Abstract: We have applied a microscopic model for single photon emission in neutral current interactions on nucleons and nuclei to determine the number and distributions of such events at the Super-Kamiokande detector, for the flux and beam exposure of the T2K experiment in neutrino mode. These reactions represent an effectively irreducible background in electron-(anti) neutrino appearance measurements aimed at a precise measurement of mixing angle theta(13) and the CP violating phase. We have obtained a total number of photon events that is twice as large as the one from the NEUT event generator (version 5.1.4.2) used in the analysis of T2K data. Detailed comparisons of energy and angular distributions for the nu μand (nu) over bar μfluxes have also been performed.

Abstract: We extend to 10 GeV results from a microscopic calculation of charged-current neutrino-nucleus reactions that do not produce a pion in the final state. For the class of events coming from neutrino interactions with two nucleons producing two holes (2p2h), limiting the calculation to three-momentum transfers less than 1.2 GeV produces a two-dimensional distribution in momentum and energy transfer that is roughly constant as a function of energy. The cross section for 2p2h interactions approximately scales with the number of nucleons for isoscalar nuclei, similar to the quasi-elastic cross section. When limited to momentum transfers below 1.2 GeV, the cross section is 26% of the quasi-elastic cross section at 3 GeV, but 14% if we neglect a Delta(1232) resonance absorption component. The same quantities are 33% and 17% for antineutrinos. For the quasi-elastic interactions, the full nuclear model with long range correlations produces an even larger, but approximately constant distortion of the shape of the four-momentum transfer at all energies above 2 GeV. The 2p2h enhancement and long-range correlation distortions to the cross section for these interactions are significant enough they should be observable in precision experiments to measure neutrino oscillations and neutrino interactions at these energies, but also balance out and produce less total distortion than each effect does individually.

Abstract: We extend the notion of the Nieh-Yan invariant to generic metric-affine geometries, where both torsion and nonmetricity are taken into account. Notably, we show that the properties of projective invariance and topologicity can be independently accommodated by a suitable choice of the parameters featuring this new Nieh-Yan term. We then consider a special class of modified theories of gravity able to promote the Immirzi parameter to a dynamical scalar field coupled to the Nieh-Yan form, and we discuss in more detail the dynamics of the effective scalar tensor theory stemming from such a revised theoretical framework. We focus, in particular, on cosmological Bianchi I models and we derive classical solutions where the initial singularity is safely removed in favor of a big bounce, which is ultimately driven by the nonminimal coupling with the Immirzi field. These solutions, moreover, turn out to be characterized by finite time singularities, but we show that such critical points do not spoil the geodesic completeness and wave regularity of these spacetimes.

Abstract: We extend the adiabatic regularization method to spin-1/2 fields. The ansatz for the adiabatic expansion for fermionic modes differs significantly from the WKB-type template that works for scalar modes. We give explicit expressions for the first adiabatic orders and analyze particle creation in de Sitter spacetime. As for scalar fields, the adiabatic method can be distinguished by its capability to overcome the UV divergences of the particle number operator. We also test the consistency of the extended method by working out the conformal and axial anomalies for a Dirac field in a Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetime, in exact agreement with those obtained from other renormalization prescriptions. We finally show its power by computing the renormalized stress-energy tensor for Dirac fermions in de Sitter space.

Abstract: We extend our general framework for semileptonic decay, originally introduced in N. Penalva et al. [Phys. Rev. D 100, 113007 (2019)], with the addition of new physics (NP) tensor terms. In this way, all the NP effective Hamiltonians that are considered in lepton flavor universality violation (LFUV) studies have now been included. Those are left and right vector and scalar NP Hamiltonians and the NP tensor one. Besides, we now also give general expressions that allow for complex Wilson coefficients. The scheme developed is totally general and it can be applied to any charged current semileptonic decay, involving any quark flavors or initial and final hadron states. We show that all the hadronic input, including NP effects, can be parametrized in terms of 16 Lorentz scalar structure functions, constructed out of the NP complex Wilson coefficients and the genuine hadronic responses, with the latter determined by the matrix elements of the involved hadron operators. In the second part of this work, we use this formalism to obtain the complete NP effects in the Ab Acr(/ semileptonic decay, where LFUV, if finally confirmed, is also expected to be seen. We- stress the relevance of the center of mass (CM) d2F/ (dwd cos 0i) and laboratory (LAB) d2F/(dwdE,) differential decay widths, with (o the product of the hadron four-velocities, Oe the angle made by the three -momenta of the charged lepton and the final hadron in the 11/- CM frame and the charged lepton energy in the decaying hadron rest frame. While models with very different strengths in the NP terms give the same differential d17 do) and total decay widths for this decay, they predict very different numerical results for some of the cos (.),, and E coefficient -functions that determine the above two distributions. Thus, the combined analysis of the CM d2F1(dcodcos0,,) and LAB d21'/(doidE,.) differential decay widths will help clarifying what kind of NP is a better candidate in order to explain LFUV.