; Moriyama, S.; Mueller, Th. A.; Murakami, A.; Murdoch, M.; Murphy, S.; Myslik, J.; Nagasaki, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakahata, M.; Nakai, T.; Nakamura, K.; Nakayama, S.; Nakaya, T.; Nakayoshi, K.; Naples, D.; Nielsen, C.; Nirkko, M.; Nishikawa, K.; Nishimura, Y.; O'Keeffe, H. M.; Ohta, R.; Okumura, K.; Okusawa, T.; Oryszczak, W.; Oser, S. M.; Owen, R. A.; Oyama, Y.; Palladino, V.; Palomino, J.; Paolone, V.; Payne, D.; Perevozchikov, O.; Perkin, J. D.; Petrov, Y.; Pickard, L.; Pinzon Guerra, E. S.; Pistillo, C.; Plonski, P.; Poplawska, E.; Popov, B.; Posiadala, M.; Poutissou, J.-M.; Poutissou, R.; Przewlocki, P.; Quilain, B.; Radicioni, E.; Ratoff, P. N.; Ravonel, M.; Rayner, M. A. M.; Redij, A.; Reeves, M.; Reinherz-Aronis, E.; Retiere, F.; Robert, A.; Rodrigues, P. A.; Rojas, P.; Rondio, E.; Roth, S.; Rubbia, A.; Ruterbories, D.; Sacco, R.; Sakashita, K.; Sánchez, F.; Sato, F.; Scantamburlo, E.; Scholberg, K.; Schoppmann, S.; Schwehr, J.; Scott, M.; Seiya, Y.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekiya, H.; Sgalaberna, D.; Shiozawa, M.; Short, S.; Shustrov, Y.; Sinclair, P.; Smith, B.; Smith, R. J.; Smy, M.; Sobczyk, J. T.; Sobel, H.; Sorel, M.; Southwell, L.; Stamoulis, P.; Steinmann, J.; Still, B.; Suda, Y.; Suzuki, A.; Suzuki, K.; Suzuki, S. Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Szeglowski, T.; Tacik, R.; Tada, M.; Takahashi, S.; Takeda, A.; Takeuchi, Y.; Tanaka, H. K.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tanaka, M. M.; Terhorst, D.; Terri, R.; Thompson, L. F.; Thorley, A.; Tobayama, S.; Toki, W.; Tomura, T.; Totsuka, Y.; Touramanis, C.; Tsukamoto, T.; Tzanov, M.; Uchida, Y.; Ueno, K.; Vacheret, A.; Vagins, M.; Vasseur, G.; Wachala, T.; Waldron, A. V.; Walter, C. W.; Wark, D.; Wascko, M. O.; Weber, A.; Wendell, R.; Wilkes, R. J.; Wilking, M. J.; Wilkinson, C.; Williamson, Z.; Wilson, J. R.; Wilson, R. J.; Wongjirad, T.; Yamada, Y.; Yamamoto, K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Yen, S.; Yershov, N.; Yokoyama, M.; Yuan, T.; Yu, M.; Zalewska, A.; Zalipska, J.; Zambelli, L.; Zaremba, K.; Ziembicki, M.; Zimmerman, E. D.; Zito, M.; Żmuda, J.; T2K Collaboration

    2014-05-01

    New data from the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment produce the most precise measurement of the neutrino mixing parameter θ23. Using an off-axis neutrino beam with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV and a data set corresponding to 6.57×1020 protons on target, T2K has fit the energy-dependent νμ oscillation probability to determine oscillation parameters. The 68% confidence limit on sin2(θ23) is 0.514-0.056+0.055 (0.511±0.055), assuming normal (inverted) mass hierarchy. The best-fit mass-squared splitting for normal hierarchy is Δm322=(2.51±0.10)×10-3 eV2/c4 (inverted hierarchy: Δm132=(2.48±0.10)×10-3 eV2/c4). Adding a model of multinucleon interactions that affect neutrino energy reconstruction is found to produce only small biases in neutrino oscillation parameter extraction at current levels of statistical uncertainty.

  18. Muon-Neutrino Electron Elastic Scattering and a Search for the Muon-Neutrino Magnetic Moment in the NOvA Near Detector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Biao

    We use the NOvA near detector and the NuMI beam at Fermilab to study the neutrino- electron elastic scattering and the muon neutrino magnetic process beyond the Standard Model physics. The particle identications of neutrino on electron elastic scattering are trained by using the multi-layer neural networks. This thesis provides a general discussion of this technique and shows a good agreement between data and MC for the neutrino-electron elastic weak scattering. So that beneting from the precise cross-section of this channel, we are able to tune the neutrino beam ux simulation in the future. Giving the exposure of 3:62 1020more » POT in the NOvA near detector, we report 1:58 10« less

  19. Some Unsettled Questions in the Problem of Neutrino Oscillations. Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Muchamedovich Beshtoev, Khamidbi

    2003-07-01

    It is shown that in order to register neutrino oscillations, it is necessary to see second or higher neutrino oscillation modes on experiments. For this purpose we can use the elliptic character of 1the Earth orbit. A special importance for study of the Earth neutrino sources, using big neutrino detectors, is stressed here. The analysis is showing that the SNO experimental results do not confirm the smallest of νe → ντ transition angle mixings, which was obtained from analysis of the CHOOZ experimental data. It is also noted that there is contradiction between SNO, super-Kamiokande, Homestake and the SAGE and GNO (GALLEX) data. 1. Introduction In this article we will consider some unsettled questions in experiments on the problem of neutrino oscillations. 2. experimental Observation of the Neutrino Oscillations At present it supposed that the neutrino oscillations have been observed [1-3], In reality in these experiments there were observed only transitions between (the Sun or atmospheric) neutrinos. Since we presume that the neutrino oscillations do take place; therefore we must observe (Sun) neutrino oscillations in reality. Since the length of neutrino oscillations is great sufficiently, we cannot observe the higher modes in terrestrial experiment. But we have another possibility to observe the Sun neutrino oscillation using the fact that the Earth orbit is the elliptic one with: Earth's perihelion RP = 147.117 ·106k m , Earth's aphelion RA = 152.083 ·106k m, and their difference R is R = 4.866 · 106 k m. Since the Sun neutrinos conclude all energies up to 15M eV , we must divide this energy spectrum into energy regions and observe these neutrino fluxes as a function of energy and the Ears's distances from the Sun. At these conditions we must observe the neutrino oscillations, in order to determine if the length of neutrino oscillation Rosc is bigger than the region where these (high energy)

  20. A search for sterile neutrinos with IceCube DeepCore

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Terliuk, Andrii; IceCube Collaboration

    2017-09-01

    The DeepCore detector is a densely instrumented part of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory that lowers the neutrino detection threshold down to approximately 10 GeV resulting in the ability to measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The standard three neutrino mixing scenario can be tested by searching for an additional light sterile neutrino state, which does not interact via the standard weak interaction, but mixes with the three active neutrino states. This leads to an impact on the atmospheric neutrino oscillations below 100 GeV. We present improved limits to the sterile mixing element |U τ4|2 using three years of the DeepCore data taken during 2011-2013.

  1. Propagation of GeV neutrinos through Earth

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olivas, Yaithd Daniel; Sahu, Sarira

    2018-06-01

    We have studied the Earth matter effect on the oscillation of upward going GeV neutrinos by taking into account the three active neutrino flavors. For neutrino energy in the range 3 to 12 GeV we observed three distinct resonant peaks for the oscillation process νe ↔νμ,τ in three distinct densities. However, according to the most realistic density profile of the Earth, the second peak at neutrino energy 6.18 GeV corresponding to the density 6.6 g/cm3 does not exist. So the resonance at this energy can not be of MSW-type. For the calculation of observed flux of these GeV neutrinos on Earth, we considered two different flux ratios at the source, the standard scenario with the flux ratio 1 : 2 : 0 and the muon damped scenario with 0 : 1 : 0. It is observed that at the detector while the standard scenario gives the observed flux ratio 1 : 1 : 1, the muon damped scenario has a different ratio. For muon damped case with Eν < 20 GeV, we always get observed neutrino fluxes as Φνe <Φνμ ≃Φντ and for Eν > 20 GeV, we get the average Φνe ∼ 0 and Φνμ ≃Φντ ≃ 0.45. The upcoming PINGU will be able to shed more light on the nature of the resonance in these GeV neutrinos and hopefully will also be able to discriminate among different processes of neutrino production at the source in GeV energy range.

  2. Invited review article: IceCube: an instrument for neutrino astronomy.

    PubMed

    Halzen, Francis; Klein, Spencer R

    2010-08-01

    Neutrino astronomy beyond the Sun was first imagined in the late 1950s; by the 1970s, it was realized that kilometer-scale neutrino detectors were required. The first such instrument, IceCube, is near completion and taking data. The IceCube project transforms 1 km(3) of deep and ultratransparent Antarctic ice into a particle detector. A total of 5160 optical sensors is embedded into a gigaton of Antarctic ice to detect the Cherenkov light emitted by secondary particles produced when neutrinos interact with nuclei in the ice. Each optical sensor is a complete data acquisition system including a phototube, digitization electronics, control and trigger systems, and light-emitting diodes for calibration. The light patterns reveal the type (flavor) of neutrino interaction and the energy and direction of the neutrino, making neutrino astronomy possible. The scientific missions of IceCube include such varied tasks as the search for sources of cosmic rays, the observation of galactic supernova explosions, the search for dark matter, and the study of the neutrinos themselves. These reach energies well beyond those produced with accelerator beams. The outline of this review is as follows: neutrino astronomy and kilometer-scale detectors, high-energy neutrino telescopes: methodologies of neutrino detection, IceCube hardware, high-energy neutrino telescopes: beyond astronomy, and future projects.

  3. Muon neutrino CCQE at MINERvA

    DOE PAGES

    Betancourt, M.

    2016-12-13

    A precise understanding of quasi-elastic interactions is crucial to measure neutrino oscillations. The MINERvA experiment is currently working on different analyses of muon neutrino charged current quasi-elastic interactions. Here, we present updates to the previous quasi-elastic measurement, using a new flux, and we present the status of several analyses in progress; including double differential cross sections, a study of final state interactions using a sample with muon and a proton and the status of the CCQE analysis in the medium energy neutrino beam.

  4. Neutrino physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Haxton, Wick C.; Holstein, Barry R.; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003

    2000-01-01

    The basic concepts of neutrino physics are presented at a level appropriate for integration into elementary courses on quantum mechanics and/or modern physics. (c) 2000 American Association of Physics Teachers.

  5. Solar Neutrinos. II. Experimental

    DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

    Davis, Raymond Jr.

    1964-01-01

    A method is described for observing solar neutrinos from the reaction Cl{sup 37}(nu,e{sup -})Ar{sup 37} in C{sub 2}Cl{sub 4}. Two 5 00-gal tanks of C{sub 2}Cl{sub 4} were placed in a limestone mine (1800 m.w.e.) and the resulting Ar{sup 37} activity induced by cosmic mesons( mu ) was measured to determine the necessary conditions for solar neutrino observations. (R.E.U.)

  6. Initial condition for baryogenesis via neutrino oscillation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Asaka, Takehiko; Eijima, Shintaro; Ishida, Hiroyuki; Minogawa, Kosuke; Yoshii, Tomoya

    2017-10-01

    We consider a baryogenesis scenario via the oscillation of right-handed neutrinos with Majorana masses of the order of GeV, which are also responsible for neutrino masses by the seesaw mechanism. We study how the initial condition alters the prediction of the present baryon asymmetry by this mechanism. It is usually assumed that the abundance of right-handed neutrinos is zero after the reheating of the inflationary universe and they are produced in scattering processes by the renomalizable Yukawa interaction. However, the higher-dimensional operator with right-handed neutrinos may provide an additional production which is most effective at the reheating epoch. It is shown that such an initial abundance of right-handed neutrinos can significantly modify the prediction when the strong washout of the asymmetry is absent. This leads to the parameter space of the model for the successful baryogenesis being enlarged.

  7. Sterile Neutrino Searches in MINOS and MINOS+ Experiments

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Huang, Junting

    2015-05-01

    This dissertation presents the searches on sterile neutrinos using the data collected in MINOS+ Experiment from September 2013 to September 2014, and the full data set of MINOS Experiment collected from 2005 to 2012. Anomalies in short baseline experiments, such as LSND and MiniBooNE, showed hints of sterile neutrinos, a type of neutrino that does not interact with the Standard Model particles. In this work, two models are considered: 3+1 and large extra dimension (LED). In the 3+1 model, one sterile neutrino state is added into the standard oscillation scheme consisting of three known active neutrino states v e, vmore » μ and v τ. In the LED model, sterile neutrinos arise as Kaluza-Klein (KK) states due to assumed large extra dimensions. Mixing between sterile and active neutrino states may modify the oscillation patterns observed in the MINOS detectors. Both searches yield null results. For 3+1, a combined fit of MINOS and MINOS+ data gives a stronger limit on θ 24 in the range of 10 -2 eV 2 < Δm 41 2 < 1 eV 2 than previous experiments. For LED, with the complete MINOS data set, the size of extra dimensions is constrained to be smaller than ~ 0.35 μm at 90% C.L. in the limit of a vanishing lightest neutrino mass.« less

  8. Neutrino Analysis of the 2010 September Crab Nebula Flare and Time-integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission from the Crab Using IceCube

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abbasi, R.; Abdou, Y.; Abu-Zayyad, T.; Adams, J.; Aguilar, J. A.; Ahlers, M.; Altmann, D.; Andeen, K.; Auffenberg, J.; Bai, X.; Baker, M.; Barwick, S. W.; Bay, R.; Bazo Alba, J. L.; Beattie, K.; Beatty, J. J.; Bechet, S.; Becker, J. K.; Becker, K.-H.; Benabderrahmane, M. L.; BenZvi, S.; Berdermann, J.; Berghaus, P.; Berley, D.; Bernardini, E.; Bertrand, D.; Besson, D. Z.; Bindig, D.; Bissok, M.; Blaufuss, E.; Blumenthal, J.; Boersma, D. J.; Bohm, C.; Bose, D.; Böser, S.; Botner, O.; Brown, A. M.; Buitink, S.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Carson, M.; Chirkin, D.; Christy, B.; Clem, J.; Clevermann, F.; Cohen, S.; Colnard, C.; Cowen, D. F.; D'Agostino, M. V.; Danninger, M.; Daughhetee, J.; Davis, J. C.; De Clercq, C.; Demirörs, L.; Denger, T.; Depaepe, O.; Descamps, F.; Desiati, P.; de Vries-Uiterweerd, G.; DeYoung, T.; Díaz-Vélez, J. C.; Dierckxsens, M.; Dreyer, J.; Dumm, J. P.; Ehrlich, R.; Eisch, J.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Engdegård, O.; Euler, S.; Evenson, P. A.; Fadiran, O.; Fazely, A. R.; Fedynitch, A.; Feintzeig, J.; Feusels, T.; Filimonov, K.; Finley, C.; Fischer-Wasels, T.; Foerster, M. M.; Fox, B. D.; Franckowiak, A.; Franke, R.; Gaisser, T. K.; Gallagher, J.; Gerhardt, L.; Gladstone, L.; Glüsenkamp, T.; Goldschmidt, A.; Goodman, J. A.; Gora, D.; Grant, D.; Griesel, T.; Groß, A.; Grullon, S.; Gurtner, M.; Ha, C.; Hajismail, A.; Hallgren, A.; Halzen, F.; Han, K.; Hanson, K.; Heinen, D.; Helbing, K.; Herquet, P.; Hickford, S.; Hill, G. C.; Hoffman, K. D.; Homeier, A.; Hoshina, K.; Hubert, D.; Huelsnitz, W.; Hülß, J.-P.; Hulth, P. O.; Hultqvist, K.; Hussain, S.; Ishihara, A.; Jacobsen, J.; Japaridze, G. S.; Johansson, H.; Joseph, J. M.; Kampert, K.-H.; Kappes, A.; Karg, T.; Karle, A.; Kenny, P.; Kiryluk, J.; Kislat, F.; Klein, S. R.; Köhne, J.-H.; Kohnen, G.; Kolanoski, H.; Köpke, L.; Kopper, S.; Koskinen, D. J.; Kowalski, M.; Kowarik, T.; Krasberg, M.; Krings, T.; Kroll, G.; Kurahashi, N.; Kuwabara, T.; Labare, M.; Lafebre, S.; Laihem, K.; Landsman, H.; Larson, M. J.; Lauer, R.; Lünemann, J.; Madsen, J.; Majumdar, P.; Marotta, A.; Maruyama, R.; Mase, K.; Matis, H. S.; Meagher, K.; Merck, M.; Mészáros, P.; Meures, T.; Middell, E.; Milke, N.; Miller, J.; Montaruli, T.; Morse, R.; Movit, S. M.; Nahnhauer, R.; Nam, J. W.; Naumann, U.; Nießen, P.; Nygren, D. R.; Odrowski, S.; Olivas, A.; Olivo, M.; O'Murchadha, A.; Ono, M.; Panknin, S.; Paul, L.; Pérez de los Heros, C.; Petrovic, J.; Piegsa, A.; Pieloth, D.; Porrata, R.; Posselt, J.; Price, P. B.; Przybylski, G. T.; Rawlins, K.; Redl, P.; Resconi, E.; Rhode, W.; Ribordy, M.; Rizzo, A.; Rodrigues, J. P.; Roth, P.; Rothmaier, F.; Rott, C.; Ruhe, T.; Rutledge, D.; Ruzybayev, B.; Ryckbosch, D.; Sander, H.-G.; Santander, M.; Sarkar, S.; Schatto, K.; Schmidt, T.; Schönwald, A.; Schukraft, A.; Schultes, A.; Schulz, O.; Schunck, M.; Seckel, D.; Semburg, B.; Seo, S. H.; Sestayo, Y.; Seunarine, S.; Silvestri, A.; Slipak, A.; Spiczak, G. M.; Spiering, C.; Stamatikos, M.; Stanev, T.; Stephens, G.; Stezelberger, T.; Stokstad, R. G.; Stössl, A.; Stoyanov, S.; Strahler, E. A.; Straszheim, T.; Stür, M.; Sullivan, G. W.; Swillens, Q.; Taavola, H.; Taboada, I.; Tamburro, A.; Tepe, A.; Ter-Antonyan, S.; Tilav, S.; Toale, P. A.; Toscano, S.; Tosi, D.; Turčan, D.; van Eijndhoven, N.; Vandenbroucke, J.; Van Overloop, A.; van Santen, J.; Vehring, M.; Voge, M.; Walck, C.; Waldenmaier, T.; Wallraff, M.; Walter, M.; Weaver, Ch.; Wendt, C.; Westerhoff, S.; Whitehorn, N.; Wiebe, K.; Wiebusch, C. H.; Williams, D. R.; Wischnewski, R.; Wissing, H.; Wolf, M.; Wood, T. R.; Woschnagg, K.; Xu, C.; Xu, X. W.; Yodh, G.; Yoshida, S.; Zarzhitsky, P.; Zoll, M.

    2012-01-01

    We present the results of a search for high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab Nebula flare reported on 2010 September by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed γ-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E -2 ν neutrino spectrum typical of first-order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cutoffs as observed for various Galactic sources in γ-rays. The 90% confidence level (CL) best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 × 10-11 cm-2 s-1 TeV-1 for an E -2 ν neutrino spectrum and 2.50 × 10-10 cm-2 s-1 TeV-1 for a softer neutrino spectra of E -2.7 ν, as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. In this paper, we also illustrate the impact of the time-integrated limit on the Crab neutrino steady emission. The limit obtained using 375.5 days of the 40-string configuration is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

  9. Limits on muon-neutrino to tau-neutrino oscillations induced by a sterile neutrino state obtained by OPERA at the CNGS beam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Agafonova, N.; Aleksandrov, A.; Anokhina, A.; Aoki, S.; Ariga, A.; Ariga, T.; Bender, D.; Bertolin, A.; Bodnarchuk, I.; Bozza, C.; Brugnera, R.; Buonaura, A.; Buontempo, S.; Büttner, B.; Chernyavsky, M.; Chukanov, A.; Consiglio, L.; D'Ambrosio, N.; De Lellis, G.; De Serio, M.; Del Amo Sanchez, P.; Di Crescenzo, A.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Di Marco, N.; Dmitrievski, S.; Dracos, M.; Duchesneau, D.; Dusini, S.; Dzhatdoev, T.; Ebert, J.; Ereditato, A.; Fini, R. A.; Fukuda, T.; Galati, G.; Garfagnini, A.; Goldberg, J.; Gornushkin, Y.; Grella, G.; Guler, A. M.; Gustavino, C.; Hagner, C.; Hara, T.; Hollnagel, A.; Hosseini, B.; Ishiguro, K.; Jakovcic, K.; Jollet, C.; Kamiscioglu, C.; Kamiscioglu, M.; Kim, J. H.; Kim, S. H.; Kitagawa, N.; Klicek, B.; Kodama, K.; Komatsu, M.; Kose, U.; Kreslo, I.; Lauria, A.; Ljubicic, A.; Longhin, A.; Malgin, A.; Malenica, M.; Mandrioli, G.; Matsuo, T.; Matveev, V.; Mauri, N.; Medinaceli, E.; Meregaglia, A.; Mikado, S.; Monacelli, P.; Montesi, M. C.; Morishima, K.; Muciaccia, M. T.; Naganawa, N.; Naka, T.; Nakamura, M.; Nakano, T.; Nakatsuka, Y.; Niwa, K.; Ogawa, S.; Omura, T.; Ozaki, K.; Paoloni, A.; Paparella, L.; Park, B. D.; Park, I. G.; Pasqualini, L.; Pastore, A.; Patrizii, L.; Pessard, H.; Podgrudkov, D.; Polukhina, N.; Pozzato, M.; Pupilli, F.; Roda, M.; Roganova, T.; Rokujo, H.; Rosa, G.; Ryazhskaya, O.; Sato, O.; Schembri, A.; Shakirianova, I.; Shchedrina, T.; Sheshukov, A.; Shibuya, H.; Shiraishi, T.; Shoziyoev, G.; Simone, S.; Sioli, M.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Spinetti, M.; Stanco, L.; Starkov, N.; Stellacci, S. M.; Stipcevic, M.; Strolin, P.; Takahashi, S.; Tenti, M.; Terranova, F.; Tioukov, V.; Tufanli, S.; Vilain, P.; Vladymyrov, M.; Votano, L.; Vuilleumier, J. L.; Wilquet, G.; Wonsak, B.; Yoon, C. S.; Zemskova, S.

    2015-06-01

    The OPERA experiment, exposed to the CERN to Gran Sasso ν μ beam, collected data from 2008 to 2012. Four oscillated ν τ Charged Current interaction candidates have been detected in appearance mode, which are consistent with ν μ → ν τ oscillations at the atmospheric Δ m 2 within the "standard" three-neutrino framework. In this paper, the OPERA ν τ appearance results are used to derive limits on the mixing parameters of a massive sterile neutrino.

  10. Objective Bayesian analysis of neutrino masses and hierarchy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heavens, Alan F.; Sellentin, Elena

    2018-04-01

    Given the precision of current neutrino data, priors still impact noticeably the constraints on neutrino masses and their hierarchy. To avoid our understanding of neutrinos being driven by prior assumptions, we construct a prior that is mathematically minimally informative. Using the constructed uninformative prior, we find that the normal hierarchy is favoured but with inconclusive posterior odds of 5.1:1. Better data is hence needed before the neutrino masses and their hierarchy can be well constrained. We find that the next decade of cosmological data should provide conclusive evidence if the normal hierarchy with negligible minimum mass is correct, and if the uncertainty in the sum of neutrino masses drops below 0.025 eV. On the other hand, if neutrinos obey the inverted hierarchy, achieving strong evidence will be difficult with the same uncertainties. Our uninformative prior was constructed from principles of the Objective Bayesian approach. The prior is called a reference prior and is minimally informative in the specific sense that the information gain after collection of data is maximised. The prior is computed for the combination of neutrino oscillation data and cosmological data and still applies if the data improve.

  11. 3+1 and 3+2 sterile neutrino fits

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giunti, Carlo; Laveder, Marco

    2011-10-01

    We present the results of fits of short-baseline neutrino-oscillation data in 3+1 and 3+2 neutrino-mixing schemes. In spite of the presence of a tension in the interpretation of the data, 3+1 neutrino mixing is attractive for its simplicity and for the natural correspondence of one new entity (a sterile neutrino) with a new effect (short-baseline oscillations). The allowed regions in the oscillation parameter space can be tested in near-future experiments. In the framework of 3+2 neutrino mixing, there is less tension in the interpretation of the data, at the price of introducing a second sterile neutrino. Moreover, the improvement of the parameter goodness of fit is mainly a statistical effect due to an increase in the number of parameters. The CP violation in short-baseline experiments allowed in 3+2 neutrino mixing can explain the positive ν¯μ→ν¯e signal and the negative νμ→νe measurement in the MiniBooNE experiment. For the CP-violating phase, we obtained two minima of the marginal χ2 close to the two values where CP violation is maximal.

  12. Supernova nucleosynthesis and the physics of neutrino oscillation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kajino, Toshitaka

    2012-11-01

    We studied the explosive nucleosynthesis in core-collapse supernovae and found that several isotopes of rare elements like 7Li, 11B, 138La, 180Ta and others are predominantly produced by the neutrino interactions with several abundant nuclei. These isotopes are strongly affected by the neutrino flavor oscillation due to the MSW (Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein) effect. We here first study how to know the suitable average neutrino temperatures in order to explain the observed solar system abundances of these isotopes, combined with Galactic chemical evolution of the light nuclei and the heavy r-process elements. We then study the neutrino oscillation effects on their abundances, and propose a new novel method to determine the neutrino oscillation parameters, θ13 and mass hierarchy, simultaneously. There is recent evidence that some SiC X grains from the Murchison meteorite may contain supernova-produced neutrino-process 11B and 7Li encapsulated in the grains. Combining the recent experimental constraints on θ13, we show that although the uncertainties are still large, our method hints at a marginal preference for an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy for the first time.

  13. Neutrino-nucleus cross sections for oscillation experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katori, Teppei; Martini, Marco

    2018-01-01

    Neutrino oscillations physics is entering an era of high precision. In this context, accelerator-based neutrino experiments need a reduction in systematic errors to the level of a few percent. Today, one of the most important sources of systematic errors are neutrino-nucleus cross sections which, in the energy region of hundreds of MeV to a few GeV, are known to a precision not exceeding 20%. In this article we review the present experimental and theoretical knowledge of neutrino-nucleus interaction physics. After introducing neutrino-oscillation physics and accelerator-based neutrino experiments, we give an overview of general aspects of neutrino-nucleus cross sections, from both the theoretical and experimental point of view. Then, we focus on these cross sections in different reaction channels. We start with the quasi-elastic and quasi-elastic-like cross section, placing a special emphasis on the multinucleon emission channel, which has attracted a lot of attention in the last few years. We review the main aspects of the different microscopic models for this channel by discussing analogies and the differences among them. The discussion is always driven by a comparison with the experimental data. We then consider the one-pion production channel where agreement between data and theory remains highly unsatisfactory. We describe how to interpret pion data, and then analyze, in particular, the puzzle related to the difficulty of theoretical models and Monte Carlo to simultaneously describe MiniBooNE and MINERvA experimental results. Inclusive cross sections are also discussed, as well as the comparison between the {ν }μ and {ν }e cross sections, relevant for the charge-conjugation-parity violation experiments. The impact of nuclear effects on the reconstruction of neutrino energy and on the determination of the neutrino-oscillation parameters is also reviewed. Finally, we look to the future by discussing projects and efforts in relation to future detectors, beams

  14. Heavy Right-Handed Neutrino Dark Matter and PeV Neutrinos at IceCube

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bhupal Dev, P. S.; Kazanas, D.; Mohapatra, R. N.; Teplitz, V. L.; Zhang, Yongchao

    2016-01-01

    We discuss a simple non-supersymmetric model based on the electroweak gauge group SU(2) (sub L) times SU(2) prime times U(1) (Sub B-L) where the lightest of the right-handed neutrinos, which are part of the leptonic doublet of SU(2) prime, play the role of a long-lived unstable dark matter with mass in the multi-Peta-electronvolt range. We use a resonant s-channel annihilation to obtain the correct thermal relic density and relax the unitarity bound on dark matter mass. In this model, there exists a 3-body dark matter decay mode producing tau leptons and neutrinos, which could be the source for the Peta-electronvolt cascade events observed in the IceCube experiment. The model can be tested with more precise flavor information of the highest-energy neutrino events in future data.

  15. Sterile neutrinos and indirect dark matter searches in IceCube

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Argüelles, Carlos A.; Kopp, Joachim

    2012-07-01

    If light sterile neutrinos exist and mix with the active neutrino flavors, this mixing will affect the propagation of high-energy neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun. In particular, new Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein resonances can occur, leading to almost complete conversion of some active neutrino flavors into sterile states. We demonstrate how this can weaken IceCube limits on neutrino capture and annihilation in the Sun and how potential future conflicts between IceCube constraints and direct detection or collider data might be resolved by invoking sterile neutrinos. We also point out that, if the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section and the allowed annihilation channels are precisely measured in direct detection and collider experiments in the future, IceCube can be used to constrain sterile neutrino models using neutrinos from the dark matter annihilation.

  16. A Search for Neutrinos from Fast Radio Bursts with IceCube

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fahey, Samuel; Kheirandish, Ali; Vandenbroucke, Justin; Xu, Donglian

    2017-08-01

    We present a search for neutrinos in coincidence in time and direction with four fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected by the Parkes and Green Bank radio telescopes during the first year of operation of the complete IceCube Neutrino Observatory (2011 May through 2012 May). The neutrino sample consists of 138,322 muon neutrino candidate events, which are dominated by atmospheric neutrinos and atmospheric muons but also contain an astrophysical neutrino component. Considering only neutrinos detected on the same day as each FRB, zero IceCube events were found to be compatible with the FRB directions within the estimated 99% error radius of the neutrino directions. Based on the non-detection, we present the first upper limits on the neutrino fluence from FRBs.

  17. Precision Measurements of Long-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation at LBNF

    DOE PAGES

    Worcester, Elizabeth

    2015-08-06

    In a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, the primary physics objectives are to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, to determine the octant of the neutrino mixing angle θ 23, to search for CP violation in neutrino oscillation, and to precisely measure the size of any CP-violating effect that is discovered. This presentation provides a brief introduction to these measurements and reports on efforts to optimize the design of a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, the status of LBNE, and the transition to an international collaboration at LBNF.

  18. The Final Results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    ScienceCinema

    Bellerive, Alain

    2017-12-15

    The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was a water Cherenkov detector dedicated to investigate elementary particles called neutrinos. It successfully took data between 1999 and 2006. The detector was unique in its use of heavy water as a detection medium, permitting it to make a solar model-independent test of solar neutrino mixing. In fact, SNO conclusively showed that solar neutrinos oscillate on their way from the core of the Sun to the Earth. This groundbreaking observation was made during three independent phases of the experiment. Even if data taking ended, SNO is still in a mode of precise determination of the solar neutrino oscillation parameters because all along SNO had developed several methods to tell charged-current events apart from neutral-current events. This ability is crucial for the final and ultimate data analysis of all the phases. The physics reach of a combined three-phase solar analysis will be reviewed together with results and subtleties about solar neutrino physics.

  19. Neutrino oscillation studies with IceCube-DeepCore

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Aartsen, M. G.; Abraham, K.; Ackermann, M.

    IceCube, a gigaton-scale neutrino detector located at the South Pole, was primarily designed to search for astrophysical neutrinos with energies of PeV and higher. This goal has been achieved with the detection of the highest energy neutrinos to date. At the other end of the energy spectrum, the DeepCore extension lowers the energy threshold of the detector to approximately 10 GeV and opens the door for oscillation studies using atmospheric neutrinos. An analysis of the disappearance of these neutrinos has been completed, with the results produced being complementary with dedicated oscillation experiments. Following a review of the detector principle andmore » performance, the method used to make these calculations, as well as the results, is detailed. Finally, the future prospects of IceCube-DeepCore and the next generation of neutrino experiments at the South Pole (IceCube-Gen2, specifically the PINGU sub-detector) are briefly discussed.« less

  20. Neutrino oscillation studies with IceCube-DeepCore

    DOE PAGES

    Aartsen, M. G.; Abraham, K.; Ackermann, M.; ...

    2016-03-30

    IceCube, a gigaton-scale neutrino detector located at the South Pole, was primarily designed to search for astrophysical neutrinos with energies of PeV and higher. This goal has been achieved with the detection of the highest energy neutrinos to date. At the other end of the energy spectrum, the DeepCore extension lowers the energy threshold of the detector to approximately 10 GeV and opens the door for oscillation studies using atmospheric neutrinos. An analysis of the disappearance of these neutrinos has been completed, with the results produced being complementary with dedicated oscillation experiments. Following a review of the detector principle andmore » performance, the method used to make these calculations, as well as the results, is detailed. Finally, the future prospects of IceCube-DeepCore and the next generation of neutrino experiments at the South Pole (IceCube-Gen2, specifically the PINGU sub-detector) are briefly discussed.« less

  1. RICE bounds on cosmogenic neutrino fluxes and interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hussain, Shahid

    2005-04-01

    Assuming standard model interactions we calculate shower rates induced by cosmogenic neutrinos in ice, and we bound the cosmogenic neutrino fluxes using RICE 2000-2004 results. Next we assume new interactions due to extra- dimensional, low-scale gravity (i.e. black hole production and decay; graviton mediated deep inelastic scattering) and calculate enhanced shower rates induced by cosmogenic neutrinos in ice. With the help of RICE 2000-2004 results, we survey bounds on low scale gravity parameters for a range of cosmogenic neutrino flux models.

  2. The AMANDA neutrino telescope

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Andres, E.C.; Askebjer, P.; Barwick, S.W.

    1999-04-01

    With an effective telescope area of order 10(4) m(2) for TeVneutrinos, a threshold near similar to 50 GeV and a pointing accuracy of2.5 degrees per muon track, the AMANDA detector represents the first of anew generation of high energy neutrino telescopes, reaching a scaleenvisaged over 25 years ago. We describe early results on the calibrationof natural deep ice as a particle detector as well as on AMANDA'sperformance as a neutrino telescope.

  3. New light Higgs boson and short-baseline neutrino anomalies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Asaadi, J.; Church, E.; Guenette, R.; Jones, B. J. P.; Szelc, A. M.

    2018-04-01

    The low-energy excesses observed by the MiniBooNE experiment have, to date, defied a convincing explanation under the standard model even with accommodation for nonzero neutrino mass. In this paper we explore a new oscillation mechanism to explain these anomalies, invoking a light neutrinophilic Higgs boson, conceived to induce a low Dirac neutrino mass in accord with experimental limits. Beam neutrinos forward scattering off of a locally overdense relic neutrino background give rise to a novel matter effect with an energy-specific resonance. An enhanced oscillation around this resonance peak produces flavor transitions which are highly consistent with the MiniBooNE neutrino- and antineutrino-mode data sets. The model provides substantially improved χ2 values beyond either the no-oscillation hypothesis or the more commonly explored 3 +1 sterile neutrino hypothesis. This mechanism would introduce distinctive signatures at each baseline in the upcoming short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab, presenting opportunities for further exploration.

  4. New light Higgs boson and short-baseline neutrino anomalies

    DOE PAGES

    Asaadi, J.; Church, E.; Guenette, R.; ...

    2018-04-16

    Here, the low-energy excesses observed by the MiniBooNE experiment have, to date, defied a convincing explanation under the standard model even with accommodation for nonzero neutrino mass. In this paper we explore a new oscillation mechanism to explain these anomalies, invoking a light neutrinophilic Higgs boson, conceived to induce a low Dirac neutrino mass in accord with experimental limits. Beam neutrinos forward scattering off of a locally overdense relic neutrino background give rise to a novel matter effect with an energy-specific resonance. An enhanced oscillation around this resonance peak produces flavor transitions which are highly consistent with the MiniBooNE neutrino-more » and antineutrino-mode data sets. The model provides substantially improved χ2 values beyond either the no-oscillation hypothesis or the more commonly explored 3+1 sterile neutrino hypothesis. This mechanism would introduce distinctive signatures at each baseline in the upcoming short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab, presenting opportunities for further exploration.« less

  5. New light Higgs boson and short-baseline neutrino anomalies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Asaadi, J.; Church, E.; Guenette, R.

    Here, the low-energy excesses observed by the MiniBooNE experiment have, to date, defied a convincing explanation under the standard model even with accommodation for nonzero neutrino mass. In this paper we explore a new oscillation mechanism to explain these anomalies, invoking a light neutrinophilic Higgs boson, conceived to induce a low Dirac neutrino mass in accord with experimental limits. Beam neutrinos forward scattering off of a locally overdense relic neutrino background give rise to a novel matter effect with an energy-specific resonance. An enhanced oscillation around this resonance peak produces flavor transitions which are highly consistent with the MiniBooNE neutrino-more » and antineutrino-mode data sets. The model provides substantially improved χ2 values beyond either the no-oscillation hypothesis or the more commonly explored 3+1 sterile neutrino hypothesis. This mechanism would introduce distinctive signatures at each baseline in the upcoming short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab, presenting opportunities for further exploration.« less

  6. The MSW Effect and Matter Effects in Neutrino Oscillations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smirnov, A. Yu

    2005-01-01

    The MSW (Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein) effect is the adiabatic or partially adiabatic neutrino flavor conversion in media with varying density. The main notions related to the effect, its dynamics and physical picture are reviewed. The large mixing MSW effect is realized inside the Sun providing a solution of the solar neutrino problem. The small mixing MSW effect driven by the 1 3 mixing can be realized for the supernova (SN) neutrinos. Inside collapsing stars new elements of the MSW dynamics may show up: non-oscillatory transition, non-adiabatic conversion, time dependent adiabaticity violation induced by shock waves. Effects of the resonance enhancement and the parametric enhancement of oscillations can be realized for atmospheric and accelerator neutrinos in the Earth. Precise results for neutrino oscillations in low density media with arbitrary density profile are presented and the attenuation effect is described. The area of applications is the solar and SN neutrinos inside the Earth, and the results are crucial for the neutrino oscillation tomography.

  7. The MSW Effect and Matter Effects in Neutrino Oscillations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smirnov, A. Yu.

    2006-03-01

    The MSW (Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein) effect is the adiabatic or partially adiabatic neutrino flavor conversion in media with varying density. The main notions related to the effect, its dynamics and physical picture are reviewed. The large mixing MSW effect is realized inside the Sun providing a solution of the solar neutrino problem. The small mixing MSW effect driven by the 1-3 mixing can be realized for the supernova (SN) neutrinos. Inside collapsing stars new elements of the MSW dynamics may show up: non-oscillatory transition, non-adiabatic conversion, time dependent adiabaticity violation induced by shock waves. Effects of the resonance enhancement and the parametric enhancement of oscillations can be realized for atmospheric and accelerator neutrinos in the Earth. Precise results for neutrino oscillations in low density media with arbitrary density profile are presented and the attenuation effect is described. The area of applications is the solar and SN neutrinos inside the Earth, and the results are crucial for the neutrino oscillation tomography.

  8. Astrophysical neutrinos flavored with beyond the Standard Model physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rasmussen, Rasmus W.; Lechner, Lukas; Ackermann, Markus; Kowalski, Marek; Winter, Walter

    2017-10-01

    We systematically study the allowed parameter space for the flavor composition of astrophysical neutrinos measured at Earth, including beyond the Standard Model theories at production, during propagation, and at detection. One motivation is to illustrate the discrimination power of the next-generation neutrino telescopes such as IceCube-Gen2. We identify several examples that lead to potential deviations from the standard neutrino mixing expectation such as significant sterile neutrino production at the source, effective operators modifying the neutrino propagation at high energies, dark matter interactions in neutrino propagation, or nonstandard interactions in Earth matter. IceCube-Gen2 can exclude about 90% of the allowed parameter space in these cases, and hence will allow us to efficiently test and discriminate between models. More detailed information can be obtained from additional observables such as the energy dependence of the effect, fraction of electron antineutrinos at the Glashow resonance, or number of tau neutrino events.

  9. Majorana neutrino signals at Belle-II and ILC

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yue, Chong-Xing; Guo, Yu-Chen; Zhao, Zhen-Hua

    2017-12-01

    For some theoretical and experimental considerations, the relatively light Majorana neutrinos at the GeV scale have been attracting some interest. In this article we consider a scenario with only one Majorana neutrino N, negligible mixing with the active neutrinos νL, where the Majorana neutrino interactions could be described in a model independent approach based on an effective theory. Under such a framework, we particularly study the feasibility of observing the N with mass in the range 0-30 GeV via the process e+e- → νN → γ + E̸ in the future Belle-II and ILC experiments. The results show that it is unpromising for Belle-II to observe the signal, while ILC may easily make a discovery for the Majorana neutrino.

  10. The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martineau-Huynh, Olivier; Bustamante, Mauricio; Carvalho, Washington; Charrier, Didier; De Jong, Sijbrand; de Vries, Krijn D.; Fang, Ke; Feng, Zhaoyang; Finley, Chad; Gou, Quanbu; Gu, Junhua; Hu, Hongbo; Kotera, Kumiko; Le Coz, Sandra; Medina, Clementina; Murase, Kohta; Niess, Valentin; Oikonomou, Foteini; Timmermans, Charles; Wang, Zhen; Wu, Xiangping; Zhang, Yi

    2017-03-01

    The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND) is a planned array of 2·105 radio antennas deployed over 200 000 km2 in a mountainous site. It aims primarly at detecting high-energy neutrinos via the observation of extensive air showers induced by the decay in the atmosphere of taus produced by the interaction of cosmic neutrinos under the Earth surface. GRAND aims at reaching a neutrino sensitivity of 5 · 10-11 E-2 GeV-1 cm-2 s-1 sr-1 above 3 · 1016 eV. This ensures the detection of cosmogenic neutrinos in the most pessimistic source models, and 50 events per year are expected for the standard models. The instrument will also detect UHECRs and possibly FRBs. Here we show how our preliminary design should enable us to reach our sensitivity goals, and discuss the steps to be taken to achieve GRAND, while the compelling science case for GRAND is discussed in more details in [1].

  11. The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kotera, K.; GRAND Collaboration

    2017-12-01

    The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND) project aims at detecting ultrahigh-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays with a ˜10^5 radio antenna array over 200'000 km^2 in mountainous regions in China, in order to solve the mystery of the origin of these two linked particles. Its strategy is to detect extensive air showers of the highest energies, above 10^{17} eV, that are triggered by the interaction of high-energy particles in the atmosphere or underground. In its first stages, GRAND will be competitive to detect the first cosmogenic neutrinos for favorable source scenarios. Ultimately, GRAND aims at reaching a sensitivity and angular resolution that should launch neutrino astronomy, and that will ensure the detection of these neutrinos, even in the most pessimistic cases. We present preliminary results of our simulations, plans for the ongoing, staged approach to the construction of GRAND, and the rich research program made possible by the design of GRAND.

  12. Nuclear weak interactions, supernova nucleosynthesis and neutrino oscillation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kajino, Toshitaka

    2013-07-01

    We study the nuclear weak response in light-to-heavy mass nuclei and calculate neutrino-nucleus cross sections. We apply these cross sections to the explosive nucleosynthesis in core-collapse supernovae and find that several isotopes of rare elements 7Li, 11B, 138La, 180Ta and several others are predominantly produced by the neutrino-process nucleosynthesis. We discuss how to determine the suitable neutrino spectra of three different flavors and their anti-particles in order to explain the observed solar system abundances of these isotopes, combined with Galactic chemical evolution of the light nuclei and the heavy r-process elements. Light-mass nuclei like 7Li and 11B, which are produced in outer He-layer, are strongly affected by the neutrino flavor oscillation due to the MSW (Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein) effect, while heavy-mass nuclei like 138La, 180Ta and r-process elements, which are produced in the inner O-Ne-Mg layer or the atmosphere of proto-neutron star, are likely to be free from the MSW effect. Using such a different nature of the neutrino-process nucleosynthesis, we study the neutrino oscillation effects on their abundances, and propose a new novel method to determine the unknown neutrino oscillation parameters, θ13 and mass hierarchy, simultaneously. There is recent evidence that some SiC X grains from the Murchison meteorite may contain supernova-produced neutrino-process 11B and 7Li encapsulated in the grains. Combining the recent experimental constraints on θ13, we show that although the uncertainties are still large, our method hints at a marginal preference for an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy for the first time.

  13. Search for neutrino emission from microquasars with the ANTARES telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galatà, S.

    2012-12-01

    Neutrino telescopes are nowadays exploring a new window of observation on the high energy universe and may shed light on the longstanding problem regarding the origin of cosmic rays. The ANTARES neutrino telescope is located underwater 40 km offshore from the Southern coast of France, on a plateau at 2475 m depth. Since 2007 it observes the high energy (>100 GeV) neutrino sky looking for cosmic neutrino sources. Among the candidate neutrino emitters are microquasars, i.e. galactic X-ray binaries exhibiting relativistic jets, which may accelerate hadrons thus producing neutrinos, under certain conditions. These sources are also variable in time and undergo X-ray or gamma ray outburst that can be related to the acceleration of relativistic particles witnessed by their radio emission. These events can provide a trigger to the neutrino search, with the advantage of drastically reducing the atmospheric neutrino background. A search for neutrino emission from microquasar during outbursts is presented based on the data collected by ANTARES between 2007 and 2010. Upper limits are shown and compared with the predictions.

  14. Curtailing the dark side in non-standard neutrino interactions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Coloma, Pilar; Denton, Peter B.; Gonzalez-Garcia, Maria C.

    In presence of non-standard neutrino interactions the neutrino flavor evolution equation is affected by a degeneracy which leads to the so-called LMA-Dark solution. It requires a solar mixing angle in the second octant and implies an ambiguity in the neutrino mass ordering. Non-oscillation experiments are required to break this degeneracy. We perform a combined analysis of data from oscillation experiments with the neutrino scattering experiments CHARM and NuTeV. We find that the degeneracy can be lifted if the non-standard neutrino interactions take place with down quarks, but it remains for up quarks. However, CHARM and NuTeV constraints apply only ifmore » the new interactions take place through mediators not much lighter than the electroweak scale. For light mediators we consider the possibility to resolve the degeneracy by using data from future coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments. Here we find that, for an experiment using a stopped-pion neutrino source, the LMA-Dark degeneracy will either be resolved, or the presence of new interactions in the neutrino sector will be established with high significance.« less

  15. Curtailing the dark side in non-standard neutrino interactions

    DOE PAGES

    Coloma, Pilar; Denton, Peter B.; Gonzalez-Garcia, Maria C.; ...

    2017-04-20

    In presence of non-standard neutrino interactions the neutrino flavor evolution equation is affected by a degeneracy which leads to the so-called LMA-Dark solution. It requires a solar mixing angle in the second octant and implies an ambiguity in the neutrino mass ordering. Non-oscillation experiments are required to break this degeneracy. We perform a combined analysis of data from oscillation experiments with the neutrino scattering experiments CHARM and NuTeV. We find that the degeneracy can be lifted if the non-standard neutrino interactions take place with down quarks, but it remains for up quarks. However, CHARM and NuTeV constraints apply only ifmore » the new interactions take place through mediators not much lighter than the electroweak scale. For light mediators we consider the possibility to resolve the degeneracy by using data from future coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments. Here we find that, for an experiment using a stopped-pion neutrino source, the LMA-Dark degeneracy will either be resolved, or the presence of new interactions in the neutrino sector will be established with high significance.« less

  16. Constraints on decay plus oscillation solutions of the solar neutrino problem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joshipura, Anjan S.; Massó, Eduard; Mohanty, Subhendra

    2002-12-01

    We examine the constraints on the nonradiative decay of neutrinos from the observations of solar neutrino experiments. The standard oscillation hypothesis among three neutrinos solves the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems. The decay of a massive neutrino mixed with the electron neutrino results in the depletion of the solar neutrino flux. We introduce neutrino decay in the oscillation hypothesis and demand that decay does not spoil the successful explanation of solar and atmospheric observations. We obtain a lower bound on the ratio of the lifetime over the mass of ν2, τ2/m2>22.7 s/MeV for the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein solution of the solar neutrino problem and τ2/m2>27.8 s/MeV for the vacuum oscillation solution (at 99% C.L.).

  17. Black holes at neutrino telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kowalski, M.; Ringwald, A.; Tu, H.

    2002-03-01

    In scenarios with extra dimensions and TeV-scale quantum gravity, black holes are expected to be produced in the collision of light particles at center-of-mass energies above the fundamental Planck scale with small impact parameters. Black hole production and evaporation may thus be studied in detail at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). But even before the LHC starts operating, neutrino telescopes such as AMANDA/IceCube, ANTARES, Baikal, and RICE have an opportunity to search for black hole signatures. Black hole production in the scattering of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos on nucleons in the ice or water may initiate cascades and through-going muons with distinct characteristics above the Standard Model rate. In this Letter, we investigate the sensitivity of neutrino telescopes to black hole production and compare it to the one expected at the Pierre Auger Observatory, an air shower array currently under construction, and at the LHC. We find that, already with the currently available data, AMANDA and RICE should be able to place sensible constraints in black hole production parameter space, which are competitive with the present ones from the air shower facilities Fly's Eye and AGASA. In the optimistic case that a ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrino flux significantly higher than the one expected from cosmic ray interactions with the cosmic microwave background radiation is realized in nature, one even has discovery potential for black holes at neutrino telescopes beyond the reach of LHC.

  18. Atmospheric electron neutrinos in the MINOS far detector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Speakman, Benjamin Phillip

    2007-01-01

    Neutrinos produced as a result of cosmic-ray interactions in the earth's atmosphere offer a powerful probe into the nature of this three-membered family of low-mass, weakly-interacting particles. Ten years ago, the Super-Kamiokande Experiment has confirmed earlier indications that neutrinos undergo lepton-flavor oscillations during propagation, proving that they are massive contrary to the previous Standard Model assumptions. The Soudan Underground Laboratory, located in northern Minnesota, was host to the Soudan2 Experiment, which has made important contributions to atmospheric neutrino research. This same lab has more recently been host to the MINOS far detector, a neutrino detector which serves as the downstream element of an accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment. This thesis has examined 418.5 live days of atmospheric neutrino data (fiducial exposure of 4.18 kton-years) collected in the MINOS far detector prior to the activation of the NuMI neutrino beam, with a specific emphasis on the investigation of electron-type neutrino interactions. Atmospheric neutrino interaction candidates have been selected and separated into showering or track-like events. The showering sample consists of 89 observed events, while the track-like sample consists of 112 observed events. Based on the Bartol atmospheric neutrino flux model of Barr et al. plus a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of interactions in the MINOS detector, the expected yields of showering and track-like events in the absence of neutrino oscillations are 88.0 ± 1.0 and 149.1 ± 1.0 respectively (where the uncertainties reflect only the limited MC statistics). Major systematic uncertainties, especially those associated with the flux model, are cancelled by forming a double ratio of these observed and expected yields: Rmore » $$data\\atop{trk/shw}$$/R$$MC\\atop{trk/shw}$$ = 0.74$$+0.12\\atop{-1.0}$$(stat.) ± 0.04 (syst.) This double ratio should be equal to unity in the absence of

  19. COHERENT enlightenment of the neutrino dark side

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Coloma, Pilar; Gonzalez-Garcia, M. C.; Maltoni, Michele; Schwetz, Thomas

    2017-12-01

    In the presence of nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI), oscillation data are affected by a degeneracy which allows the solar mixing angle to be in the second octant (also known as the dark side) and implies a sign flip of the atmospheric mass-squared difference. This leads to an ambiguity in the determination of the ordering of neutrino masses, one of the main goals of the current and future experimental neutrino program. We show that the recent observation of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering by the COHERENT experiment, in combination with global oscillation data, excludes the NSI degeneracy at the 3.1 σ (3.6 σ ) C.L. for NSI with up (down) quarks.

  20. Neutrino astrophysics experiments beneath the sea and ice.

    PubMed

    Halzen, Francis

    2007-01-05

    Neutrino astronomy beyond the Sun was first imagined in the late 1950s. A neutrino detector at the bottom of Lake Baikal, the deployment of detectors in the Mediterranean Sea, and the construction of a kilometer-scale neutrino telescope at the South Pole exemplify current efforts to realize this dream.

  1. How self-interactions can reconcile sterile neutrinos with cosmology.

    PubMed

    Hannestad, Steen; Hansen, Rasmus Sloth; Tram, Thomas

    2014-01-24

    Short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments have shown hints of the existence of additional sterile neutrinos in the eV mass range. However, such neutrinos seem incompatible with cosmology because they have too large of an impact on cosmic structure formation. Here we show that new interactions in the sterile neutrino sector can prevent their production in the early Universe and reconcile short baseline oscillation experiments with cosmology.

  2. Calibration of Sudbury Neutrino Observatory for the detection of boron-8 neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ford, Richard James

    1999-08-01

    The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a second generation water Čerenkov detector using 1000 tonnes of heavy water to study neutrino astrophysics. Using deuterium neutrino reactions, SNO will measure the flux and energy spectrum of solar electron neutrinos, and will measure the flavour-blind flux of neutrinos. A nitrogen/multi-dye laser diffuser ball has been designed and installed in SNO for calibration of the electronics, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and optical parameters. The laser provides pulsed radiation at 337.1 nm with a 600 psec width and pulse rate up to 50 Hz. The laser can be used directly or as a pump for one of four dye laser resonators, which provides five wavelength selections from 337-500 nm. The light is delivered to a pseudo-isotropic diffuser ball (the laserball) by a 100 μm UV-VIS fibre bundle with less than 1 nsec dispersion at 337 nm. The laserball can be deployed throughout the detector with the rope manipulator system. The laserball output is adjustable from 0.01 to 1000 photo-electrons (PE) and has a pulsewidth of 0.90 nsec at 386 nm and 1.18 nsec at 337.1 nm. A method has been developed for measuring the optical attenuation and scattering in SNO using the laserball and single photo-electron (SPE) PMT time histograms. At SPE intensity the nanosecond PMT timing can be used to separate direct and scattered light, and the extinction coefficients determined using varying path lengths from the source. A calibration function has been developed that accounts for the position and direction dependence of the response for electrons and gamma rays. The calibration function uses simplified or parameterized distributions for the Čerenkov output and detector geometry. The function is fast enough to be built in to neutrino spectrum analysis and can be used to evaluate the uncertainties in the position response. The laserball system has been tested and used to provide a PMT and electronics calibration of the detector for analysis of the airfill

  3. The case for mixed dark matter from sterile neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lello, Louis; Boyanovsky, Daniel, E-mail: lal81@pitt.edu, E-mail: boyan@pitt.edu

    2016-06-01

    Sterile neutrinos are SU(2) singlets that mix with active neutrinos via a mass matrix, its diagonalization leads to mass eigenstates that couple via standard model vertices. We study the cosmological production of heavy neutrinos via standard model charged and neutral current vertices under a minimal set of assumptions: i) the mass basis contains a hierarchy of heavy neutrinos , ii) these have very small mixing angles with the active (flavor) neutrinos, iii) standard model particles, including light (active-like) neutrinos are in thermal equilibrium. If kinematically allowed, the same weak interaction processes that produce active-like neutrinos also produce the heavier species.more » We introduce the quantum kinetic equations that describe their production, freeze out and decay and discuss the various processes that lead to their production in a wide range of temperatures assessing their feasibility as dark matter candidates. The final distribution function at freeze-out is a mixture of the result of the various production processes. We identify processes in which finite temperature collective excitations may lead to the production of the heavy species. As a specific example, we consider the production of heavy neutrinos in the mass range M {sub h} ∼< 140 MeV from pion decay shortly after the QCD crossover including finite temperature corrections to the pion form factors and mass. We consider the different decay channels that allow for the production of heavy neutrinos showing that their frozen distribution functions exhibit effects from ''kinematic entanglement'' and argue for their viability as mixed dark matter candidates. We discuss abundance, phase space density and stability constraints and argue that heavy neutrinos with lifetime τ> 1/ H {sub 0} freeze out of local thermal equilibrium, and conjecture that those with lifetimes τ || 1/ H {sub 0} may undergo cascade decay into lighter DM candidates and/or inject non-LTE neutrinos into the cosmic neutrino

  4. Physics prospects of future neutrino oscillation experiments in Asia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hagiwara, Kaoru

    2004-12-01

    The three neutrino model has 9 physical parameters, 3 neutrino masses, 3 mixing angles and 3 CP violating phases. Among them, neutrino oscillation experiments can probe 6 neutrino parameters: 2 mass squared differences, 3 mixing angles, and 1 CP phase. The experiments performed so far determined the magnitudes of the two mass squared differences, the sign of the smaller mass squared difference, the magnitudes of two of the three mixing angles, and the upper bound on the third mixing angle. The sign of the larger mass squared difference (the neutrino mass hierarchy pattern), the magnitude of the third mixing angle and the CP violating phase, and a two-fold ambiguity in the mixing angle that dictates the atmospheric neutrino oscillation should be determined by future oscillation experiments. In this talk, I introduce a few ideas of future long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments which make use of the super neutrino beams from J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex) in Tokai village. We examine the potential of HyperKamiokande (HK), the proposed 1 Mega-ton water Čerenkov detector, and then study the fate and possible detection of the off-axis beam from J-PARC in Korea, which is available free throughout the period of the T2K (Tokai-to-SuperKamiokande) and the possible T-to-HK projects. Although the CP violating phase can be measured accurately by studying ν→ν and ν→ν oscillations at HK, there appear multiple solution ambiguities which can be solved only by determining the neutrino mass hierarchy and the twofold ambiguity in the mixing angle. We show that very long baseline experiments with higher energy beams from J-PARC and a possible huge Water Čerenkov Calorimeter detector proposed in Beijing can resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy. If such a detector can be built in China, future experiments with a muon storage ring neutrino factory at J-PARC will be able to lift all the degeneracies in the three neutrino model parameters.

  5. First real-time detection of solar pp neutrinos by Borexino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pallavicini, M.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Cavalcante, P.; Chavarria, A.; Chepurnov, A.; D'Angelo, D.; Davini, S.; Derbin, A.; Empl, A.; Etenko, A.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Galbiati, C.; Gazzana, S.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Göger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Al.; Ianni, An.; Kayser, M.; Kobychev, V.; Korablëv, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Lewke, T.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Meindl, Q.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Muratova, V.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Otis, K.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Rossi, N.; Saldanha, R.; Salvo, C.; Schönert, S.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Vignaud, D.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2016-07-01

    Solar neutrinos have been pivotal to the discovery of neutrino flavour oscillations and are a unique tool to probe the reactions that keep the Sun shine. Although most of solar neutrino components have been directly measured, the neutrinos emitted by the keystone pp reaction, in which two protons fuse to make a deuteron, have so far eluded direct detection. The Borexino experiment, an ultra-pure liquid scintillator detector running at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, has now filled the gap, providing the first direct real time measurement of pp neutrinos and of the solar neutrino luminosity.

  6. Applying Bayesian Neural Network to determine neutrino incoming direction in reactor neutrino experiments and supernova explosion location by scintillator detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, W. W.; Xu, Y.; Meng, Y. X.; Wu, B.

    2009-01-01

    In the paper, it is discussed by using Monte-Carlo simulation that the Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) is applied to determine neutrino incoming direction in reactor neutrino experiments and supernova explosion location by scintillator detectors. As a result, compared to the method in ref. [1], the uncertainty on the measurement of the neutrino direction using BNN is significantly improved. The uncertainty on the measurement of the reactor neutrino direction is about 1.0° at the 68.3% C.L., and the one in the case of supernova neutrino is about 0.6° at the 68.3% C.L. . Compared to the method in ref. [1], the uncertainty attainable by using BNN reduces by a factor of about 20. And compared to the Super-Kamiokande experiment (SK), it reduces by a factor of about 8.

  7. Radiochemical Solar Neutrino Experiments - Successful and Otherwise.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hahn,R.L.

    2008-05-25

    Over the years, several different radiochemical systems have been proposed as solar neutrino detectors. Of these, two achieved operating status and obtained important results that helped to define the current field of neutrino physics: the first solar-neutrino experiment, the Chlorine Detector ({sup 37}Cl) that was developed by chemist Raymond Davis and colleagues at the Homestake Mine, and the subsequent Gallium ({sup 71}Ga) Detectors that were operated by (a) the SAGE collaboration at the Baksan Laboratory and (b) the GALLEX/GNO collaborations at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory. These experiments have been extensively discussed in the literature and in many previous Internationalmore » Neutrino Conferences. In this paper, I present important updates to the results from SAGE and GALLEX/GNO. I also review the principles of the radiochemical detectors and briefly describe several different detectors that have been proposed. In light of the well-known successes that have been subsequently obtained by real-time neutrino detectors such as Kamiokande, Super-Kamiokande, SNO, and KamLAND, I do not anticipate that any new radiochemical neutrino detectors will be built. At present, only SAGE is still operating; the Chlorine and GNO radiochemical detectors have been decommissioned and dismantled.« less

  8. Neutrino mass in flavor dependent gauged lepton model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nomura, Takaaki; Okada, Hiroshi

    2018-03-01

    We study a neutrino model introducing an additional nontrivial gauged lepton symmetry where the neutrino masses are induced at two-loop level, while the first and second charged-leptons of the standard model are done at one-loop level. As a result of the model structure, we can predict one massless active neutrino, and there is a dark matter candidate. Then we discuss the neutrino mass matrix, muon anomalous magnetic moment, lepton flavor violations, oblique parameters, and relic density of dark matter, taking into account the experimental constraints.

  9. Double Beta Decays and Neutrinos - Experiments and MOON

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ejiri, H.; National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, 263-8555

    2008-01-24

    This is a brief review of the present and future experiments of neutrino-less double beta decays (0{nu}{beta}{beta}) and the MOON (Mo Observatory Of Neutrinos) project. High sensitivity 0{nu}{beta}{beta} experiments are unique and realistic probes for studying the Majorana nature of neutrinos and the absolute mass scale as suggested by neutrino oscillation experiments. MOON aims at spectroscopic 0{nu}{beta}{beta} studies with the {nu}-mass sensitivity of 100-30 meV by means of a super ensemble of multilayer modules of scintillator plates and tracking detector planes.

  10. Light sterile neutrinos and inflationary freedom

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gariazzo, S.; Giunti, C.; Laveder, M., E-mail: gariazzo@to.infn.it, E-mail: giunti@to.infn.it, E-mail: laveder@pd.infn.it

    2015-04-01

    We perform a cosmological analysis in which we allow the primordial power spectrum of scalar perturbations to assume a shape that is different from the usual power-law predicted by the simplest models of cosmological inflation. We parameterize the free primordial power spectrum with a ''piecewise cubic Hermite interpolating polynomial'' (PCHIP). We consider a 3+1 neutrino mixing model with a sterile neutrino having a mass at the eV scale, which can explain the anomalies observed in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. We find that the freedom of the primordial power spectrum allows to reconcile the cosmological data with a fully thermalized sterilemore » neutrino in the early Universe. Moreover, the cosmological analysis gives us some information on the shape of the primordial power spectrum, which presents a feature around the wavenumber k=0.002 Mpc{sup −1}.« less

  11. Viable twin cosmology from neutrino mixing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Csáki, Csaba; Kuflik, Eric; Lombardo, Salvator

    2017-09-01

    Twin Higgs models solve the little hierarchy problem without introducing new colored particles; however, they are often in tension with measurements of the radiation density at late times. Here we explore viable cosmological histories for twin Higgs models. In particular, we show that mixing between the Standard Model (SM) and twin neutrinos can thermalize the two sectors below the twin QCD phase transition, significantly reducing the twin sector's contribution to the radiation density. The requisite twin neutrino masses of O (1 - 20 ) GeV and mixing angle with SM neutrinos of 10-3-10-5 can be probed in a variety of current and planned experiments. We further find that these parameters can be naturally accessed in a warped UV completion, where the neutrino sector can also generate the Z2-breaking Higgs mass term needed to produce the hierarchy between the symmetry breaking scales f and v .

  12. Contraction of electroweak model and neutrino

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gromov, N. A., E-mail: gromov@dm.komisc.ru

    The electroweak model, which lepton sector correspond to the contracted gauge group SU(2; j) Multiplication-Sign U(1), j {yields} 0, whereas boson and quark sectors are standard one, is suggested. The field space of the model is fibered under contraction in such a way that neutrino fields are in the fiber and all other fields are in the base. Properties of the fibered field space are understood in context of semi-Riemannian geometry. This model describes in a natural manner why neutrinos so rarely interact with matter, as well as why neutrino cross section increase with the energy. Dimensionfull parameter of themore » model is interpreted as neutrino energy. Dimensionless contraction parameter j at low energy is connected with the Fermi constant of weak interactions and is approximated as j{sup 2} Almost-Equal-To 10{sup -5}.« less

  13. Heavy right-handed neutrino dark matter and PeV neutrinos at IceCube

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Dev, P.S. Bhupal; Kazanas, D.; Mohapatra, R.N.

    2016-08-17

    We discuss a simple non-supersymmetric model based on the electroweak gauge group SU(2){sub L}×SU(2){sup ′}×U(1){sub B−L} where the lightest of the right-handed neutrinos, which are part of the leptonic doublet of SU(2){sup ′}, play the role of a long-lived unstable dark matter with mass in the multi-PeV range. We use a resonant s-channel annihilation to obtain the correct thermal relic density and relax the unitarity bound on dark matter mass. In this model, there exists a 3-body dark matter decay mode producing tau leptons and neutrinos, which could be the source for the PeV cascade events observed in the IceCubemore » experiment. The model can be tested with more precise flavor information of the highest-energy neutrino events in future data.« less

  14. Looking for Sterile Neutrinos via Neutral-Current Disappearance with NOvA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Shaokai; NOvA Collaboration

    2017-01-01

    Contradictory evidence has been presented on the issue of neutrino mixing between the three known active neutrinos and light sterile neutrinos. The excess of events as seen by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments interpreted as short-baseline neutrino oscillations, the collective evidence of the reactor neutrino anomaly, and the gallium anomaly all point towards sterile neutrinos with mass at the 1 eV level. While these results are tantalizing, they are not conclusive as they are in tension with null results from other short-baseline experiments, and with disappearance searches in long-baseline and atmospheric experiments. Resolving the issue of the existence of light sterile neutrinos has profound implications for both particle physics and cosmology. The NOvA (NuMI Off-Axis νe Appearance) experiment may help clarify the situation by searching for disappearance of active neutrinos from the NuMI (Neutrinos from the Main Injector) beam over a baseline of 810 km. In this talk, we will describe a method of how NOvA can look for oscillations into sterile neutrinos, with focus on disappearance of neutral current (NC) neutrino events, will present the first analysis result of this search, discuss their implications in constraining the existence of light sterile neutrinos, and the planned updates to this analysis.

  15. A method for measuring coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering at a far off-axis high-energy neutrino beam target

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brice, S. J.; Cooper, R. L.; DeJongh, F.

    2014-04-03

    We present an experimental method for measuring the process of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CENNS). This method uses a detector situated transverse to a high-energy neutrino beam production target. This detector would be sensitive to the low-energy neutrinos arising from decay-at-rest pions in the target. We discuss the physics motivation for making this measurement and outline the predicted backgrounds and sensitivities using this approach. We report a measurement of neutron backgrounds as found in an off-axis surface location of the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) target. The results indicate that the Fermilab BNB target is a favorable location for amore » CENNS experiment.« less

  16. Search for diffuse neutrino flux from astrophysical sources with MACRO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    MACRO Collaboration; Ambrosio, M.; Antolini, R.; Auriemma, G.; Bakari, D.; Baldini, A.; Barbarino, G. C.; Barish, B. C.; Battistoni, G.; Becherini, Y.; Bellotti, R.; Bemporad, C.; Bernardini, P.; Bilokon, H.; Bloise, C.; Bower, C.; Brigida, M.; Bussino, S.; Cafagna, F.; Calicchio, M.; Campana, D.; Carboni, M.; Caruso, R.; Cecchini, S.; Cei, F.; Chiarella, V.; Choudhary, B. C.; Coutu, S.; Cozzi, M.; de Cataldo, G.; Dekhissi, H.; de Marzo, C.; de Mitri, I.; Derkaoui, J.; de Vincenzi, M.; di Credico, A.; Erriquez, O.; Favuzzi, C.; Forti, C.; Fusco, P.; Giacomelli, G.; Giannini, G.; Giglietto, N.; Giorgini, M.; Grassi, M.; Grillo, A.; Guarino, F.; Gustavino, C.; Habig, A.; Hanson, K.; Heinz, R.; Iarocci, E.; Katsavounidis, E.; Katsavounidis, I.; Kearns, E.; Kim, H.; Kyriazopoulou, S.; Lamanna, E.; Lane, C.; Levin, D. S.; Lipari, P.; Longley, N. P.; Longo, M. J.; Loparco, F.; Maaroufi, F.; Mancarella, G.; Mandrioli, G.; Margiotta, A.; Marini, A.; Martello, D.; Marzari-Chiesa, A.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Michael, D. G.; Monacelli, P.; Montaruli, T.; Monteno, M.; Mufson, S.; Musser, J.; Nicolò, D.; Nolty, R.; Orth, C.; Osteria, G.; Palamara, O.; Patera, V.; Patrizii, L.; Pazzi, R.; Peck, C. W.; Perrone, L.; Petrera, S.; Pistilli, P.; Popa, V.; Rainò, A.; Reynoldson, J.; Ronga, F.; Rrhioua, A.; Satriano, C.; Scapparone, E.; Scholberg, K.; Sciubba, A.; Serra, P.; Sioli, M.; Sirri, G.; Sitta, M.; Spinelli, P.; Spinetti, M.; Spurio, M.; Steinberg, R.; Stone, J. L.; Sulak, L. R.; Surdo, A.; Tarlè, G.; Togo, V.; Vakili, M.; Walter, C. W.; Webb, R.

    2003-04-01

    Many galactic and extragalactic astrophysical sources are currently considered promising candidates as high-energy neutrino emitters. Astrophysical neutrinos can be detected as upward-going muons produced in charged-current interactions with the medium surrounding the detector. The expected neutrino fluxes from various models start to dominate on the atmospheric neutrino background at neutrino energies above some tens of TeV. We present the results of a search for an excess of high-energy upward-going muons among the sample of data collected by MACRO during ~5.8 years of effective running time. No significant evidence for this signal was found. As a consequence, an upper limit on the flux of upward-going muons from high-energy neutrinos was set at the level of 1.7×10-14 cm-2s-1sr-1. The corresponding upper limit for the diffuse neutrino flux was evaluated assuming a neutrino power law spectrum. Our result was compared with theoretical predictions and upper limits from other experiments.

  17. Neutrino masses and their ordering: global data, priors and models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gariazzo, S.; Archidiacono, M.; de Salas, P. F.; Mena, O.; Ternes, C. A.; Tórtola, M.

    2018-03-01

    We present a full Bayesian analysis of the combination of current neutrino oscillation, neutrinoless double beta decay and Cosmic Microwave Background observations. Our major goal is to carefully investigate the possibility to single out one neutrino mass ordering, namely Normal Ordering or Inverted Ordering, with current data. Two possible parametrizations (three neutrino masses versus the lightest neutrino mass plus the two oscillation mass splittings) and priors (linear versus logarithmic) are exhaustively examined. We find that the preference for NO is only driven by neutrino oscillation data. Moreover, the values of the Bayes factor indicate that the evidence for NO is strong only when the scan is performed over the three neutrino masses with logarithmic priors; for every other combination of parameterization and prior, the preference for NO is only weak. As a by-product of our Bayesian analyses, we are able to (a) compare the Bayesian bounds on the neutrino mixing parameters to those obtained by means of frequentist approaches, finding a very good agreement; (b) determine that the lightest neutrino mass plus the two mass splittings parametrization, motivated by the physical observables, is strongly preferred over the three neutrino mass eigenstates scan and (c) find that logarithmic priors guarantee a weakly-to-moderately more efficient sampling of the parameter space. These results establish the optimal strategy to successfully explore the neutrino parameter space, based on the use of the oscillation mass splittings and a logarithmic prior on the lightest neutrino mass, when combining neutrino oscillation data with cosmology and neutrinoless double beta decay. We also show that the limits on the total neutrino mass ∑ mν can change dramatically when moving from one prior to the other. These results have profound implications for future studies on the neutrino mass ordering, as they crucially state the need for self-consistent analyses which explore the

  18. Stimulated neutrino transformation through turbulence

    DOE PAGES

    Patton, Kelly M.; Kneller, James P.; McLaughlin, Gail C.

    2014-04-30

    We derive an analytical solution for the flavor evolution of a neutrino through a turbulent density profile which is found to accurately predict the amplitude and transition wavelength of numerical solutions on a case-by-case basis. The evolution is seen to strongly depend upon those Fourier modes in the turbulence which are approximately the same as the splitting between neutrino eigenvalues. Transitions are strongly enhanced by those Fourier modes in the turbulence which are approximately the same as the splitting between neutrino eigenvalues. Lastly, we also find a suppression of transitions due to the long wavelength modes when the ratio ofmore » their amplitude and the wavenumber is of order, or greater than, the first root of the Bessel function J 0.« less

  19. High intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe

    DOE PAGES

    Edgecock, T. R.; Caretta, O.; Davenne, T.; ...

    2013-02-20

    The EUROnu project has studied three possible options for future, high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The first is a Super Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of pions created by bombarding targets with a 4 MW proton beam from the CERN High Power Superconducting Proton Linac. The far detector for this facility is the 500 kt MEMPHYS water Cherenkov, located in the Fréjus tunnel. The second facility is the Neutrino Factory, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of μ + and μ – beams in a storage ring. The far detector in thismore » case is a 100 kt magnetized iron neutrino detector at a baseline of 2000 km. The third option is a Beta Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of beta emitting isotopes, in particular 6He and 18Ne, also stored in a ring. The far detector is also the MEMPHYS detector in the Fréjus tunnel. EUROnu has undertaken conceptual designs of these facilities and studied the performance of the detectors. Based on this, it has determined the physics reach of each facility, in particular for the measurement of CP violation in the lepton sector, and estimated the cost of construction. These have demonstrated that the best facility to build is the Neutrino Factory. Furthermore, if a powerful proton driver is constructed for another purpose or if the MEMPHYS detector is built for astroparticle physics, the Super Beam also becomes very attractive.« less

  20. Neutrino Analysis of the September 2010 Crab Nebula Flare and Time-Integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission from the Crab Using IceCube

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Abbasi, R.; Abdou, Y.; Abu-Zayyad, T.; Adams, J.; Aguilar, A.; Ahlers, M.; Altmann; Andeen, K.; Auffenberg, J; Bai, X.; hide

    2012-01-01

    We present the results for a search of high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab nebula flare reported on September 2010 by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed gamma-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E(sub v)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum typical of 1st order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab [35]. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cut-offs as observed for various galactic sources in gamma-rays. The 90% CL best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 x 10(exp -11) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for an E(sub v)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum and 2.50 x 10(exp -10) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for a softer neutrino spectra of E(sub v)(sup -2.7), as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. IceCube has also set a time-integrated limit on the neutrino emission of the Crab using 375.5 days of livetime of the 40-string configuration data. This limit is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

  1. Neutrino Analysis of the September 2010 Crab Nebula Flare and Time-integrated Constraints on Neutrino Emission From the Crab Using IceCube

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stamatikos, M.; Abbasi, R.; Abdou, Y.; Abu-Zayyad, T.; Adams, J.; Aguliar, J. A.; Ahlers, M.; Altmann, D.; Andeen, K.; Auffenberg, J.; hide

    2012-01-01

    We present the results for a search of high-energy muon neutrinos with the IceCube detector in coincidence with the Crab nebula flare reported on September 2010 by various experiments. Due to the unusual flaring state of the otherwise steady source we performed a prompt analysis of the 79-string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed gamma-rays. We performed two different and complementary data selections of neutrino events in the time window of 10 days around the flare. One event selection is optimized for discovery of E(sub nu)(sup -2) neutrino spectrum typical of 1st order Fermi acceleration. A similar event selection has also been applied to the 40-string data to derive the time-integrated limits to the neutrino emission from the Crab [35]. The other event selection was optimized for discovery of neutrino spectra with softer spectral index and TeV energy cut-offs as observed for various galactic sources in gamma-rays. The 90% CL best upper limits on the Crab flux during the 10 day flare are 4.73 x 10(exp -11) per square centimeter per second TeV (sup -1) for an E(sub nu) (sup -2) neutrino spectrum and 2.50 x 10(exp -10) per square centimeter per second TeV(sup -1) for a softer neutrino spectra of E(sub nu)(sup -2.7), as indicated by Fermi measurements during the flare. IceCube has also set a time-integrated limit on the neutrino emission of the Crab using 375.5 days of livetime of the 40-string configuration data. This limit is compared to existing models of neutrino production from the Crab and its impact on astrophysical parameters is discussed. The most optimistic predictions of some models are already rejected by the IceCube neutrino telescope with more than 90% CL.

  2. Five years of searches for point sources of astrophysical neutrinos with the AMANDA-II neutrino telescope

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Achterberg, A.; Duvoort, M. R.; Heise, J.

    2007-05-15

    We report the results of a five-year survey of the northern sky to search for point sources of high energy neutrinos. The search was performed on the data collected with the AMANDA-II neutrino telescope in the years 2000 to 2004, with a live time of 1001 days. The sample of selected events consists of 4282 upward going muon tracks with high reconstruction quality and an energy larger than about 100 GeV. We found no indication of point sources of neutrinos and set 90% confidence level flux upper limits for an all-sky search and also for a catalog of 32 selectedmore » sources. For the all-sky search, our average (over declination and right ascension) experimentally observed upper limit {phi}{sup 0}=((E/1 TeV)){sup {gamma}}{center_dot}(d{phi}/dE) to a point source flux of muon and tau neutrino (detected as muons arising from taus) is {phi}{sub {nu}{sub {mu}}+{nu}{sub {mu}}{sup 0}}+{phi}{sub {nu}{sub {tau}}+{nu}{sub {tau}}}{sup 0}=11.1x 10{sup -11} TeV{sup -1} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, in the energy range between 1.6 TeV and 2.5 PeV for a flavor ratio {phi}{sub {nu}{sub {mu}}+{nu}{sub {mu}}{sup 0}}/{phi}{sub {nu}{sub {tau}}+{nu}{sub {tau}}}{sup 0}=1 and assuming a spectral index {gamma}=2. It should be noticed that this is the first time we set upper limits to the flux of muon and tau neutrinos. In previous papers we provided muon neutrino upper limits only neglecting the sensitivity to a signal from tau neutrinos, which improves the limits by 10% to 16%. The value of the average upper limit presented in this work corresponds to twice the limit on the muon neutrino flux {phi}{sub {nu}{sub {mu}}+{nu}{sub {mu}}}{sup 0}=5.5x10{sup -11} TeV{sup -1} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}. A stacking analysis for preselected active galactic nuclei and a search based on the angular separation of the events were also performed. We report the most stringent flux upper limits to date, including the results of a detailed assessment of systematic uncertainties.« less

  3. Analytic Neutrino Oscillation Probabilities in Matter: Revisited

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Parke, Stephen J.; Denton, Peter B.; Minakata, Hisakazu

    2018-01-02

    We summarize our recent paper on neutrino oscillation probabilities in matter, explaining the importance, relevance and need for simple, highly accurate approximations to the neutrino oscillation probabilities in matter.

  4. Exploring a nonminimal sterile neutrino model involving decay at IceCube

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moss, Z.; Moulai, M. H.; Argüelles, C. A.; Conrad, J. M.

    2018-03-01

    We study the phenomenology of neutrino decay together with neutrino oscillations in the context of eV-scale sterile neutrinos. We review the formalism of visible neutrino decay in which one of the decay products is a neutrino that potentially can be observed. We apply the formalism developed for decay to the recent sterile neutrino search performed by IceCube with TeV neutrinos. We show that for a ν4 lifetime τ4/m4≲10-16 eV-1 s , the interpretation of the high-energy IceCube analysis can be significantly changed.

  5. High-energy spectra of atmospheric neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrova, O. N.; Sinegovskaya, T. S.; Sinegovsky, S. I.

    2012-12-01

    A calculation of the atmospheric high-energy muon neutrino spectra and zenith-angle distributions is performed for two primary spectrum parameterizations (by Gaisser and Honda and by Zatsepin and Sokolskaya) with the use of QGSJET-II-03 and SIBYLL 2.1 hadronic models. A comparison of the zenith angle-averaged muon neutrino spectrum with the data of Frejus, AMANDA-II, and IceCube40 experiments makes it clear that, even at energies above 100 TeV, the prompt neutrino contribution is not apparent because of the considerable uncertainties of the experimental data in the high-energy region.

  6. Sterile neutrino dark matter with supersymmetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shakya, Bibhushan; Wells, James D.

    2017-08-01

    Sterile neutrino dark matter, a popular alternative to the WIMP paradigm, has generally been studied in non-supersymmetric setups. If the underlying theory is supersymmetric, we find that several interesting and novel dark matter features can arise. In particular, in scenarios of freeze-in production of sterile neutrino dark matter, its superpartner, the sterile sneutrino, can play a crucial role in early Universe cosmology as the dominant source of cold, warm, or hot dark matter, or of a subdominant relativistic population of sterile neutrinos that can contribute to the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom Neff during big bang nucleosynthesis.

  7. Neutrino flavour evolution through fluctuating matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Y.; Kneller, J. P.

    2018-04-01

    A neutrino propagating through fluctuating matter can experience large amplitude transitions between its states. Such transitions occur in supernovae and compact object mergers due to turbulent matter profiles and neutrino self-interactions. In this paper we study, both numerically and analytically, three-flavour neutrino transformation through fluctuating matter built from two and three Fourier modes (FMs). We find flavour transformation effects which cannot occur with just two flavours. For the case of two FMs we observe the equivalent of ‘induced transparency’ from quantum optics whereby transitions between a given pair of states are suppressed due to the presence of a resonant mode between another pair. When we add a third FM we find a new effect whereby the third mode can manipulate the transition probabilities of the two mode case so as to force complete transparency or, alternatively, restore ‘opacity’ meaning the perturbative Hamiltonian regains its ability to induce neutrino flavour transitions. In both applications we find analytic solutions are able to match the amplitude and wavenumber of the numerical results to within a few percent. We then consider a case of turbulence and show how the theory can be used to understand the very different response of a neutrino to what appears to be two, almost identical, instances of turbulence.

  8. Probing a four flavor vis-a-vis three flavor neutrino mixing for ultrahigh energy neutrino signals at a 1 km2 detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pandey, Madhurima; Majumdar, Debasish; Dutta Banik, Amit

    2018-05-01

    We consider a four-flavor scenario for the neutrinos where an extra sterile neutrino is introduced to the three families of active neutrinos and study the deviation from the three-flavor scenario in the ultrahigh-energy (UHE) regime. We calculate the possible muon and shower yields at a 1 km2 detector such as IceCube for these neutrinos from distant UHE sources, e.g., gamma-ray bursts, etc. Similar estimations for muon and shower yields are also obtained for the three-flavor case. Comparing the two results, we find considerable differences between the yields for these two cases. This can be useful for probing the existence of a fourth sterile component using UHE neutrino flux.

  9. Atmospheric neutrinos and proton decay in Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Zepeng; Super-Kamiokande Collaboration; Hyper-Kamiokande Collaboration

    2017-06-01

    Super-Kamiokande is a 50 kton water Cherenkov detector, which has been in operation since 1996. Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino data have a preference for the normal neutrino mass hierarchy (Δχ2 = χNH2- χIH2 = - 4.3) when the constraints from reactor neutrino experiments are included. The search for tau neutrino appearance from neutrino oscillations has resulted in a 4.6σ exclusion of the hypothesis of no tau appearance. Hyper-Kamiokande is a proposed next-generation water Cherenkov detector, which will be a natural extension of Super-Kamiokande. The proposed experiment will have two cylindrical tanks containing 520 kton of water in total. Hyper-K will search for CP violation using the neutrino beam from J-PARC, and will have a broad physics program including studies of atmospheric neutrinos, supernova burst neutrinos, geo-neutrinos and searches for proton decay.

  10. Detection of tau neutrinos by imaging air Cherenkov telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Góra, D.; Bernardini, E.

    2016-09-01

    This paper investigates the potential to detect tau neutrinos in the energy range of 1-1000 PeV searching for very inclined showers with imaging Cherenkov telescopes. A neutrino induced tau lepton escaping from the Earth may decay and initiate an air shower which can be detected by a fluorescence or Cherenkov telescope. We present here a study of the detection potential of Earth-skimming neutrinos taking into account neutrino interactions in the Earth crust, local matter distributions at various detector sites, the development of tau-induced showers in air and the detection of Cherenkov photons with IACTs. We analyzed simulated shower images on the camera focal plane and implemented generic reconstruction chains based on Hillas parameters. We find that present IACTs can distinguish air showers induced by tau neutrinos from the background of hadronic showers in the PeV-EeV energy range. We present the neutrino trigger efficiency obtained for a few configurations being considered for the next-generation Cherenkov telescopes, i.e. the Cherenkov Telescope Array. Finally, for a few representative neutrino spectra expected from astrophysical sources, we compare the expected event rates at running IACTs to what is expected for the dedicated IceCube neutrino telescope.

  11. Equilibrium thermodynamics and neutrino decoupling in quasi-metric cosmology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Østvang, Dag

    2018-05-01

    The laws of thermodynamics in the expanding universe are formulated within the quasi-metric framework. The quasi-metric cosmic expansion does not directly influence momenta of material particles, so the expansion directly cools null particles only (e.g., photons). Therefore, said laws differ substantially from their counterparts in standard cosmology. Consequently, all non-null neutrino mass eigenstates are predicted to have the same energy today as they had just after neutrino decoupling in the early universe. This indicates that the predicted relic neutrino background is strongly inconsistent with detection rates measured in solar neutrino detectors (Borexino in particular). Thus quasi-metric cosmology is in violent conflict with experiment unless some exotic property of neutrinos makes the relic neutrino background essentially undetectable (e.g., if all massive mass eigenstates decay into "invisible" particles over cosmic time scales). But in absence of hard evidence in favour of the necessary exotic neutrino physics needed to resolve said conflict, the current status of quasi-metric relativity has been changed to non-viable.

  12. Tachyon dynamics — for neutrinos?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schwartz, Charles

    2018-04-01

    Following earlier studies that provided a consistent theory of kinematics for tachyons (faster-than-light particles), we here embark on a study of tachyon dynamics, both in classical physics and in the quantum theory. Examining a general scattering process, we come to recognize that the labels given to “in” and “out” states are not Lorentz invariant for tachyons; and this lets us find a sensible interpretation of negative energy states. For statistical mechanics, as well as for scattering problems, we study what should be the proper expression for density of states for tachyons. We review the previous work on quantization of a Dirac field for tachyons and go on to expand earlier considerations of neutrinos as tachyons in the context of cosmology. We stumble into the realization that tachyon neutrinos would contribute to gravitation with the opposite sign compared to tachyon antineutrinos. This leads to the gobsmacking prediction that the Cosmic Neutrino Background, if they are indeed tachyons, might explain both phenomena of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. This theoretical study also makes contact with the anticipated results from the experiments KATRIN and PTOLEMY, which focus on beta decay and neutrino absorption by Tritium.

  13. An algorithm for the reconstruction of high-energy neutrino-induced particle showers and its application to the ANTARES neutrino telescope.

    PubMed

    Albert, A; André, M; Anghinolfi, M; Anton, G; Ardid, M; Aubert, J-J; Avgitas, T; Baret, B; Barrios-Martí, J; Basa, S; Bertin, V; Biagi, S; Bormuth, R; Bourret, S; Bouwhuis, M C; Bruijn, R; Brunner, J; Busto, J; Capone, A; Caramete, L; Carr, J; Celli, S; Chiarusi, T; Circella, M; Coelho, J A B; Coleiro, A; Coniglione, R; Costantini, H; Coyle, P; Creusot, A; Deschamps, A; De Bonis, G; Distefano, C; Di Palma, I; Domi, A; Donzaud, C; Dornic, D; Drouhin, D; Eberl, T; El Bojaddaini, I; Elsässer, D; Enzenhöfer, A; Felis, I; Folger, F; Fusco, L A; Galatà, S; Gay, P; Giordano, V; Glotin, H; Grégoire, T; Gracia Ruiz, R; Graf, K; Hallmann, S; van Haren, H; Heijboer, A J; Hello, Y; Hernández-Rey, J J; Hößl, J; Hofestädt, J; Hugon, C; Illuminati, G; James, C W; de Jong, M; Jongen, M; Kadler, M; Kalekin, O; Katz, U; Kießling, D; Kouchner, A; Kreter, M; Kreykenbohm, I; Kulikovskiy, V; Lachaud, C; Lahmann, R; Lefèvre, D; Leonora, E; Lotze, M; Loucatos, S; Marcelin, M; Margiotta, A; Marinelli, A; Martínez-Mora, J A; Mele, R; Melis, K; Michael, T; Migliozzi, P; Moussa, A; Nezri, E; Organokov, M; Păvălaş, G E; Pellegrino, C; Perrina, C; Piattelli, P; Popa, V; Pradier, T; Quinn, L; Racca, C; Riccobene, G; Sánchez-Losa, A; Saldaña, M; Salvadori, I; Samtleben, D F E; Sanguineti, M; Sapienza, P; Schüssler, F; Sieger, C; Spurio, M; Stolarczyk, Th; Taiuti, M; Tayalati, Y; Trovato, A; Turpin, D; Tönnis, C; Vallage, B; Van Elewyck, V; Versari, F; Vivolo, D; Vizzoca, A; Wilms, J; Zornoza, J D; Zúñiga, J

    2017-01-01

    A novel algorithm to reconstruct neutrino-induced particle showers within the ANTARES neutrino telescope is presented. The method achieves a median angular resolution of [Formula: see text] for shower energies below 100 TeV. Applying this algorithm to 6 years of data taken with the ANTARES detector, 8 events with reconstructed shower energies above 10 TeV are observed. This is consistent with the expectation of about 5 events from atmospheric backgrounds, but also compatible with diffuse astrophysical flux measurements by the IceCube collaboration, from which 2-4 additional events are expected. A [Formula: see text] C.L. upper limit on the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux with a value per neutrino flavour of [Formula: see text] is set, applicable to the energy range from 23 TeV to 7.8 PeV, assuming an unbroken [Formula: see text] spectrum and neutrino flavour equipartition at Earth.

  14. Lepton asymmetry, neutrino spectral distortions, and big bang nucleosynthesis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grohs, E.; Fuller, George M.; Kishimoto, C. T.; Paris, Mark W.

    2017-03-01

    We calculate Boltzmann neutrino energy transport with self-consistently coupled nuclear reactions through the weak-decoupling-nucleosynthesis epoch in an early universe with significant lepton numbers. We find that the presence of lepton asymmetry enhances processes which give rise to nonthermal neutrino spectral distortions. Our results reveal how asymmetries in energy and entropy density uniquely evolve for different transport processes and neutrino flavors. The enhanced distortions in the neutrino spectra alter the expected big bang nucleosynthesis light element abundance yields relative to those in the standard Fermi-Dirac neutrino distribution cases. These yields, sensitive to the shapes of the neutrino energy spectra, are also sensitive to the phasing of the growth of distortions and entropy flow with time/scale factor. We analyze these issues and speculate on new sensitivity limits of deuterium and helium to lepton number.

  15. Real-time supernova neutrino burst monitor at Super-Kamiokande

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, K.; Haga, Y.; Hayato, Y.; Ikeda, M.; Iyogi, K.; Kameda, J.; Kishimoto, Y.; Miura, M.; Moriyama, S.; Nakahata, M.; Nakano, Y.; Nakayama, S.; Sekiya, H.; Shiozawa, M.; Suzuki, Y.; Takeda, A.; Tanaka, H.; Tomura, T.; Ueno, K.; Wendell, R. A.; Yokozawa, T.; Irvine, T.; Kajita, T.; Kametani, I.; Kaneyuki, K.; Lee, K. P.; McLachlan, T.; Nishimura, Y.; Richard, E.; Okumura, K.; Labarga, L.; Fernandez, P.; Berkman, S.; Tanaka, H. A.; Tobayama, S.; Gustafson, J.; Kearns, E.; Raaf, J. L.; Stone, J. L.; Sulak, L. R.; Goldhaber, M.; Carminati, G.; Kropp, W. R.; Mine, S.; Weatherly, P.; Renshaw, A.; Smy, M. B.; Sobel, H. W.; Takhistov, V.; Ganezer, K. S.; Hartfiel, B. L.; Hill, J.; Keig, W. E.; Hong, N.; Kim, J. Y.; Lim, I. T.; Akiri, T.; Himmel, A.; Scholberg, K.; Walter, C. W.; Wongjirad, T.; Ishizuka, T.; Tasaka, S.; Jang, J. S.; Learned, J. G.; Matsuno, S.; Smith, S. N.; Hasegawa, T.; Ishida, T.; Ishii, T.; Kobayashi, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakamura, K.; Oyama, Y.; Sakashita, K.; Sekiguchi, T.; Tsukamoto, T.; Suzuki, A. T.; Takeuchi, Y.; Bronner, C.; Hirota, S.; Huang, K.; Ieki, K.; Kikawa, T.; Minamino, A.; Murakami, A.; Nakaya, T.; Suzuki, K.; Takahashi, S.; Tateishi, K.; Fukuda, Y.; Choi, K.; Itow, Y.; Mitsuka, G.; Mijakowski, P.; Hignight, J.; Imber, J.; Jung, C. K.; Yanagisawa, C.; Wilking, M. J.; Ishino, H.; Kibayashi, A.; Koshio, Y.; Mori, T.; Sakuda, M.; Yamaguchi, R.; Yano, T.; Kuno, Y.; Tacik, R.; Kim, S. B.; Okazawa, H.; Choi, Y.; Nishijima, K.; Koshiba, M.; Suda, Y.; Totsuka, Y.; Yokoyama, M.; Martens, K.; Marti, Ll.; Vagins, M. R.; Martin, J. F.; de Perio, P.; Konaka, A.; Chen, S.; Zhang, Y.; Connolly, K.; Wilkes, R. J.

    2016-08-01

    We present a real-time supernova neutrino burst monitor at Super-Kamiokande (SK). Detecting supernova explosions by neutrinos in real time is crucial for giving a clear picture of the explosion mechanism. Since the neutrinos are expected to come earlier than light, a fast broadcasting of the detection may give astronomers a chance to make electromagnetic radiation observations of the explosions right at the onset. The role of the monitor includes a fast announcement of the neutrino burst detection to the world and a determination of the supernova direction. We present the online neutrino burst detection system and studies of the direction determination accuracy based on simulations at SK.

  16. E sub 6 leptoquarks and the solar neutrino problem

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Roulet, Esteban

    1991-01-01

    The possibility that non-conventional neutrino oscillations take place in the superstring inspired E sub 6 models is considered. In this context, the influence of leptoquark mediated interactions of the neutrinos with nucleons in the resonant flavor conversion is discussed. It is shown that this effect can be significant for v sub e - v sub tau oscillations if these neutrinos have masses required in the ordinary Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect, and may lead to a solution of the solar neutrino problem even in the absence of vacuum mixings. On the other hand, this model cannot lead to a resonant behavior in the sun if the neutrinos are massless.

  17. Experimental Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics with the IMB-3 Detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Casper, David William

    1990-01-01

    Description of the universe on the smallest (elementary particle physics) and largest (cosmology) scales has become dependent on the properties of the most weakly interacting fundamental particle known, the neutrino. The IMB experiment, designed to study nucleon decay, is also the world's largest detector of neutrinos. The experiment uses 6800 tons (3300 tons fiducial) of water as both target and detecting medium. Relativistic charges particles traversing the water radiate Cerenkov light. The distinctive ring patterns are imaged by 2048 light collectors (each a photo-multiplier tube coupled with a wavelength-shifting plate) distributed over the surfaces of the tank. This dissertation describes the IMB-3 detector, a four-fold increase in sensitivity over the original apparatus. Neutrino interactions of both atmospheric and extragalactic origin were collected during a 3.4 kiloton-year exposure. A consequence of non-zero neutrino mass could be oscillation of neutrino flavor. The energies and long flight distances of atmospheric neutrinos offer a unique opportunity to explore this possibility. To study the composition of the atmospheric neutrinos, single-ring events are classified as showering or non-showering using the geometry of the Cerenkov pattern. A simulation of neutrino interactions and a model of atmospheric neutrino production are used to predict the composition of the sample. The showering/non-showering character of an event is strongly correlated with the flavor of its neutrino parent. In the lepton momentum range p < 1500 MeV/c, non-showering events comprise 41 +/- 3(stat.) +/- 2(syst.)% of the total. The fraction expected is 51 +/- 5(syst.)%. Although this is evidence for an anomaly in the composition of atmospheric neutrinos, the 2sigma deviation is not sufficient to require neutrino oscillations. Eight interactions recorded over a six second interval on February 23, 1987 are coincident with the discovery of Supernova 1987a. These data, together with

  18. Studies of mu-neutrino going to e-neutrino oscillation appearance in the MINOS experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sousa, Alexandre Bruno Pereira E.

    The MINOS experiment uses a long baseline neutrino beam, measured 1 km downstream from its origin in the Near Detector at Fermilab, and 734 km later in the large underground Far Detector in the Soudan mine. By comparing these two measurements, MINOS can probe the atmospheric domain of the neutrino oscillation phenomenology with unprecedented precision. Besides the ability to perform a world leading determination of the Dm223 and theta23 parameters, via numu flux disappearance, MINOS has the potential to make a leading measurement of nu mu → nue oscillations in the atmospheric sector by looking for nue appearance at the Far Detector. The observation of nue appearance, tantamount to establishing a non-zero value of the theta13 mixing angle, opens the way to studies of CP violation in the leptonic sector, the neutrino spectral mass pattern ordering and neutrino oscillations in matter, the driving motivations of the next generation of neutrino experiments. In this thesis, we study the MINOS potential for measuring theta13 in the context of the MINOS Mock Data Challenge using a multivariate discriminant analysis method. We show the method's validity in the application to nue event classification and background identification, as well as in its ability to identify a nue signal in a Mock Data sample generated with undisclosed parameters. An independent shower reconstruction method based on three-dimensional hit matching and clustering was developed, providing several useful discriminator variables used in the multivariate analysis method. We also demonstrate that within 2 years of running, MINOS has the potential to improve the current best limit on theta 13, from the CHOOZ experiment, by a factor of 2.

  19. A measurement of hadron production cross sections for the simulation of accelerator neutrino beams and a search for muon-neutrino to electron-neutrino oscillations in the Δm 2 about equals 1-eV 2 region

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Schmitz, David W.

    2008-01-01

    A measurement of hadron production cross-sections for the simulation of accelerator neutrino beams and a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations in the Δm 2 ~ 1 eV 2} region. This dissertation presents measurements from two different high energy physics experiments with a very strong connection: the Hadron Production (HARP) experiment located at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment (Mini-BooNE) located at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois.

  20. Reionization in sterile neutrino cosmologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bose, Sownak; Frenk, Carlos S.; Hou, Jun; Lacey, Cedric G.; Lovell, Mark R.

    2016-12-01

    We investigate the process of reionization in a model in which the dark matter is a warm elementary particle such as a sterile neutrino. We focus on models that are consistent with the dark matter decay interpretation of the recently detected line at 3.5 keV in the X-ray spectra of galaxies and clusters. In warm dark matter models, the primordial spectrum of density perturbations has a cut-off on the scale of dwarf galaxies. Structure formation therefore begins later than in the standard cold dark matter (CDM) model and very few objects form below the cut-off mass scale. To calculate the number of ionizing photons, we use the Durham semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, GALFORM. We find that even the most extreme 7 keV sterile neutrino we consider is able to reionize the Universe early enough to be compatible with the bounds on the epoch of reionization from Planck. This, perhaps surprising, result arises from the rapid build-up of high redshift galaxies in the sterile neutrino models which is also reflected in a faster evolution of their far-UV luminosity function between 10 > z > 7 than in CDM. The dominant sources of ionizing photons are systematically more massive in the sterile neutrino models than in CDM. As a consistency check on the models, we calculate the present-day luminosity function of satellites of Milky Way-like galaxies. When the satellites recently discovered in the Dark Energy Survey are taken into account, strong constraints are placed on viable sterile neutrino models.

  1. SUPERNOVAE, NEUTRON STARS, AND TWO KINDS OF NEUTRINO

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chiu, H.Y.

    1962-08-15

    The role of neutrinos in the core of a star that has undergone a supernova explosion is discussed. The existence of neutron stars, the Schwarzchild singularity in general relativity, and the meaning of conservation of baryons in the neighborhood of a Schwarzchild singularity are also considered. The problem of detection of neutron stars is discussed. It is concluded that neutron stars are the most plausible alternative for the remnant of the core of a supernova. The neutrino emission processes are divided into two groups: the neutrino associated with the meson (mu) and the production of electron neutrinos. (C.E.S.)

  2. Constraining sterile neutrinos with AMANDA and IceCube atmospheric neutrino data

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Esmaili, Arman; Peres, O.L.G.; Halzen, Francis, E-mail: aesmaili@ifi.unicamp.br, E-mail: halzen@icecube.wisc.edu, E-mail: orlando@ifi.unicamp.br

    2012-11-01

    We demonstrate that atmospheric neutrino data accumulated with the AMANDA and the partially deployed IceCube experiments constrain the allowed parameter space for a hypothesized fourth sterile neutrino beyond the reach of a combined analysis of all other experiments, for Δm{sup 2}{sub 41}∼<1 eV{sup 2}. Although the IceCube data wins the statistics in the analysis, the advantage of a combined analysis of AMANDA and IceCube data is the partial remedy of yet unknown instrumental systematic uncertainties. We also illustrate the sensitivity of the completed IceCube detector, that is now taking data, to the parameter space of 3+1 model.

  3. First neutrino oscillation measurements in NOvA

    DOE PAGES

    Messier, M. D.

    2016-04-20

    In this study, the NOvA experiment uses the Fermilab NuMI neutrino beam and a newly constructed 14 kt detector to address several open questions in neutrino oscillations including the neutrino mass hierarchy, the precise value of the angle θ 23, and the CP-violating phase δ CP. The experiment has been running since 2014 and has recently released its first results from an equivalent exposure of 2.74 × 10 20 protons-on-target equal to 8% of the eventual data set. Measurements of ν μ → ν μ oscillations find Δm 2 32 = (2.52 +0.2 –0.18) × 10 -3 eV 2 andmore » 0.38 < sin 2θ 23 < 0.65 for the normal neutrino mass hierarchy. The experiment has observed ν μ → ν e oscillations at 3.3 σ C.L. in this early data and disfavors the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy in the range 0.1π < δ CP < 0.5π at the 90% C.L.« less

  4. Correlation Between the Effective Neutrino Number and Curvature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, Aaron; Archidiacono, M.; Cooray, A.; De Bernardis, F.; Melchiorri, A.; Smidt, J.

    2012-01-01

    Cosmological data seems to favor models with more than three neutrinos. This poster focuses on recent discussion regarding additional sterile neutrinos and neutrino mass constraints in cosmology. We present a theoretical argument for correlation between the number of effective neutrinos and the curvature of the universe. This naturally arises from simple considerations of distance measurements. For example, with the degree of damping prior to recombination fixed by observation, we find that if we allow for an open universe then the angular diameter distance increases. To counterbalance this effect the sound horizon distance must increase as well which corresponds to decreasing the effective neutrino number. This qualitative argument is confirmed by statistical analysis with CosmoMC adapted to include CMB anisotropy measurements from a variety of experiments. This research was supported by Asantha Cooray at the University of California, Irvine.

  5. Studies of non-standard effects in atmospheric neutrino oscillations of Super-Kamiokande

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Wei

    Neutrino oscillation due to mass eigenstate mixing has become the standard theory accounting for both solar and atmospheric neutrino data. This explanation indicates that neutrinos have small but non-vanishing masses, which is a sign of new physics beyond the Standard Model. In this dissertation, we will compare the standard explanation with three types of alternative theories using Super-Kamiokande (SK) atmospheric neutrino data. The first type of non-standard theory involves sterile neutrinos. By using the neutral current enhanced data samples of SK and by considering matter effect, we conclude it is unlikely that sterile neutrinos are responsible for SK atmospheric neutrino zenith angle distributions. Furthermore, we study the allowance of sterile neutrino admixture in atmospheric neutrino mixing and find an admixture of 23% sterile neutrino is allowed at 90% confidence level based on a 2+2 mass hierarchy model. The second type of non-standard theory involves neutrino oscillation induced by violations of Lorentz invariance (LIV) and CPT symmetry (CPTV). The neutrino oscillations induced by the temporal components of the LIV and CPTV terms in the minimal Standard Model Extension (SME) have different energy and pathlength dependences compared to the standard oscillation. Our analysis indicates that it is unlikely to explain SK atmospheric neutrino data with the oscillation effects induced by the temporal components of the minimal SME separately. By treating LIV- and CPTV-induced oscillations as sub-dominant effects, limits on symmetry-breaking parameters are established. The third category of non-standard theory involves vanishing neutrinos caused by neutrino decoherence and neutrino decay. Our study shows that it is unlikely to explain SK atmospheric neutrino zenith angle distributions using these two non-oscillatory models. By treating them as sub-dominant effects, limits on these two types of new physics are set based on several specific models. Our study shows

  6. Effects of sterile neutrino and extra-dimension on big bang nucleosynthesis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jang, Dukjae; Kusakabe, Motohiko; Cheoun, Myung-Ki

    2018-04-01

    We study effects of the sterile neutrino in the five-dimensional universe on the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Since the five-dimensional universe model leads to an additional term in the Friedmann equation and the energy density of the sterile neutrino increases the total energy density, this model can affect the primordial abundance via changing the cosmic expansion rate. The energy density of the sterile neutrino can be determined by a rate equation for production of the sterile neutrino. We show that not only the mixing angle and the mass of the sterile neutrino, but also a resonant effect in the oscillation between sterile and active neutrinos is important to determine a relic abundance of the sterile neutrino. In this study, we also investigate how the sterile neutrino in extra-dimensional model can affect the BBN, and constrain the parameters related to the above properties of the sterile neutrino by using the observational primordial abundances of light elements.

  7. Search for Point-like Sources of Ultra-high Energy Neutrinos at the Pierre Auger Observatory and Improved Limit on the Diffuse Flux of Tau Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pierre Auger Collaboration; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Ahlers, M.; Ahn, E. J.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Almela, A.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Alves Batista, R.; Ambrosio, M.; Aminaei, A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Antiči'c, T.; Aramo, C.; Arganda, E.; Arqueros, F.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avenier, M.; Avila, G.; Badescu, A. M.; Balzer, M.; Barber, K. B.; Barbosa, A. F.; Bardenet, R.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Baughman, B.; Bäuml, J.; Baus, C.; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, K. H.; Bellétoile, A.; Bellido, J. A.; BenZvi, S.; Berat, C.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanch-Bigas, O.; Blanco, F.; Blanco, M.; Bleve, C.; Blümer, H.; Boháčová, M.; Boncioli, D.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Borodai, N.; Brack, J.; Brancus, I.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Bruijn, R.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Buroker, L.; Burton, R. E.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caccianiga, B.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Catalano, O.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Cester, R.; Chauvin, J.; Cheng, S. H.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chirinos Diaz, J.; Chudoba, J.; Cilmo, M.; Clay, R. W.; Cocciolo, G.; Collica, L.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Contreras, F.; Cook, H.; Cooper, M. J.; Coppens, J.; Cordier, A.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Creusot, A.; Criss, A.; Cronin, J.; Curutiu, A.; Dagoret-Campagne, S.; Dallier, R.; Daniel, B.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Domenico, M.; De Donato, C.; de Jong, S. J.; De La Vega, G.; de Mello Junior, W. J. M.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Souza, V.; de Vries, K. D.; del Peral, L.; del Río, M.; Deligny, O.; Dembinski, H.; Dhital, N.; Di Giulio, C.; Díaz Castro, M. L.; Diep, P. N.; Diogo, F.; Dobrigkeit, C.; Docters, W.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dong, P. N.; Dorofeev, A.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Dova, M. T.; D'Urso, D.; Dutan, I.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Facal San Luis, P.; Falcke, H.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Ferguson, A. P.; Fick, B.; Figueira, J. M.; Filevich, A.; Filipčič, A.; Fliescher, S.; Fracchiolla, C. E.; Fraenkel, E. D.; Fratu, O.; Fröhlich, U.; Fuchs, B.; Gaior, R.; Gamarra, R. F.; Gambetta, S.; García, B.; Garcia Roca, S. T.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Gascon Bravo, A.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Giller, M.; Gitto, J.; Glass, H.; Gold, M. S.; Golup, G.; Gomez Albarracin, F.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gómez Vitale, P. F.; Gonçalves, P.; Gonzalez, J. G.; Gookin, B.; Gorgi, A.; Gouffon, P.; Grashorn, E.; Grebe, S.; Griffith, N.; Grigat, M.; Grillo, A. F.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harrison, T. A.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Herve, A. E.; Hojvat, C.; Hollon, N.; Holmes, V. C.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huber, D.; Huege, T.; Insolia, A.; Ionita, F.; Italiano, A.; Jansen, S.; Jarne, C.; Jiraskova, S.; Josebachuili, M.; Kadija, K.; Kampert, K. H.; Karhan, P.; Kasper, P.; Katkov, I.; Kégl, B.; Keilhauer, B.; Keivani, A.; Kelley, J. L.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Knapp, J.; Koang, D.-H.; Kotera, K.; Krohm, N.; Krömer, O.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Kuempel, D.; Kulbartz, J. K.; Kunka, N.; La Rosa, G.; Lachaud, C.; LaHurd, D.; Latronico, L.; Lauer, R.; Lautridou, P.; Le Coz, S.; Leão, M. S. A. B.; Lebrun, D.; Lebrun, P.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; López, R.; Lopez Agüera, A.; Louedec, K.; Lozano Bahilo, J.; Lu, L.; Lucero, A.; Ludwig, M.; Lyberis, H.; Maccarone, M. C.; Macolino, C.; Maldera, S.; Maller, J.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Marin, J.; Marin, V.; Maris, I. C.; Marquez Falcon, H. R.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martin, L.; Martinez, H.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Martraire, D.; Masías Meza, J. J.; Mathes, H. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurel, D.; Maurizio, D.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melissas, M.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menshikov, A.; Mertsch, P.; Meurer, C.; Meyhandan, R.; Mi'canovi'c, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Minaya, I. A.; Miramonti, L.; Molina-Bueno, L.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Monnier Ragaigne, D.; Montanet, F.; Morales, B.; Morello, C.; Moreno, E.; Moreno, J. C.; Mostafá, M.; Moura, C. A.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, G.; Münchmeyer, M.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navarro, J. L.; Navas, S.; Necesal, P.; Nellen, L.; Nelles, A.; Neuser, J.; Nhung, P. T.; Niechciol, M.; Niemietz, L.; Nierstenhoefer, N.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Nožka, L.; Oehlschläger, J.; Olinto, A.; Ortiz, M.; Pacheco, N.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Palmieri, N.; Parente, G.; Parizot, E.; Parra, A.; Pastor, S.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Peķala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Pesce, R.; Petermann, E.; Petrera, S.; Petrolini, A.; Petrov, Y.; Pfendner, C.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pieroni, P.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Plum, M.; Ponce, V. H.; Pontz, M.; Porcelli, A.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravel, O.; Ravignani, D.; Revenu, B.; Ridky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rivera, H.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, J.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez, G.; Rodriguez Cabo, I.; Rodriguez Martino, J.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rodríguez-Frías, M. D.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Rossler, T.; Roth, M.; Rouillé-d'Orfeuil, B.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Rühle, C.; Saftoiu, A.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Salesa Greus, F.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, B.; Sarkar, S.; Sato, R.; Scharf, N.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schiffer, P.; Schmidt, A.; Scholten, O.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Schovancova, J.; Schovánek, P.; Schröder, F.; Schulte, S.; Schuster, D.; Sciutto, S. J.; Scuderi, M.; Segreto, A.; Settimo, M.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Sigl, G.; Silva Lopez, H. H.; Sima, O.; 'Smiałkowski, A.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Spinka, H.; Squartini, R.; Srivastava, Y. N.; Stanic, S.; Stapleton, J.; Stasielak, J.; Stephan, M.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Šuša, T.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Szuba, M.; Tapia, A.; Tartare, M.; Taşcău, O.; Tcaciuc, R.; Thao, N. T.; Thomas, D.; Tiffenberg, J.; Timmermans, C.; Tkaczyk, W.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Toma, G.; Tomankova, L.; Tomé, B.; Tonachini, A.; Travnicek, P.; Tridapalli, D. B.; Tristram, G.; Trovato, E.; Tueros, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van Aar, G.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Vliet, A.; Varela, E.; Vargas Cárdenas, B.; Vázquez, J. R.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Videla, M.; Villaseñor, L.; Wahlberg, H.; Wahrlich, P.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weidenhaupt, K.; Weindl, A.; Werner, F.; Westerhoff, S.; Whelan, B. J.; Widom, A.; Wieczorek, G.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyńska, B.; Wilczyński, H.; Will, M.; Williams, C.; Winchen, T.; Wommer, M.; Wundheiler, B.; Yamamoto, T.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P.; Yuan, G.; Yushkov, A.; Zamorano Garcia, B.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zaw, I.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, J.; Zhu, Y.; Zimbres Silva, M.; Ziolkowski, M.

    2012-08-01

    The surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory can detect neutrinos with energy E ν between 1017 eV and 1020 eV from point-like sources across the sky south of +55° and north of -65° declinations. A search has been performed for highly inclined extensive air showers produced by the interaction of neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere (downward-going neutrinos), and by the decay of tau leptons originating from tau neutrino interactions in Earth's crust (Earth-skimming neutrinos). No candidate neutrinos have been found in data up to 2010 May 31. This corresponds to an equivalent exposure of ~3.5 years of a full surface detector array for the Earth-skimming channel and ~2 years for the downward-going channel. An improved upper limit on the diffuse flux of tau neutrinos has been derived. Upper limits on the neutrino flux from point-like sources have been derived as a function of the source declination. Assuming a differential neutrino flux k PS · E -2 ν from a point-like source, 90% confidence level upper limits for k PS at the level of ≈5 × 10-7 and 2.5 × 10-6 GeV cm-2 s-1 have been obtained over a broad range of declinations from the searches for Earth-skimming and downward-going neutrinos, respectively.

  8. Detection of Supernova Neutrinos on the Earth for Large θ13

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Jing; Huang, Ming-Yang; Hu, Li-Jun; Guo, Xin-Heng; Young, Bing-Lin

    2014-02-01

    Supernova (SN) neutrinos detected on the Earth are subject to the shock wave effects, the Mikheyev—Smirnov—Wolfenstein (MSW) effects, the neutrino collective effects and the Earth matter effects. Considering the recent experimental result about the large mixing angle θ13 (≃ 8.8°) provided by the Daya Bay Collaboration and applying the available knowledge for the neutrino conversion probability in the high resonance region of SN, PH, which is in the form of hypergeometric function in the case of large θ13, we deduce the expression of PH taking into account the shock wave effects. It is found that PH is not zero in a certain range of time due to the shock wave effects. After considering all the four physical effects and scanning relevant parameters, we calculate the event numbers of SN neutrinos for the “Garching” distribution of neutrino energy spectrum. From the numerical results, it is found that the behaviors of neutrino event numbers detected on the Earth depend on the neutrino mass hierarchy and neutrino spectrum parameters including the dimensionless pinching parameter βα (where α refers to neutrino flavor), the average energy , and the SN neutrino luminosities Lα. Finally, we give the ranges of SN neutrino event numbers that will be detected at the Daya Bay experiment.

  9. Indirect detection of neutrino portal dark matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Batell, Brian; Han, Tao; Shams Es Haghi, Barmak

    2018-05-01

    We investigate the feasibility of the indirect detection of dark matter in a simple model using the neutrino portal. The model is very economical, with right-handed neutrinos generating neutrino masses through the type-I seesaw mechanism and simultaneously mediating interactions with dark matter. Given the small neutrino Yukawa couplings expected in a type-I seesaw, direct detection and accelerator probes of dark matter in this scenario are challenging. However, dark matter can efficiently annihilate to right-handed neutrinos, which then decay via active-sterile mixing through the weak interactions, leading to a variety of indirect astronomical signatures. We derive the existing constraints on this scenario from Planck cosmic microwave background measurements, Fermi dwarf spheroidal galaxy and Galactic center gamma-ray observations, and AMS-02 antiproton observations, and we also discuss the future prospects of Fermi and the Cherenkov Telescope Array. Thermal annihilation rates are already being probed for dark matter lighter than about 50 GeV, and this can be extended to dark matter masses of 100 GeV and beyond in the future. This scenario can also provide a dark matter interpretation of the Fermi Galactic center gamma-ray excess, and we confront this interpretation with other indirect constraints. Finally we discuss some of the exciting implications of extensions of the minimal model with large neutrino Yukawa couplings and Higgs portal couplings.

  10. Calculation of the local density of relic neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    De Salas, P.F.; Gariazzo, S.; Pastor, S.

    2017-09-01

    Nonzero neutrino masses are required by the existence of flavour oscillations, with values of the order of at least 50 meV . We consider the gravitational clustering of relic neutrinos within the Milky Way, and used the N -one-body simulation technique to compute their density enhancement factor in the neighbourhood of the Earth with respect to the average cosmic density. Compared to previous similar studies, we pushed the simulation down to smaller neutrino masses, and included an improved treatment of the baryonic and dark matter distributions in the Milky Way. Our results are important for future experiments aiming at detectingmore » the cosmic neutrino background, such as the Princeton Tritium Observatory for Light, Early-universe, Massive-neutrino Yield (PTOLEMY) proposal. We calculate the impact of neutrino clustering in the Milky Way on the expected event rate for a PTOLEMY-like experiment. We find that the effect of clustering remains negligible for the minimal normal hierarchy scenario, while it enhances the event rate by 10 to 20% (resp. a factor 1.7 to 2.5) for the minimal inverted hierarchy scenario (resp. a degenerate scenario with 150 meV masses). Finally we compute the impact on the event rate of a possible fourth sterile neutrino with a mass of 1.3 eV.« less

  11. Neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winter, K.; Murdin, P.

    2000-11-01

    Neutrinos are electrically neutral ELEMENTARY PARTICLES which experience only the weak nuclear force and gravity. Their existence was introduced as a hypothesis by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to explain the apparent violation of energy conservation in radioactive beta decay. Chadwick had discovered in 1914 that the energy spectrum of electrons emitted in beta decay was not monoenergetic but continuous...

  12. The State of the Art of Neutrino Cross Section Measurements

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Harris, Deborah A.

    2015-06-08

    The study of neutrino interactions has recently experienced a renaissance, motivated by the fact that neutrino oscillation experiments depend critically on an accurate models of neutrino interactions. These models have to predict not only the signal and background populations that oscillation experiments see at near and far detectors, but they must also predict how the neutrino's energy which enters a nucleus gets transferred to energies of the particles that leave the nucleus after the neutrino interacts. Over the past year there have been a number of new results on many different neutrino (and antineutrino) interaction channels using several different targetmore » nuclei. These results are often not in agreement with predictions extraolated from charged lepton scattering measurements, or even from predictions anchored to neutrino measurements on deuterium. These new measurements are starting to give the community the handles needed to improve the theoretical description of neutrino interactions, which ultimately pave the way for precision oscillation measurements. This report briefly summarizes recent results and points out where those results differ from the predictions based on current models.« less

  13. Search for high-energy neutrinos from bright GRBs with ANTARES

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albert, A.; André, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid, M.; Aubert, J.-J.; Avgitas, T.; Baret, B.; Barrios-Martí, J.; Basa, S.; Bertin, V.; Biagi, S.; Bormuth, R.; Bourret, S.; Bouwhuis, M. C.; Bruijn, R.; Brunner, J.; Busto, J.; Capone, A.; Caramete, L.; Carr, J.; Celli, S.; Chiarusi, T.; Circella, M.; Coelho, J. A. B.; Coleiro, A.; Coniglione, R.; Costantini, H.; Coyle, P.; Creusot, A.; Deschamps, A.; De Bonis, G.; Distefano, C.; di Palma, I.; Donzaud, C.; Dornic, D.; Drouhin, D.; Eberl, T.; El Bojaddaini, I.; Elsässer, D.; Enzenhöfer, A.; Felis, I.; Fusco, L. A.; Galatà, S.; Gay, P.; Geißelsöder, S.; Geyer, K.; Giordano, V.; Gleixner, A.; Glotin, H.; Gregoire, T.; Gracia-Ruiz, R.; Graf, K.; Hallmann, S.; van Haren, H.; Heijboer, A. J.; Hello, Y.; Hernández-Rey, J. J.; Hößl, J.; Hofestädt, J.; Hugon, C.; Illuminati, G.; James, C. W.; de Jong, M.; Jongen, M.; Kadler, M.; Kalekin, O.; Katz, U.; Kießling, D.; Kouchner, A.; Kreter, M.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Kulikovskiy, V.; Lachaud, C.; Lahmann, R.; Lefèvre, D.; Leonora, E.; Lotze, M.; Loucatos, S.; Marcelin, M.; Margiotta, A.; Marinelli, A.; Martínez-Mora, J. A.; Mathieu, A.; Mele, R.; Melis, K.; Michael, T.; Migliozzi, P.; Moussa, A.; Mueller, C.; Nezri, E.; Păvălaş, G. E.; Pellegrino, C.; Perrina, C.; Piattelli, P.; Popa, V.; Pradier, T.; Quinn, L.; Racca, C.; Riccobene, G.; Roensch, K.; Sánchez-Losa, A.; Saldaña, M.; Salvadori, I.; Samtleben, D. F. E.; Sanguineti, M.; Sapienza, P.; Schnabel, J.; Schüssler, F.; Seitz, T.; Sieger, C.; Spurio, M.; Stolarczyk, Th.; Taiuti, M.; Tayalati, Y.; Trovato, A.; Tselengidou, M.; Turpin, D.; Tönnis, C.; Vallage, B.; Vallée, C.; Van Elewyck, V.; Vivolo, D.; Vizzocca, A.; Wagner, S.; Wilms, J.; Zornoza, J. D.; Zúñiga, J.

    2017-07-01

    Gamma-ray bursts are thought to be sites of hadronic acceleration, thus neutrinos are expected from the decay of charged particles, produced in pγ interactions. The methods and results of a search for muon neutrinos in the data of the ANTARES neutrino telescope from four bright GRBs (GRB 080916C, GRB 110918A, GRB 130427A and GRB 130505A) observed between 2008 and 2013 are presented. Two scenarios of the fireball model have been investigated: the internal shock scenario, leading to the production of neutrinos with energies mainly above 100 TeV, and the photospheric scenario, characterized by a low-energy component in neutrino spectra due to the assumption of neutrino production closer to the central engine. Since no neutrino events have been detected in temporal and spatial coincidence with these bursts, upper limits at 90 per cent confidence level on the expected neutrino fluxes are derived. The non-detection allows for directly constraining the bulk Lorentz factor of the jet Γ and the baryon loading fp.

  14. Self-induced flavor conversion of supernova neutrinos on small scales

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chakraborty, S.; Hansen, R. S.; Izaguirre, I.

    2016-01-15

    Self-induced flavor conversion of supernova (SN) neutrinos is a generic feature of neutrino-neutrino dispersion. The corresponding run-away modes in flavor space can spontaneously break the original symmetries of the neutrino flux and in particular can spontaneously produce small-scale features as shown in recent schematic studies. However, the unavoidable “multi-angle matter effect” shifts these small-scale instabilities into regions of matter and neutrino density which are not encountered on the way out from a SN. The traditional modes which are uniform on the largest scales are most prone for instabilities and thus provide the most sensitive test for the appearance of self-inducedmore » flavor conversion. As a by-product we clarify the relation between the time evolution of an expanding neutrino gas and the radial evolution of a stationary SN neutrino flux. Our results depend on several simplifying assumptions, notably stationarity of the solution, the absence of a “backward” neutrino flux caused by residual scattering, and global spherical symmetry of emission.« less

  15. Self-induced flavor conversion of supernova neutrinos on small scales

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chakraborty, S.; Izaguirre, I.; Raffelt, G.G.

    2016-01-01

    Self-induced flavor conversion of supernova (SN) neutrinos is a generic feature of neutrino-neutrino dispersion. The corresponding run-away modes in flavor space can spontaneously break the original symmetries of the neutrino flux and in particular can spontaneously produce small-scale features as shown in recent schematic studies. However, the unavoidable ''multi-angle matter effect'' shifts these small-scale instabilities into regions of matter and neutrino density which are not encountered on the way out from a SN. The traditional modes which are uniform on the largest scales are most prone for instabilities and thus provide the most sensitive test for the appearance of self-inducedmore » flavor conversion. As a by-product we clarify the relation between the time evolution of an expanding neutrino gas and the radial evolution of a stationary SN neutrino flux. Our results depend on several simplifying assumptions, notably stationarity of the solution, the absence of a ''backward'' neutrino flux caused by residual scattering, and global spherical symmetry of emission.« less

  16. Neutrino mixing, oscillations and decoherence in astrophysics and cosmology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ho, Chiu Man

    2007-08-01

    This thesis focuses on a finite-temperature field-theoretical treatment of neutrino oscillations in hot and dense media. By implementing the methods of real-time non-equilibrium field theory, we study the dynamics of neutrino mixing, oscillations, decoherence and relaxation in astrophysical and cosmological environments. We first study neutrino oscillations in the early universe in the temperature regime prior to the epoch of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). The dispersion relations and mixing angles in the medium are found to be helicity-dependent, and a resonance like the Mikheyev-Smirnov- Wolfenstein (MSW) effect is realized. The oscillation time scales are found to be longer near a resonance and shorter for off-resonance high-energy neutrinos. We then investigate the space-time propagation of neutrino wave-packets just before BBN. A phenomenon of " frozen coherence " is found to occur if the longitudinal dispersion catches up with the progressive separation between the mass eigenstates, before the coherence time limit has been reached. However, the transverse dispersion occurs at a much shorter scale than all other possible time scales in the medium, resulting in a large suppression in the transition probabilities from electron-neutrino to muon-neutrino. We also explore the possibility of charged lepton mixing as a consequence of neutrino mixing in the early Universe. We find that charged leptons, like electrons and muons, can mix and oscillate resonantly if there is a large lepton asymmetry in the neutrino sector. We study sterile neutrino production in the early Universe via active-sterile oscillations. We provide a quantum field theoretical reassessment of the quantum Zeno suppression on the active-to-sterile transition probability and its time average. We determine the complete conditions for quantum Zeno suppression. Finally, we examine the interplay between neutrino mixing, oscillations and equilibration in a thermal medium, and the corresponding non

  17. Isotropic neutrino flux from supernova explosions in the universe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petkov, V. B.

    2018-01-01

    Neutrinos of all types are emitted from the gravitational collapse of massive star cores, and have been amassed in the Universe throughout the history of evolution of galaxies. The isotropic and stable flux of these neutrinos is a source of information on the spectra of neutrinos from individual supernovae and on their redshift distribution. The prospects for detecting the isotropic neutrino flux with the existing and upcoming experimental facilities and the current upper limits are discussed in this paper.

  18. Lepton asymmetry, neutrino spectral distortions, and big bang nucleosynthesis

    DOE PAGES

    Grohs, E.; Fuller, George M.; Kishimoto, C. T.; ...

    2017-03-03

    In this paper, we calculate Boltzmann neutrino energy transport with self-consistently coupled nuclear reactions through the weak-decoupling-nucleosynthesis epoch in an early universe with significant lepton numbers. We find that the presence of lepton asymmetry enhances processes which give rise to nonthermal neutrino spectral distortions. Our results reveal how asymmetries in energy and entropy density uniquely evolve for different transport processes and neutrino flavors. The enhanced distortions in the neutrino spectra alter the expected big bang nucleosynthesis light element abundance yields relative to those in the standard Fermi-Dirac neutrino distribution cases. These yields, sensitive to the shapes of the neutrino energymore » spectra, are also sensitive to the phasing of the growth of distortions and entropy flow with time/scale factor. Finally, we analyze these issues and speculate on new sensitivity limits of deuterium and helium to lepton number.« less

  19. Lepton asymmetry, neutrino spectral distortions, and big bang nucleosynthesis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Grohs, E.; Fuller, George M.; Kishimoto, C. T.

    In this paper, we calculate Boltzmann neutrino energy transport with self-consistently coupled nuclear reactions through the weak-decoupling-nucleosynthesis epoch in an early universe with significant lepton numbers. We find that the presence of lepton asymmetry enhances processes which give rise to nonthermal neutrino spectral distortions. Our results reveal how asymmetries in energy and entropy density uniquely evolve for different transport processes and neutrino flavors. The enhanced distortions in the neutrino spectra alter the expected big bang nucleosynthesis light element abundance yields relative to those in the standard Fermi-Dirac neutrino distribution cases. These yields, sensitive to the shapes of the neutrino energymore » spectra, are also sensitive to the phasing of the growth of distortions and entropy flow with time/scale factor. Finally, we analyze these issues and speculate on new sensitivity limits of deuterium and helium to lepton number.« less

  20. Pair production of helicity-flipped neutrinos in supernovae

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Perez, Armando; Gandhi, Raj

    1989-01-01

    The emissivity was calculated for the pair production of helicity-flipped neutrinos, in a way that can be used in supernova calculations. Also presented are simple estimates which show that such process can act as an efficient energy-loss mechanism in the shocked supernova core, and this fact is used to extract neutrino mass limits from SN 1987A neutrino observations.

  1. Dissipative neutrino oscillations in randomly fluctuating matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benatti, F.; Floreanini, R.

    2005-01-01

    The generalized dynamics describing the propagation of neutrinos in randomly fluctuating media is analyzed: It takes into account matter-induced, decoherence phenomena that go beyond the standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect. A widely adopted density fluctuation pattern is found to be physically untenable: A more general model needs to be instead considered, leading to flavor changing effective neutrino-matter interactions. They induce new, dissipative effects that modify the neutrino oscillation pattern in a way amenable to a direct experimental analysis.

  2. Neutrino Charged Current Quasi-Elastic Analysis at MINERvA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hurtado Anampa, Kenyi; Osta, Jyotsna

    2014-03-01

    MINERvA is a few GeV neutrino-nucleus scattering experiment designed to study low energy neutrino interactions both in support of neutrino oscillation experiments and as a pure weak probe of the nuclear medium. The experiment uses a fine-grained, high resolution detector. The active region is composed of plastic scintillator with additional targets of helium, carbon, iron, lead and water placed upstream of the active region. We present kinematic distributions from the double differential cross section analysis that aims to study quasi-elastic scattering of neutrinos in the active region as a function of the muon and proton observables. This analysis will use the low energy neutrino dataset recorded from November 2009 to April 2012.

  3. Medium and high-energy neutrino physics from a lunar base

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilson, Thomas L.

    1990-01-01

    Neutrino astronomy at high energy levels conducted from the moon is treated by considering 'particle astronomy' as a part of physics and the moon as a neutrino detector. The ability to observe the Galactic center is described by means of a 1-1000 TeV 'window' related to the drop in flux of atmospheric neutrinos from the earth. The long-baseline particle physics which are described in terms of a lunar observatory are found to be possible exclusively from a lunar station. The earth's neutrinos can be eliminated for the observations of astrophysical sources, and other potential areas of investigation include neutrino oscillation and the moon's interior. Neutrino exploration of the earth-moon and antineutrino radionuclide imaging are also considered. The moon is concluded to be a significantly more effective orbital platform for the study of neutrino physics than orbiting satellites developed on earth.

  4. Oscillation effects and time variation of the supernova neutrino signal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kneller, James P.; McLaughlin, Gail C.; Brockman, Justin

    2008-02-01

    The neutrinos detected from the next galactic core-collapse supernova will contain valuable information on the internal dynamics of the explosion. One mechanism leading to a temporal evolution of the neutrino signal is the variation of the induced neutrino flavor mixing driven by changes in the density profile. With one and two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations we identify the behavior and properties of prominent features of the explosion. Using these results we demonstrate the time variation of the neutrino crossing probabilities due to changes in the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) neutrino transformations as the star explodes by using the S-matrix—Monte Carlo—approach to neutrino propagation. After adopting spectra for the neutrinos emitted from the proto-neutron star we calculate for a galactic supernova the evolution of the positron spectra within a water Cerenkov detector and find that this signal allows us to probe of a number of explosion features.

  5. Cosmological constraints on neutrinos with Planck data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spinelli, M.

    2015-07-01

    Neutrinos take part in the dance of the evolving Universe influencing its history from leptogenesis, to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, until late time structure formation. This makes cosmology, and in particular one of its primary observables the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), an unusual but valuable tool for testing Neutrino Physics. The best measurement to date of full-sky CMB anisotropies comes from the Planck satellite launched in 2009 by the European Space Agency (ESA) and successful follower of COBE and WMAP. Testing Planck data against precise theoretical predictions allow us to shed light on various interesting open questions such as the value of the absolute scale of neutrino masses or their energy density. We revise here the results concerning neutrinos obtained by the Planck Collaboration in the 2013 data release.

  6. Cosmological constraints on neutrinos with Planck data

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Spinelli, M.

    2015-07-15

    Neutrinos take part in the dance of the evolving Universe influencing its history from leptogenesis, to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, until late time structure formation. This makes cosmology, and in particular one of its primary observables the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), an unusual but valuable tool for testing Neutrino Physics. The best measurement to date of full-sky CMB anisotropies comes from the Planck satellite launched in 2009 by the European Space Agency (ESA) and successful follower of COBE and WMAP. Testing Planck data against precise theoretical predictions allow us to shed light on various interesting open questions such as the valuemore » of the absolute scale of neutrino masses or their energy density. We revise here the results concerning neutrinos obtained by the Planck Collaboration in the 2013 data release.« less

  7. Neutrino Observation of Core Collapse Supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakazato, Ken'ichiro

    The event rate of the supernova neutrinos are predicted for the future SK-Gd experiment. With an eye on the neutron tagging by Gd, the energy and angular distributions are calculated both for tagged events from inverse β decay reaction and untagged events from other reactions. As a result, it is indicated that the shock revival in the supernova is detectable through the decrease of the event rate and decline of the average energy of events. It is also implied that a careful treatment for the neutrino spectra is needed to investigate the untagged events owing to the high neutrino threshold energy of 16O reactions.

  8. Search for the Neutrino Less Double Beta Decay

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Efremenko, Yuri

    2016-07-11

    During the past few years our understanding of neutrino properties has reached a new level, with experiments such as Super-K, SNO, KamLAND, and others obtaining exciting results. Major questions such as “Do neutrinos have mass?” and “Do neutrinos oscillate?” now have positive answers. However, an extensive program of neutrino research remains. Undoubtedly, the most important of these is the question pointed out by the National Research Council in its February 2002 report “Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos”, specifically: What are the masses of neutrinos and how have they shaped the evolution of the Universe? The MAJORANA collaboration has proposed tomore » build the world’s most sensitive one-ton scale experiment to search for neutrino less double beta decay to answer this question. In its initial stage, the collaboration is building a prototype MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR (MJD) experiment consisting of detectors made out of enriched Ge 76 with a total sensitive mass of ~30 kg. This will accomplish two goals. First, it will test not yet confirmed claim for observation of neutrino-less double beta decay. Second, it will establish that the selected technology is capable of extension to a one-ton experiment with sufficient sensitivity to measure neutrino mass m ββ down to 10 meV. To achieve the last goal, collaboration must demonstrate that a background level of 1 count per year per 4 keV per ton of detector is achievable. The University of Tennessee (UT) neutrino group has made a major commitment to the MJD. P.I. accepted the responsibility for one of the major tasks of the experiment, “Materials and Assay Task” which is crucial to the achievement of low background levels required for the experiment. In addition, the UT group is committed to construct, commission, and operate the MJD active veto system. Those activities were supported by NP-DOE via program funding for “Search for the Neutrino Less Double Beta Decay” at the University of Tennessee

  9. Status of Experiment NEUTRINO-4 Search for Sterile Neutrino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Serebrov, A.; Ivochkin, V.; Samoilov, R.; Fomin, A.; Polyushkin, A.; Zinoviev, V.; Neustroev, P.; Golovtsov, V.; Chernyj, A.; Zherebtsov, O.; Martemyanov, V.; Tarasenkov, V.; Aleshin, V.; Petelin, A.; Izhutov, A.; Tuzov, A.; Sazontov, S.; Ryazanov, D.; Gromov, M.; Afanasiev, V.; Zaytsev, M.; Chaikovskii, M.

    2017-01-01

    In order to carry out research in the field of possible existence of a sterile neutrino the laboratory based on SM-3 reactor (Dimitrovgrad, Russia) was created to search for oscillations of reactor antineutrino. The prototype of a multi-section neutrino detector with liquid scintillator volume of 350 l was installed in the middle of 2015. It is a moveable inside the passive shielding detector, which can be set at distance range from 6 to 11 meters from the reactor core. Measurements of antineutrino flux at such short distances from the reactor core are carried out with moveable detector for the first time. The measurements with full-scale detector with liquid scintillator volume of 3m3 (5x10 sections) was started only in June, 2016. The today available data is presented in the article.

  10. The Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment at DUSEL

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maricic, Jelena; Lbne Dusel Collaboration

    2010-01-01

    Rapid progress in neutrino physics in recent years has brought us closer to realization of a massive neutrino detector at the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) in the Homestake mine in the town of Lead, South Dakota, USA. The detector is being designed with the following scientific goals in mind: value of CP-violation phase S in lepton sector, neutrino mass hierarchy and value of the angle θ13. In addition, the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) will be able to search for proton decay, get a detailed energy spectrum in the case of galactic supernovae, detect solar and atmospheric neutrinos, possibly geoneutrinos and even relic supernovae neutrinos that have never been successfully detected before. The physics goals dictate the minimal size of 300 kton fiducial volume, and the plan is to realize it with three 100 kton fiducial volume modules that will be placed at the depth of 1480 m. LBNE will be able to obtain 3σ C.L. measurement of θ13 if the value of sin2 2θ13 >= 0.005 for any value of CP-δ phase; 3σ C.L. measurement of the neutrino mass hierarchy if sin2 2θ13 >= 0.012 for any value of CP-δ phase and measure 50% of all CP-δ phases with 3σ C.L. for sin2 2θ13 >= 0.012. This is all under the assumption that an upgraded neutrino beam is sent to LBNE from Fermilab, 1300 km away and experiment is run for 6 years. This paper describes physics reach, status and current undergoing research and development effort toward construction of the LBNE.

  11. Do high energy astrophysical neutrinos trace star formation?

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Emig, Kimberly; Windhorst, Rogier; Lunardini, Cecilia, E-mail: Kimberly.Emig@asu.edu, E-mail: Cecilia.Lunardini@asu.edu, E-mail: Rogier.Windhorst@asu.edu

    2015-12-01

    The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has provided the first map of the high energy (∼ 0.01–1 PeV) sky in neutrinos. Since neutrinos propagate undeflected, their arrival direction is an important identifier for sources of high energy particle acceleration. Reconstructed arrival directions are consistent with an extragalactic origin, with possibly a galactic component, of the neutrino flux. We present a statistical analysis of positional coincidences of the IceCube neutrinos with known astrophysical objects from several catalogs. When considering starburst galaxies with the highest flux in gamma-rays and infrared radiation, up to n=8 coincidences are found, representing an excess over the ∼4 predicted formore » the randomized, or ''null'' distribution. The probability that this excess is realized in the null case, the p-value, is p=0.042. This value falls to p=0.003 for a partial subset of gamma-ray-detected starburst galaxies and superbubble regions in the galactic neighborhood. Therefore, it is possible that starburst galaxies, and the typically hundreds of superbubble regions within them, might account for a portion of IceCube neutrinos. The physical plausibility of such correlation is discussed briefly.« less

  12. CNO and pep solar neutrino measurements and perspectives in Borexino

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davini, S.; Agostini, M.; Appel, S.; Bellini, G.; Benziger, J.; Bick, D.; Bonfini, G.; Bravo, D.; Caccianiga, B.; Calaprice, F.; Caminata, A.; Cavalcante, P.; Chepurnov, A.; D'Angelo, D.; Derbin, A.; Di Noto, L.; Drachnev, I.; Etenko, A.; Fomenko, K.; Franco, D.; Gabriele, F.; Galbiati, C.; Ghiano, C.; Giammarchi, M.; Goeger-Neff, M.; Goretti, A.; Gromov, M.; Hagner, C.; Hungerford, E.; Ianni, Aldo; Ianni, Andrea; Jedrzejczak, K.; Kaiser, M.; Kobychev, V.; Korablev, D.; Korga, G.; Kryn, D.; Laubenstein, M.; Lehnert, B.; Litvinovich, E.; Lombardi, F.; Lombardi, P.; Ludhova, L.; Lukyanchenko, G.; Machulin, I.; Manecki, S.; Maneschg, W.; Marcocci, S.; Meroni, E.; Meyer, M.; Miramonti, L.; Misiaszek, M.; Montuschi, M.; Mosteiro, P.; Muratova, V.; Neumair, B.; Oberauer, L.; Obolensky, M.; Ortica, F.; Pallavicini, M.; Papp, L.; Perasso, L.; Pocar, A.; Ranucci, G.; Razeto, A.; Re, A.; Romani, A.; Roncin, R.; Rossi, N.; Schönert, S.; Semenov, D.; Simgen, H.; Skorokhvatov, M.; Smirnov, O.; Sotnikov, A.; Sukhotin, S.; Suvorov, Y.; Tartaglia, R.; Testera, G.; Thurn, J.; Toropova, M.; Unzhakov, E.; Vishneva, A.; Vogelaar, R. B.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Wang, H.; Weinz, S.; Winter, J.; Wojcik, M.; Wurm, M.; Yokley, Z.; Zaimidoroga, O.; Zavatarelli, S.; Zuber, K.; Zuzel, G.

    2016-02-01

    The detection of neutrinos emitted in the CNO reactions in the Sun is one of the ambitious goals of Borexino Phase-II. A measurement of CNO neutrinos would be a milestone in astrophysics, and would allow to solve serious issues in current solar models. A precise measurement of the rate of neutrinos from the pep reaction would allow to investigate neutrino oscillations in the MSW transition region. The pep and CNO solar neutrino physics, the measurement in Borexino Phase-I and the perspectives for the new phase are reviewed in this proceeding.

  13. 40 years of neutrino physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reines, Frederick

    Wolfgang Pauli and Enrico Fermi pioneered the hypothesis and characteristics of the weak interaction and the elementary particle called the neutrino. Since its discovery some forty years ago the neutrino has been shown to be a fundamental constituent of matter with a surprisingly rich, and in very many ways unexpected, set of characteristics ranging from basic roles in the generation of energy in the sun to supernovæ.

  14. AMANDA Observations Constrain the Ultrahigh Energy Neutrino Flux

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Halzen, Francis; /Wisconsin U., Madison; Hooper, Dan

    2006-05-01

    A number of experimental techniques are currently being deployed in an effort to make the first detection of ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos. To accomplish this goal, techniques using radio and acoustic detectors are being developed, which are optimally designed for studying neutrinos with energies in the PeV-EeV range and above. Data from the AMANDA experiment, in contrast, has been used to place limits on the cosmic neutrino flux at less extreme energies (up to {approx}10 PeV). In this letter, we show that by adopting a different analysis strategy, optimized for much higher energy neutrinos, the same AMANDA data can bemore » used to place a limit competitive with radio techniques at EeV energies. We also discuss the sensitivity of the IceCube experiment, in various stages of deployment, to ultra-high energy neutrinos.« less

  15. Everything under the Sun: A review of solar neutrinos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gann, Gabriel D. Orebi

    2015-07-15

    Solar neutrinos offer a unique opportunity to study the interaction of neutrinos with matter, a sensitive search for potential new physics effects, and a probe of solar structure and solar system formation. This paper describes the broad physics program addressed by solar neutrino studies, presents the current suite of experiments programs, and describes several potential future detectors that could address the open questions in this field. This paper is a summary of a talk presented at the Neutrino 2014 conference in Boston.

  16. Everything under the sun: A review of solar neutrinos

    DOE PAGES

    Gann, Gabriel D. Orebi

    2015-07-15

    Solar neutrinos offer a unique opportunity to study the interaction of neutrinos with matter, a sensitive search for potential new physics effects, and a probe of solar structure and solar system formation. This paper describes the broad physics program addressed by solar neutrino studies, presents the current suite of experiments programs, and describes several potential future detectors that could address the open questions in this field. This paper is a summary of a talk presented at the Neutrino 2014 conference in Boston.

  17. Neutrino in standard model and beyond

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bilenky, S. M.

    2015-07-01

    After discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN the Standard Model acquired a status of the theory of the elementary particles in the electroweak range (up to about 300 GeV). What general conclusions can be inferred from the Standard Model? It looks that the Standard Model teaches us that in the framework of such general principles as local gauge symmetry, unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions and Brout-Englert-Higgs spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry nature chooses the simplest possibilities. Two-component left-handed massless neutrino fields play crucial role in the determination of the charged current structure of the Standard Model. The absence of the right-handed neutrino fields in the Standard Model is the simplest, most economical possibility. In such a scenario Majorana mass term is the only possibility for neutrinos to be massive and mixed. Such mass term is generated by the lepton-number violating Weinberg effective Lagrangian. In this approach three Majorana neutrino masses are suppressed with respect to the masses of other fundamental fermions by the ratio of the electroweak scale and a scale of a lepton-number violating physics. The discovery of the neutrinoless double β-decay and absence of transitions of flavor neutrinos into sterile states would be evidence in favor of the minimal scenario we advocate here.

  18. Detection of Neutrinos from Galactic and Cosmic Supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beacom, John

    2010-11-01

    Detecting neutrinos is the key to understanding core-collapse supernovae, but this is notoriously difficult due to the small interaction cross section of neutrinos and the low frequency of supernovae. The prospects for detecting Galactic supernovae depend almost completely on the probability of a fluctuation from the low supernova rate; the detection aspects are largely under control. The prospects for detecting Cosmic supernovae instead depend almost completely on the detection aspects, especially regarding reducing detector backgrounds; the supernova rate and neutrino flux of the universe are now rather well measured or predicted. After decades of effort and patience, we have good reasons to anticipate that detecting supernova neutrinos is within reach.

  19. New light Higgs boson and short-baseline neutrino anomalies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Asaadi, J.; Church, E.; Guenette, R.

    The low-energy excesses observed by the MiniBooNE experiment have, to date, defied a convincing explanation under the standard model even with accommodation for non-zero neutrino mass. In this paper we explore a new oscillation mechanism to explain these anomalies, invoking a light neutrinophilic Higgs boson, conceived to induce a low Dirac neutrino mass in accord with experimental limits. Beam neutrinos forward-scattering off of a locally over-dense relic neutrino background give rise to a novel matter-effect with an energy-specific resonance. An enhanced oscillation around this resonance peak produces flavor transitions which are highly consistent with the MiniBooNE neutrino- and antineutrino-mode data sets. The model provides substantially improvedmore » $$\\chi^2$$ values beyond either the no-oscillation hypothesis or the more commonly explored 3+1 sterile neutrino hypothesis. This mechanism would introduce distinctive signatures at each baseline in the upcoming SBN program at Fermilab, presenting opportunities for further exploration.« less

  20. Neutrino astrophysics: a new tool for exploring the universe.

    PubMed

    Waxman, Eli

    2007-01-05

    In the past four decades a new type of astronomy has emerged, where instead of looking up into the sky, "telescopes" are buried miles underground or deep under water or ice and search not for photons (that is, light), but rather for particles called neutrinos. Neutrinos are nearly massless particles that interact very weakly with matter. The detection of neutrinos emitted by the Sun and by a nearby supernova provided direct tests of the theory of stellar evolution and led to modifications of the standard model describing the properties of elementary particles. At present, several very large neutrino detectors are being constructed, aiming at the detection of the most powerful sources of energy and particles in the universe. The hope is that the detection of neutrinos from these sources, which are extra-Galactic and are most likely powered by mass accretion onto black holes, will not only allow study of the sources, but, much like solar neutrinos, will also provide new information about fundamental properties of matter.

  1. Recent results of Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leitner, R.; Daya Bay Collaboration

    2017-04-01

    The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment has been designed to precisely measure the least known neutrino mixing angle θ13. In March 2012, Daya Bay collaboration announced [Daya Bay Collaboration (F. P. An et al.), Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at Daya Bay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (2012) 171803] the observation of non-zero value of sin2 ⁡ 2θ13. Because of large statistics of detected antineutrinos and excellent performance of the experiment, Daya Bay continuously improves the precision of world best measurement of sin2 ⁡ 2θ13. In addition it provides results on neutrino mass splitting Δ mee2 competitive with measurements of other experiments, results on precise measurement of reactor fluxes and on limits of the existence of hypothetical fourth neutrino. In this paper, we report the results available by the time of the 6th Capri workshop: the measurement of oscillation parameters sin2 ⁡ (2θ13) = 0.084 ± 0.005 and | Δmee2 | = (2.42 ± 0.11) ×10-3eV2 [Daya Bay Collaboration (F. P. An et al.), New Measurement of Antineutrino Oscillation with the Full Detector Configuration at Daya Bay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (2015) no. 11, 111802], searches for sterile neutrinos [Daya Bay Collaboration (F. P. An et al.) Search for a Light Sterile Neutrino at Daya Bay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (2014) 141802] and precise measurement of reactor neutrino flux [Daya Bay Collaboration (F. P. An et al.), Measurement of the Reactor Anti-neutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (2016) no. 6, 061801]. These are based on 621 days of measurement, most of the data has been taken in full detector configuration. More precise results [Daya Bay Collaboration (F. P. An et al.), Measurement of electron antineutrino oscillation based on 1230 days of operation of the Daya Bay experiment, arxiv:arXiv:1610.04802] with 1230 days of operation have been presented few weeks later at the Neutrino 2016 conference.

  2. Long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at the AGS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beavis, D.; Carroll, A.; Chiang, I.

    1995-04-01

    The authors present a design for a multidetector long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at the BNL AGS. It has been approved by the BNL-HENP-PAC as AGS Experiment 889. The experiment will search for oscillations in the nu(sub mu) disappearance channel and the nu(sub mu) reversible reaction nu(sub e) appearance channel by means of four identical neutrino detectors located 1, 3, 24, and 68 km from the AGS neutrino source. Observed depletion of the nu(sub mu) flux (via quasi-elastic muon neutrino events, nu(sub mu)n yields mu(-)p) in the far detectors not attended by an observed proportional increase of the nu(sub e) flux (via quasi-elastic electron neutrino events, nu(sub e)n yields e(-)p) in those detectors will be prima facie evidence for the oscillation channel nu(sub mu) reversible reaction nu(sub tau). The experiment is directed toward exploration of the region of the neutrino oscillation parameters Delta m(exp 2) and sin(exp 2) 2 theta, suggested by the Kamiokande and IMB deep underground detectors but it will also explore a region more than two orders of magnitude larger than that of previous accelerator experiments. The experiment will run in a mode new to BNL. It will receive the fast extracted proton beam on the neutrino target approximately 20 hours per day when the AGS is not filling RHIC. A key aspect of the experimental design involves placing the detectors 1.5 degrees off the center line of the neutrino beam, which has the important advantage that the central value of the neutrino energy (approximately 1 GeV) and the beam spectral shape are, to a good approximation, the same in all four detectors. The proposed detectors are massive, imaging, water Cherenkov detectors similar in large part to the Kamiokande and IMB detectors. The design has profited from their decade-long experience, and from the detector designs of the forthcoming SNO and SuperKamiokande detectors.

  3. Neutrino Oscillations within the Induced Gravitational Collapse Paradigm of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Becerra, L.; Guzzo, M. M.; Rossi-Torres, F.; Rueda, J. A.; Ruffini, R.; Uribe, J. D.

    2018-01-01

    The induced gravitational collapse paradigm of long gamma-ray bursts associated with supernovae (SNe) predicts a copious neutrino–antineutrino (ν \\bar{ν }) emission owing to the hypercritical accretion process of SN ejecta onto a neutron star (NS) binary companion. The neutrino emission can reach luminosities of up to 1057 MeV s‑1, mean neutrino energies of 20 MeV, and neutrino densities of 1031 cm‑3. Along their path from the vicinity of the NS surface outward, such neutrinos experience flavor transformations dictated by the neutrino-to-electron-density ratio. We determine the neutrino and electron on the accretion zone and use them to compute the neutrino flavor evolution. For normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchies and within the two-flavor formalism ({ν }e{ν }x), we estimate the final electronic and nonelectronic neutrino content after two oscillation processes: (1) neutrino collective effects due to neutrino self-interactions where the neutrino density dominates, and (2) the Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein effect, where the electron density dominates. We find that the final neutrino content is composed by ∼55% (∼62%) of electronic neutrinos, i.e., {ν }e+{\\bar{ν }}e, for the normal (inverted) neutrino mass hierarchy. The results of this work are the first step toward the characterization of a novel source of astrophysical MeV neutrinos in addition to core-collapse SNe and, as such, deserve further attention.

  4. Symmetry breaking, and the effect of matter density on neutrino oscillation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mohseni Sadjadi, H.; Khosravi Karchi, A. P.

    2018-04-01

    A proposal for the neutrino mass, based on neutrino-scalar field interaction, is introduced. The scalar field is also non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar, and hence relates the neutrino mass to the matter density. In a dense region, the scalar field obeys the Z2 symmetry, and the neutrino is massless. In a dilute region, the Z2 symmetry breaks and neutrino acquires mass from the non-vanishing expectation value of the scalar field. We consider this scenario in the framework of a spherical dense object whose outside is a dilute region. In this background, we study the neutrino flavors oscillation, along with the consequences of the theory on oscillation length and MSW effect. This preliminary model may shed some lights on the existing anomalies within the neutrino data, concerning the different oscillating behavior of the neutrinos in regions with different densities.

  5. Neutrino assisted GUT baryogenesis revisited

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Wei-Chih; Päs, Heinrich; Zeißner, Sinan

    2018-03-01

    Many grand unified theory (GUT) models conserve the difference between the baryon and lepton number, B -L . These models can create baryon and lepton asymmetries from heavy Higgs or gauge boson decays with B +L ≠0 but with B -L =0 . Since the sphaleron processes violate B +L , such GUT-generated asymmetries will finally be washed out completely, making GUT baryogenesis scenarios incapable of reproducing the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe. In this work, we revisit the idea to revive GUT baryogenesis, proposed by Fukugita and Yanagida, where right-handed neutrinos erase the lepton asymmetry before the sphaleron processes can significantly wash out the original B +L asymmetry, and in this way one can prevent a total washout of the initial baryon asymmetry. By solving the Boltzmann equations numerically for baryon and lepton asymmetries in a simplified 1 +1 flavor scenario, we can confirm the results of the original work. We further generalize the analysis to a more realistic scenario of three active and two right-handed neutrinos to highlight flavor effects of the right-handed neutrinos. Large regions in the parameter space of the Yukawa coupling and the right-handed neutrino mass featuring successful baryogenesis are identified.

  6. Neutrino oscillations: The rise of the PMNS paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giganti, C.; Lavignac, S.; Zito, M.

    2018-01-01

    Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations, the experimental progress in the last two decades has been very fast, with the precision measurements of the neutrino squared-mass differences and of the mixing angles, including the last unknown mixing angle θ13. Today a very large set of oscillation results obtained with a variety of experimental configurations and techniques can be interpreted in the framework of three active massive neutrinos, whose mass and flavour eigenstates are related by a 3 × 3 unitary mixing matrix, the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) matrix, parametrized by three mixing angles θ12, θ23, θ13 and a CP-violating phase δCP. The additional parameters governing neutrino oscillations are the squared-mass differences Δ mji2 = mj2 - mi2, where mi is the mass of the ith neutrino mass eigenstate. This review covers the rise of the PMNS three-neutrino mixing paradigm and the current status of the experimental determination of its parameters. The next years will continue to see a rich program of experimental endeavour coming to fruition and addressing the three missing pieces of the puzzle, namely the determination of the octant and precise value of the mixing angle θ23, the unveiling of the neutrino mass ordering (whether m1

  7. What can be learned from a future supernova neutrino detection?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Horiuchi, Shunsaku; Kneller, James P.

    2018-04-01

    This year marks the 30th anniversary of the only supernova from which we have detected neutrinos—SN 1987A. The 20 or so neutrinos that were detected were mined to great depth in order to determine the events that occurred in the explosion and to place limits upon all manner of neutrino properties. Since 1987 the scale and sensitivity of the detectors capable of identifying neutrinos from a Galactic supernova have grown considerably so that current generation detectors are capable of detecting of order 10 000 neutrinos for a supernova at the Galactic Center. Next generation detectors will increase that yield by another order of magnitude. Simultaneous with the growth of neutrino detection capability, our understanding of how massive stars explode and how the neutrino interacts with hot and dense matter has also increased by a tremendous degree. The neutrino signal will contain much information on all manner of physics of interest to a wide community. In this review we describe the expected features of the neutrino signal, the detectors which will detect it, and the signatures one might try to look for in order to get at this physics.

  8. Monte Carlo study of neutrino acceleration in supernova shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kazanas, D.; Ellison, D. C.

    1981-01-01

    The first order Fermi acceleration mechanism of cosmic rays in shocks may be at work for neutrinos in supernova shocks when the latter are at densities greater than 10 to the 13th g/cu cm, at which the core material is opaque to neutrinos. A Monte Carlo approach to study this effect is employed, and the emerging neutrino power law spectra are presented. The increased energy acquired by the neutrinos may facilitate their detection in supernova explosions and provide information about the physics of collapse.

  9. Research in Neutrino Physics and Particle Astrophysics: Final Technical Report

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kearns, Edward

    The Boston University Neutrino Physics and Particle Astrophysics Group investigates the fundamental laws of particle physics using natural and man-made neutrinos and rare processes such as proton decay. The primary instrument for this research is the massive Super-Kamiokande (SK) water Cherenkov detector, operating since 1996 at the Kamioka Neutrino Observatory, one kilometer underground in a mine in Japan. We study atmospheric neutrinos from cosmic rays, which were first used to discover that neutrinos have mass, as recognized by the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. Our latest measurements with atmospheric neutrinos are giving valuable information, complementary to longbaseline experiments, on themore » ordering of massive neutrino states and as to whether neutrinos violate CP symmetry. We have studied a variety of proton decay modes, including the most frequently predicted modes such as p → e +π 0 and p → ν K +, as well as more exotic baryon number violating processes such as dinucleon decay and neutronantineutron oscillation. We search for neutrinos from dark matter annihilation or decay in the universe. Our group has made significant contributions to detector operation, particularly in the area of electronics. Most recently, we have contributed to planning for an upgrade to the SK detector by the addition of gadolinium to the water, which will enable efficient neutron capture detection.« less

  10. High-energy neutrino fluxes from AGN populations inferred from X-ray surveys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jacobsen, Idunn B.; Wu, Kinwah; On, Alvina Y. L.; Saxton, Curtis J.

    2015-08-01

    High-energy neutrinos and photons are complementary messengers, probing violent astrophysical processes and structural evolution of the Universe. X-ray and neutrino observations jointly constrain conditions in active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets: their baryonic and leptonic contents, and particle production efficiency. Testing two standard neutrino production models for local source Cen A (Koers & Tinyakov and Becker & Biermann), we calculate the high-energy neutrino spectra of single AGN sources and derive the flux of high-energy neutrinos expected for the current epoch. Assuming that accretion determines both X-rays and particle creation, our parametric scaling relations predict neutrino yield in various AGN classes. We derive redshift-dependent number densities of each class, from Chandra and Swift/BAT X-ray luminosity functions (Silverman et al. and Ajello et al.). We integrate the neutrino spectrum expected from the cumulative history of AGN (correcting for cosmological and source effects, e.g. jet orientation and beaming). Both emission scenarios yield neutrino fluxes well above limits set by IceCube (by ˜4-106 × at 1 PeV, depending on the assumed jet models for neutrino production). This implies that: (i) Cen A might not be a typical neutrino source as commonly assumed; (ii) both neutrino production models overestimate the efficiency; (iii) neutrino luminosity scales with accretion power differently among AGN classes and hence does not follow X-ray luminosity universally; (iv) some AGN are neutrino-quiet (e.g. below a power threshold for neutrino production); (v) neutrino and X-ray emission have different duty cycles (e.g. jets alternate between baryonic and leptonic flows); or (vi) some combination of the above.

  11. Nonconservation of lepton current and asymmetry of relic neutrinos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dvornikov, M. S.; Semikoz, V. B.

    2017-05-01

    The neutrino asymmetry, {n_v} - {n_{\\bar v}} , in the plasma of the early Universe generated both before and after the electroweak phase transition (EWPT) is calculated. It is well known that in the Standard Model the leptogenesis before the EWPT, in particular, for neutrinos, owes to the Abelian anomaly in a massless hypercharge field. At the same time, the generation of neutrino asymmetry in the Higgs phase after the EWPT has not been considered previously due to the absence of any quantum anomaly in an external electromagnetic field for such electroneutral particles as neutrinos, in contrast to the Adler anomaly for charged left- and right-handed massless electrons in the same electromagnetic field. Using the Boltzmann equation for neutrinos modified to include the Berry curvature term in momentum space, we establish a violation of the macroscopic neutrino current in the plasma after the EWPT and exactly reproduce the non-conservation of the lepton current in the symmetric phase before the EWPT that owes to the contribution of the triangle anomaly in an external hypercharge field but already without computing the corresponding Feynman diagrams. We apply the new kinetic equation to calculate the neutrino asymmetry by taking into account the Berry curvature and the electroweak interaction with plasma particles in the Higgs phase, including that after the neutrino decoupling in the absence of their collisions in the plasma. We find that this asymmetry is too small for observations. Thus, a difference between the relic neutrino and antineutrino densities, if it exists, must appear already in the symmetric phase of the early Universe before the EWPT.

  12. Pair Production Constraints on Superluminal Neutrinos Revisited

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brodsky, Stanley J.; /SLAC; Gardner, Susan

    2012-02-16

    We revisit the pair creation constraint on superluminal neutrinos considered by Cohen and Glashow in order to clarify which types of superluminal models are constrained. We show that a model in which the superluminal neutrino is effectively light-like can evade the Cohen-Glashow constraint. In summary, any model for which the CG pair production process operates is excluded because such timelike neutrinos would not be detected by OPERA or other experiments. However, a superluminal neutrino which is effectively lightlike with fixed p{sup 2} can evade the Cohen-Glashow constraint because of energy-momentum conservation. The coincidence involved in explaining the SN1987A constraint certainlymore » makes such a picture improbable - but it is still intrinsically possible. The lightlike model is appealing in that it does not violate Lorentz symmetry in particle interactions, although one would expect Hughes-Drever tests to turn up a violation eventually. Other evasions of the CG constraints are also possible; perhaps, e.g., the neutrino takes a 'short cut' through extra dimensions or suffers anomalous acceleration in matter. Irrespective of the OPERA result, Lorentz-violating interactions remain possible, and ongoing experimental investigation of such possibilities should continue.« less

  13. Measurement of Geo-neutrinos with KamLAND

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yamada, Satoru

    2011-11-23

    Radioactive isotopes inside the Earth produce geo-neutrinos through beta decays. Geo-neutrinos could be direct probes to investigate the interior of the Earth as a supplement to the current geophysical survey that mainly relies on an indirect seismic approach. After the Kamioka liquid scintillator antineutrino detector (KamLAND) reported the first indication of geo-neutrinos in 2005, we have accumulated data for a total of 2,135 days of live-time and achieved a lower background level by purifying liquid scintillator. The number of obtained geo-neutrino events is 106{sub -28}{sup +29} corresponding to an electron antineutrino flux of 4.3{sub -1.1}{sup +1.2}x10{sup 6} cm{sup -2} s{supmore » -1} from {sup 238}U and {sup 232}Th series at the Earth's surface. The null hypothesis for the existence of geo-neutrinos is excluded at the 99.997% confidence level. We combined this precise result with that of the Borexino experiment to obtain 20.0{sub -8.6}{sup +8.8} TW as a contribution of {sup 238}U and {sup 232}Th to the Earth heat flow.« less

  14. Cumulative neutrino background from quasar-driven outflows

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Xiawei; Loeb, Abraham, E-mail: xiawei.wang@cfa.harvard.edu, E-mail: aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu

    2016-12-01

    Quasar-driven outflows naturally account for the missing component of the extragalactic γ-ray background through neutral pion production in interactions between protons accelerated by the forward outflow shock and interstellar protons. We study the simultaneous neutrino emission by the same protons. We adopt outflow parameters that best fit the extragalactic γ-ray background data and derive a cumulative neutrino background of ∼ 10{sup −7} GeV cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} sr{sup −1} at neutrino energies E {sub ν} ∼> 10 TeV, which naturally explains the most recent IceCube data without tuning any free parameters. The link between the γ-ray and neutrino emission frommore » quasar outflows can be used to constrain the high-energy physics of strong shocks at cosmological distances.« less

  15. The neutrino opacity of neutron rich matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alcain, P. N.; Dorso, C. O.

    2017-05-01

    The study of neutron rich matter, present in neutron star, proto-neutron stars and core-collapse supernovae, can lead to further understanding of the behavior of nuclear matter in highly asymmetric nuclei. Heterogeneous structures are expected to exist in these systems, often referred to as nuclear pasta. We have carried out a systematic study of neutrino opacity for different thermodynamic conditions in order to assess the impact that the structure has on it. We studied the dynamics of the neutrino opacity of the heterogeneous matter at different thermodynamic conditions with semiclassical molecular dynamics model already used to study nuclear multifragmentation. For different densities, proton fractions and temperature, we calculate the very long range opacity and the cluster distribution. The neutrino opacity is of crucial importance for the evolution of the core-collapse supernovae and the neutrino scattering.

  16. Neutrino signal from pair-instability supernovae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wright, Warren P.; Gilmer, Matthew S.; Fröhlich, Carla; Kneller, James P.

    2017-11-01

    A very massive star with a carbon-oxygen core in the range of 64M ⊙neutrinos from a pair-instability supernova contain unique signatures of the event that unambiguously identify this type of explosion. We calculate the expected neutrino flux at Earth from two, one-dimensional pair-instability supernova simulations which bracket the mass range of stars which explode by this mechanism taking into account the full time and energy dependence of the neutrino emission and the flavor evolution through the outer layers of the star. We calculate the neutrino signals in five different detectors chosen to represent present or near future designs. We find the more massive progenitors explode as pair-instability supernova which can easily be detected in multiple different neutrino detectors at the "standard" supernova distance of 10 kpc producing several events in DUNE, JUNO, and Super-Kamiokande, while the lightest progenitors produce only a handful of events (if any) in the same detectors. The proposed Hyper-Kamiokande detector would detect neutrinos from a large pair-instability supernova as far as ˜50 kpc allowing it to reach the Megallanic Clouds and the several very high mass stars known to exist there.

  17. Supernova Neutrino Physics with Xenon Dark Matter Detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reichard, Shayne; Lang, Rafael F.; McCabe, Christopher; Selvi, Marco; Tamborra, Irene

    2017-09-01

    The dark matter experiment XENON1T is operational and sensitive to all flavors of neutrinos emitted from a supernova. We show that the proportional scintillation signal (S2) allows for a clear observation of the neutrino signal and guarantees a particularly low energy threshold, while the backgrounds are rendered negligible during the SN burst. XENON1T (XENONnT and LZ; DARWIN) will be sensitive to a SN burst up to 25 (40; 70) kpc from Earth at a significance of more than 5σ, observing approximately 35 (123; 704) events from a 27 M ⊙ SN progenitor at 10 kpc. Moreover, it will be possible to measure the average neutrino energy of all flavors, to constrain the total explosion energy, and to reconstruct the SN neutrino light curve. Our results suggest that a large xenon detector such as DARWIN will be competitive with dedicated neutrino telescopes, while providing complementary information that is not otherwise accessible.

  18. Neutrino Flux Prediction for the NuMI Beamline

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Soplin, Leonidas Aliaga

    2016-01-01

    The determination of the neutrino flux in any conventional neutrino beam presents a challenge for the current and future short and long baseline neutrino experiments. The uncertainties associated with the production and attenuation of the hadrons in the beamline materials along with those associated with the beam optics have a big effect in the flux spectrum knowledge. For experiments like MINERvA, understanding the flux is crucial since it enters directly into every neutrino-nucleus cross-sections measurements. The foundation of this work is predicting the neutrino flux at MINERvA using dedicated measurements of hadron production in hadron-nucleus collisions and incorporating in-situ MINERvAmore » data that can provide additional constraints. This work also includes the prospect for predicting the flux at other detectors like the NOvA Near detector. The procedure and conclusions of this thesis will have a big impact on future hadron production experiments and on determining the flux for the upcoming DUNE experiment.« less

  19. Neutrino Flux Prediction for the NuMI Beamline

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Aliaga Soplin, Leonidas

    2016-01-01

    The determination of the neutrino flux in any conventional neutrino beam presents a challenge for the current and future short and long baseline neutrino experiments. The uncertainties associated with the production and attenuation of the hadrons in the beamline materials along with those associated with the beam optics have a big effect in the flux spectrum knowledge. For experiments like MINERvA, understanding the flux is crucial since it enters directly into every neutrino-nucleus cross-sections measurements. The foundation of this work is predicting the neutrino flux at MINERvA using dedicated measurements of hadron production in hadron-nucleus collisions and incorporating in-situ MINERvAmore » data that can provide additional constraints. This work also includes the prospect for predicting the flux at other detectors like the NOvA Near detector. The procedure and conclusions of this thesis will have a big impact on future hadron production experiments and on determining the fl ux for the upcoming DUNE experiment.« less

  20. Super-Kamiokande Solar Neutrino Results and NSI Analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weatherly, Pierce; Super-Kamiokande Collaboration

    2017-09-01

    Super-Kamiokande (SK) detects the Cerenkov light from elastic scattering of solar 8B neutrinos with electrons in its ultra-pure water. The directionality, energy, and timing of the recoil electrons determines the interaction rate, the flight path, as well as the energy dependence of the 8B neutrinos’ electron-flavor survival probability P ee . While the P ee below 1 MeV is equivalent to averaged vacuum neutrino flavor oscillations, the P ee above 7 MeV is suppressed by the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) resonance resulting from the interaction of the solar neutrinos with solar matter. In the same way, Earth matter effects influence Pee, leading to an apparent Day/Night effect. Non-standard interactions (NSI) extend the MSW model to include interactions between the quarks in matter and neutrinos, thereby modifying P ee . We present the signatures of matter effects on solar neutrinos in Super-Kamiokande and present limits on NSI parameters, in particular couplings to the down quark.