Abstract: Within the standard propagation scenario, the flavor ratios of high-energy cosmic neutrinos at neutrino telescopes are expected to be around the democratic benchmark resulting from hadronic sources, (1/3:1/3:1/3)(circle plus). We show how the coupling of neutrinos to an ultralight dark matter complex scalar field would induce an effective neutrino mass that could lead to adiabatic neutrino propagation. This would result in the preservation at the detector of the production flavor composition of neutrinos at sources. This effect could lead to flavor ratios at detectors well outside the range predicted by the standard scenario of averaged oscillations. We also present an electroweak-invariant model that would lead to the required effective interaction between neutrinos and dark matter.

Abstract: Within an effective field theory framework, we discuss the possibility to discriminate among different operators that contribute to lepton flavor violating (LFV) tau decays. Correlations among decay rates in different channels are shown to provide a basic handle to unravel the origin of LFV in these processes. More information about the underlying dynamics responsible for LFV can be gathered from differential distributions in three-body decays like tau -> μpi pi or tau -> 3 mu: these are considered in some detail. We incorporate in our analysis recent developments in the determination of the hadronic form factors for tau -> μpi pi. Future prospects for the observation of LFV tau decays and its interpretation are also discussed.

Abstract: While standard solar model (SSM) predictions depend on approximately 20 input parameters, SSM neutrino flux predictions are strongly correlated with a single model output parameter, the core temperature T-c. Consequently, one can extract physics from solar neutrino flux measurements while minimizing the consequences of SSM uncertainties, by studying flux ratios with appropriate power-law weightings tuned to cancel this T-c dependence. We reexamine an idea for constraining the primordial C + N content of the solar core from a ratio of CN-cycle O-15 to pp-chain B-8 neutrino fluxes, showing that non-nuclear SSM uncertainties in the ratio are small and effectively governed by a single parameter, the diffusion coefficient. We point out that measurements of both CN-I cycle neutrino branches-O-15 and N-13 beta-decay-could, in principle, lead to separate determinations of the core C and N abundances, due to out-of-equilibrium CN-cycle burning in the cooler outer layers of the solar core. Finally, we show that the strategy of constructing “minimum uncertainty” neutrino flux ratios can also test other properties of the SSM. In particular, we demonstrate that a weighted ratio of Be-7 and B-8 fluxes constrains a product of S-factors to the same precision currently possible with laboratory data.

Abstract: Weak pion production off the nucleon at low energies has been systematically investigated in manifestly relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory with explicit inclusion of the Delta(1232) resonance. Most of the involved low-energy constants have been previously determined in other processes such as pion-nucleon elastic scattering and electromagnetic pion production off the nucleon. For numerical estimates, the few remaining constants are set to be of natural size. As a result, the total cross sections for single pion production on neutrons and protons, induced either by neutrino or antineutrino, are predicted. Our results are consistent with the scarce existing experimental data except in the nu(mu)n -> mu(-)n pi(+) channel, where higher-order contributions might still be significant. The Delta resonance mechanisms lead to sizeable contributions in all channels, especially in nu(mu)p -> mu(-) p pi(+), even though the considered energies are close to the production threshold. The present study provides a well-founded low-energy benchmark for phenomenological models aimed at the description of weak pion production processes in the broad kinematic range of interest for current and future neutrino-oscillation experiments.

Abstract: We use LHC dijet data to derive constraints on neutrinoless double beta decay. Upper limits on cross sections for the production of “exotic” resonances, such as a right-handed W boson or a diquark, can be converted into lower limits on the double beta decay half-life for fixed choices of other parameters. Constraints derived from run-I data are already surprisingly strong and complementary to results from searches using same-sign dileptons plus jets. For the case of the left-right symmetric model, in case no new resonance is found in future runs of the LHC and assuming g(L) = g(R), we estimate a lower limit on the double beta decay half-life larger than 10(27) yr can be derived from future dijet data, except in the window of relatively light right-handed neutrino masses in the range 0.5 MeV to 50 GeV. Part of this mass window will be tested in the upcoming SHiP experiment. We also discuss current and future limits on possible scalar diquark contributions to double beta decay that can be derived from dijet data.