Abstract: We present here a microscopic nuclear-structure calculation of a beta-electron spectrum including all the beta-decay branches of a high Q-value reactor fission product contributing significantly to the reactor antineutrino energy spectrum. We perform large-scale nuclear shell-model calculations of the total electron spectrum for the beta(-) decay of Rb-92 to states in Sr-92 using a computer cluster. We exploit the beta-branching data of a recent total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy (TAGS) measurement to determine the effective values of the weak axial-vector coupling, g(A), and the weak axial charge, g(A)(gamma(5)). By using the TAGS data we avoid the bias stemming from the pandemonium effect which is a systematic error biasing the usual beta-decay measurements. We take fully into account all the involved allowed and forbidden beta transitions, in particular the first-forbidden nonunique ones which have earlier been shown to be relevant in the context of the reactor-antineutrino flux anomaly and the unexplained spectral shoulder, the “bump,” the former one having been interpreted as one of the strongest evidence for the existence of sterile neutrinos. Here we are able to present quantitative evidence for the relevance of forbidden nonunique beta(-) decays in a total beta spectrum of a fission product, in this case( 92)Rb, which is one of the major contributors to the total reactor antineutrino spectral shape. We demonstrate that taking the forbidden spectral shapes fully into consideration leads for Rb-92 to a 2.6%-4.6% reduction in the expected inverse beta-decay rate at the reactor antineutrino telescopes. We also confirm by our calculation of a total beta-electron spectrum that the forbidden transitions can contribute to the formation of the spectral bump in the reactor-antineutrino flux profile.

Abstract: The next Galactic core-collapse supernova (SN) is a highly anticipated observational target for neutrino telescopes. However, even prior to collapse, massive dying stars shine copiously in “pre-supernova” (pre-SN) neutrinos, which can potentially act as efficient SN warning alarms and provide novel information about the very last stages of stellar evolution. We explore the sensitivity to pre-SN neutrinos of large-scale direct dark matter detection experiments, which, unlike dedicated neutrino telescopes, take full advantage of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. We find that argon-based detectors with target masses of O(100)tons (i.e., comparable in size to the proposed ARGO experiment) operating at sub-keV thresholds can detect O(10-100) pre-SN neutrinos coming from a source at a characteristic distance of similar to 200 pc, such as Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis). Large-scale xenon-based experiments with similarly low thresholds could also be sensitive to pre-SN neutrinos. For a Betelgeuse-type source, large-scale dark matter experiments could provide a SN warning siren similar to 10 hours prior to the explosion. We also comment on the complementarity of large-scale direct dark matter detection experiments and neutrino telescopes in the understanding of core-collapse SN.

Abstract: The charged current Cabibbo-suppressed associated K Xi production off the nucleon induced by antineutrinos is studied at low and intermediate energies. The nonresonant terms are obtained using a microscopical model based on the SU( 3) chiral Lagrangian. The basic parameters of the model are f(pi), the pion decay constant, Cabibbo's angle, the proton and neutron magnetic moments, and the axial vector coupling constants for the baryons octet, D and F, that are obtained from the analysis of the semileptonic decays of neutron and hyperons. In addition, we also consider Sigma(*)(1385) resonance, which can decay in K Xi final state when this channel is open. The studied mechanism is the prime source of Xi production at antineutrino energies around 2 GeV and the calculated cross sections at these energies can be measured at the current and future neutrino experiments.

Abstract: A coherent study of e(+)e(-) annihilation into two (pi(+)pi(-), K+K-) and three (pi(+)pi(-)pi(0), pi(+)pi(-)eta) pseudoscalar meson production is carried out within the framework of resonance chiral theory in energy region E less than or similar to 2 GeV. The work of [L.Y. Dai, J. Portoles, and O. Shekhovtsova, Phys. Rev. D88 (2013) 056001] is revisited with the latest experimental data and a joint analysis of two pseudoscalar meson production. Hence, we evaluate the lowest order hadronic vacuum polarization contributions of those two and three pseudoscalar processes to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We also estimate some higher-order additions led by the same hadronic vacuum polarization. Combined with the other contributions from the standard model, the theoretical prediction differs still by (21.6 +/- 7.4) x 10(-10) (2.9 sigma) from the experimental value.

Abstract: The Scotogenic model is a popular scenario that induces radiative Majorana neutrino masses and includes a weakly-interacting dark matter candidate. We classify all possible ultraviolet extensions of the Scotogenic model in which (i) the dark DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL Z(2) parity emerges at low energies after the spontaneous breaking of a global U(1)(L) lepton number symmetry, and (ii) the low-energy effective theory contains a naturally small lepton number breaking parameter, suppressed by the mass of a heavy mediator integrated out at tree-level. We find 50 such models and discuss two of them in detail to illustrate our setup. We also discuss some general aspects of the phenomenology of the models in our classification, exploring possible lepton flavor violating signals, collider signatures and implications for dark matter. The phenomenological prospects of these scenarios are very rich due to the presence of additional scalar states, including a massless Goldstone boson.