Escrihuela, F. J., Tortola, M., Valle, J. W. F., & Miranda, O. G. (2011). Global constraints on muon-neutrino nonstandard interactions. Phys. Rev. D, 83(9), 093002–8pp.
Abstract: The search for new interactions of neutrinos beyond those of the standard model may help to elucidate the mechanism responsible for neutrino masses. Here, we combine existing accelerator neutrino data with restrictions coming from a recent atmospheric neutrino data analysis in order to lift parameter degeneracies and improve limits on new interactions of muon neutrinos with quarks. In particular, we reconsider the results of the E-815 experiment at Fermilab (NuTeV) in view of a new evaluation of its systematic uncertainties. We find that, although constraints for muon neutrinos are better than those applicable to tau or electron neutrinos, they lie at the few X 10(-2) level, not as strong as previously believed. We briefly discuss prospects for further improvement.
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Escrihuela, F. J., Forero, D. V., Miranda, O. G., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2015). On the description of nonunitary neutrino mixing. Phys. Rev. D, 92(5), 053009–16pp.
Abstract: Neutrino oscillations are well established and the relevant parameters determined with good precision, except for the CP phase, in terms of a unitary lepton mixing matrix. Seesaw extensions of the Standard Model predict unitarity deviations due to the admixture of heavy isosinglet neutrinos. We provide a complete description of the unitarity and universality deviations in the light-neutrino sector. Neutrino oscillation experiments involving electron or muon neutrinos and antineutrinos are fully described in terms of just three new real parameters and a new CP phase, in addition to the ones describing oscillations with unitary mixing. Using this formalism we describe the implications of nonunitarity for neutrino oscillations and summarize the model-independent constraints on heavy-neutrino couplings that arise from current experiments.
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Escrihuela, F. J., Forero, D. V., Miranda, O. G., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2017). Probing CP violation with non-unitary mixing in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments: DUNE as a case study. New J. Phys., 19, 093005–14pp.
Abstract: When neutrino masses arise from the exchange of neutral heavy leptons, as in most seesaw schemes, the effective lepton mixing matrix N describing neutrino propagation is non-unitary, hence neutrinos are not exactly orthonormal. New CP violation phases appear in N that could be confused with the standard phase delta(CP) characterizing the three neutrino paradigm. We study the potential of the long-baseline neutrino experiment DUNE in probing CP violation induced by the standard CP phase in the presence of non-unitarity. In order to accomplish this we develop our previous formalism, so as to take into account the neutrino interactions with the medium, important in long baseline experiments such as DUNE. We find that the expected CP sensitivity of DUNE is somewhat degraded with respect to that characterizing the standard unitary case. However the effect is weaker than might have been expected thanks mainly to the wide neutrino beam. We also investigate the sensitivity of DUNE to the parameters characterizing non-unitarity. In this case we find that there is no improvement expected with respect to the current situation, unless the near detector setup is revamped.
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Esteves, J. N., Joaquim, F. R., Joshipura, A. S., Romao, J. C., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2010). A(4)-based neutrino masses with Majoron decaying dark matter. Phys. Rev. D, 82(7), 073008–8pp.
Abstract: We propose an A(4) flavor-symmetric SU(3) circle times SU(2) circle times U(1) seesaw model where lepton number is broken spontaneously. A consistent two-zero texture pattern of neutrino masses and mixing emerges from the interplay of type-I and type-II seesaw contributions, with important phenomenological predictions. We show that, if the Majoron becomes massive, such seesaw scenario provides a viable candidate for decaying dark matter, consistent with cosmic microwave background lifetime constraints that follow from current WMAP observations. We also calculate the subleading one-loop-induced decay into photons which leads to a monoenergetic emission line that may be observed in future x-ray missions such as Xenia.
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DUNE Collaboration(Abi, B. et al), Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Cervera-Villanueva, A., De Romeri, V., Fernandez Menendez, P., et al. (2021). Searching for solar KDAR with DUNE. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 065–28pp.
Abstract: The observation of 236 MeV muon neutrinos from kaon-decay-at-rest (KDAR) originating in the core of the Sun would provide a unique signature of dark matter annihilation. Since excellent angle and energy reconstruction are necessary to detect this monoenergetic, directional neutrino flux, DUNE with its vast volume and reconstruction capabilities, is a promising candidate for a KDAR neutrino search. In this work, we evaluate the proposed KDAR neutrino search strategies by realistically modeling both neutrino-nucleus interactions and the response of DUNE. We find that, although reconstruction of the neutrino energy and direction is difficult with current techniques in the relevant energy range, the superb energy resolution, angular resolution, and particle identification offered by DUNE can still permit great signal/background discrimination. Moreover, there are non-standard scenarios in which searches at DUNE for KDAR in the Sun can probe dark matter interactions.
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