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Bayes, R., Laing, A., Soler, F. J. P., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Hernandez, P., et al. (2012). Golden channel at a neutrino factory revisited: Improved sensitivities from a magnetized iron neutrino detector. Phys. Rev. D, 86(9), 093015–27pp.
Abstract: This paper describes the performance and sensitivity to neutrino mixing parameters of a Magnetised Iron Neutrino Detector at a Neutrino Factory with a neutrino beam created from the decay of 10 GeV muons. Specifically, it is concerned with the ability of such a detector to detect muons of the opposite sign to those stored (wrong-sign muons) while suppressing contamination of the signal from the interactions of other neutrino species in the beam. A new, more realistic simulation and analysis, which improves the efficiency of this detector at low energies, has been developed using the GENIE neutrino event generator and the GEANT4 simulation toolkit. Low-energy neutrino events down to 1 GeV were selected, while reducing backgrounds to the 10(-4) level. Signal efficiency plateaus of similar to 60% for nu(mu) and similar to 70% for (nu) over bar (mu) events were achieved starting at similar to 5 GeV. Contamination from the nu(mu) -> nu(tau) oscillation channel was studied for the first time and was found to be at the level between 1% and 4%. Full response matrices are supplied for all the signal and background channels from 1 GeV to 10 GeV. The sensitivity of an experiment involving a Magnetised Iron Neutrino Detector detector of 100 ktons at 2000 km from the Neutrino Factory is calculated for the case of sin(2)2 theta(13) similar to 10(-1). For this value of theta(13), the accuracy in the measurement of the CP-violating phase is estimated to be Delta delta(CP) similar to 3 degrees-5 degrees, depending on the value of delta(CP), the CP coverage at 5 sigma is 85% and the mass hierarchy would be determined with better than 5 sigma level for all values of delta(CP).
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Bernardoni, F., Garron, N., Hernandez, P., Necco, S., & Pena, C. (2011). Probing the chiral regime of N-f=2 QCD with mixed actions. Phys. Rev. D, 83(5), 054503–17pp.
Abstract: We report on our first experiences with a mixed action setup with overlap valence quarks and nonperturbatively O(a) improved Wilson sea quarks. For the latter we employ CLS N-f = 2 configurations with light sea-quark masses at small lattice spacings. Exact chiral symmetry allows to consider very light valence quarks and explore the matching to (partially-quenched) Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) in a mixed epsilon/p-regime. We compute the topological susceptibility and the low-lying spectrum of the massless Neuberger-Dirac operator for three values of the sea-quark mass, and compare the sea-quark mass dependence to NLO ChPT in the mixed regime. This provides two different determinations of the chiral condensate, as well as information about some NLOlow-energy couplings. Our results allow to test the consistency of the mixed-regime approach to ChPT, as well as of the mixed action framework.
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Bernardoni, F., Hernandez, P., & Necco, S. (2010). Heavy-light mesons in the epsilon-regime. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 070–30pp.
Abstract: We study the finite-size scaling of heavy-light mesons in the static limit. We compute two-point functions of chiral current densities as well as pseudoscalar densities in the epsilon-regime of heavy meson Chiral Perturbation Theory (HMChPT). As expected, finite volume dependence turns out to be significant in this regime and can be predicted in the effective theory in terms of the infinite-volume low-energy couplings. These results might be relevant for extraction of heavy-meson properties from lattice simulations.
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Bross, A., Wands, R., Bayes, R., Laing, A., Soler, F. J. P., Cervera-Villanueva, A., et al. (2013). Toroidal magnetized iron neutrino detector for a neutrino factory. Phys. Rev. Spec. Top.-Accel. Beams, 16(8), 081002–16pp.
Abstract: 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 paper, the current status of a simulation of a toroidal MIND for a neutrino factory is discussed in light of the recent measurements of large 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).
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Caputo, A., Hernandez, P., Kekic, M., Lopez-Pavon, J., & Salvado, J. (2017). The seesaw path to leptonic CP violation. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(4), 258–7pp.
Abstract: Future experiments such as SHiP and highintensity e(+)e(-) colliders will have a superb sensitivity to heavy Majorana neutrinos with masses below M-Z. We show that the measurement of the mixing to electrons and muons of one such state could establish the existence of CP violating phases in the neutrino mixing matrix, in the context of low-scale seesaw models. We quantify in the minimal model the CP reach of these future experiments, and demonstrate that CP violating phases in the mixing matrix could be established at 5 sigma CL in a very significant fraction of parameter space.
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Caputo, A., Hernandez, P., Lopez-Pavon, J., & Salvado, J. (2017). The seesaw portal in testable models of neutrino masses. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 112–20pp.
Abstract: A Standard Model extension with two Majorana neutrinos can explain the measured neutrino masses and mixings, and also account for the matter-antimatter asymmetry in a region of parameter space that could be testable in future experiments. The testability of the model relies to some extent on its minimality. In this paper we address the possibility that the model might be extended by extra generic new physics which we parametrize in terms of a low-energy effective theory. We consider the effects of the operators of the lowest dimensionality, d = 5, and evaluate the upper bounds on the coefficients so that the predictions of the minimal model are robust. One of the operators gives a new production mechanism for the heavy neutrinos at LHC via higgs decays. The higgs can decay to a pair of such neutrinos that, being long-lived, leave a powerful signal of two displaced vertices. We estimate the LHC reach to this process.
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Caputo, A., Hernandez, P., & Rius, N. (2019). Leptogenesis from oscillations and dark matter. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(7), 574–17pp.
Abstract: An extension of the Standard Model with Majorana singlet fermions in the 1-100GeV range can explain the light neutrino masses and give rise to a baryon asymmetry at freeze-in of the heavy states, via their CP-violating oscillations. In this paper we consider extending this scenario to also explain dark matter. We find that a very weakly coupled B-L gauge boson, an invisible QCD axion model, and the singlet majoron model can simultaneously account for dark matter and the baryon asymmetry.
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Chun, E. J., Cvetic, G., Dev, P. S. B., Drewes, M., Fong, C. S., Garbrecht, B., et al. (2018). Probing leptogenesis. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 33(5-6), 1842005–99pp.
Abstract: The focus of this paper lies on the possible experimental tests of leptogenesis scenarios. We consider both leptogenesis generated from oscillations, as well as leptogenesis from out-of-equilibrium decays. As the Akhmedov-Rubakov-Smirnov (ARS) mechanism allows for heavy neutrinos in the GeV range, this opens up a plethora of possible experimental tests, e.g. at neutrino oscillation experiments, neutrinoless double beta decay, and direct searches for neutral heavy leptons at future facilities. In contrast, testing leptogenesis from out-of-equilibrium decays is a quite difficult task. We comment on the necessary conditions for having successful leptogenesis at the TeV-scale. We further discuss possible realizations and their model specific testability in extended seesaw models, models with extended gauge sectors, and supersymmetric leptogenesis. Not being able to test high-scale leptogenesis directly, we present a way to falsify such scenarios by focusing on their washout processes. This is discussed specifically for the left-right symmetric model and the observation of a heavy W-R, as well as model independently when measuring Delta L = 2 washout processes at the LHC or neutrinoless double beta decay.
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Coloma, P., Donini, A., Fernandez-Martinez, E., & Hernandez, P. (2012). Precision on leptonic mixing parameters at future neutrino oscillation experiments. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 073–27pp.
Abstract: We perform a comparison of the different future neutrino oscillation experiments based on the achievable precision in the determination of the fundamental parameters theta(13) and the CP phase, delta, assuming that theta(13) is in the range indicated by the recent Daya Bay measurement. We study the non-trivial dependence of the error on delta on its true value. When matter effects are small, the largest error is found at the points where CP violation is maximal, and the smallest at the CP conserving points. The situation is different when matter effects are sizable. As a result of this effect, the comparison of the physics reach of different experiments on the basis of the CP discovery potential, as usually done, can be misleading. We have compared various proposed super-beam, beta-beam and neutrino factory setups on the basis of the relative precision of theta(13) and the error on delta. Neutrino factories, both high-energy or low-energy, outperform alternative beam technologies. An ultimate precision on theta(13) below 3% and an error on delta of <= 7 degrees at 1 sigma (1 d.o.f.) can be obtained at a neutrino factory.
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Coloma, P., Hernandez, P., Muñoz, V., & Shoemaker, I. M. (2020). New constraints on heavy neutral leptons from Super-Kamiokande data. Eur. Phys. J. C, 80(3), 235–7pp.
Abstract: Heavy neutral leptons are predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model with massive neutrinos. If kinematically accessible, they can be copiously produced from kaon and pion decays in atmospheric showers, and subsequently decay inside large neutrino detectors. We perform a search for these long-lived particles using Super-Kamiokande multi-GeV neutrino data and derive stringent limits on the mixing with electron, muon and tau neutrinos as a function of the long-lived particle mass. We also present the limits on the branching ratio versus lifetime plane, which are helpful in determining the constraints in non-minimal models where the heavy neutral leptons have new interactions with the Standard Model.
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