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Fiza, N., Khan Chowdhury, N. R., & Masud, M. (2023). Investigating Lorentz Invariance Violation with the long baseline experiment P2O. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 076–29pp.
Abstract: One of the basic propositions of quantum field theory is Lorentz invariance. The spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry at a high energy scale can be studied at low energy extensions like the Standard model in a model-independent way through effective field theory (EFT). The present and future Long-baseline neutrino experiments can give a scope to observe such a Planck-suppressed physics of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). A proposed long baseline experiment, Protvino to ORCA (dubbed “P2O”) with a baseline of 2595 km, is expected to provide good sensitivities to unresolved issues, especially neutrino mass ordering. P2O can offer good statistics even with a moderate beam power and runtime, owing to the very large (similar to 6 Mt) detector volume at KM3NeT/ ORCA. Here we discuss in detail, how the individual LIV parameters affect neutrino oscillations at P2O and DUNE baselines at the level of probability and derive analytical expressions to understand interesting degeneracies and other features. We estimate increment Delta chi(2) sensitivities to the LIV parameters, analyzing their correlations among each other, and also with the standard oscillation parameters. We calculate these results for P2O alone and also carry out a combined analysis of P2O with DUNE. We point out crucial features in the sensitivity contours and explain them qualitatively with the help of the relevant probability expressions derived here. Finally we estimate constraints on the individual LIV parameters at 95% confidence level (C.L.) intervals stemming from the combined analysis of P2O and DUNE datasets, and highlight the improvement over the existing constraints. We also find out that the additional degeneracy induced by the LIV parameter a(ee) around -22 x 10(-23) GeV is lifted by the combined analysis at 95% C.L.
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Folgado, M. G., Gomez-Vargas, G. A., Rius, N., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2018). Probing the sterile neutrino portal to Dark Matter with gamma rays. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 002–20pp.
Abstract: Sterile neutrinos could provide a link between the Standard Model particles and a dark sector, besides generating active neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism type I. We show that, if dark matter annihilation into sterile neutrinos determines its observed relic abundance, it is possible to explain the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess reported by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration as due to an astrophysical component plus dark matter annihilations. We observe that sterile neutrino portal to dark matter provides an impressively good fit, with a p-value of 0.78 in the best fit point, to the Galactic Center gamma-ray flux, for DM masses in the range (40-80) GeV and sterile neutrino masses 20 GeV less than or similar to M-N < M-DM. Such values are compatible with the limits from Fermi-LAT observations of the dwarfs spheroidal galaxies in the Milky Way halo, which rule out dark matter masses below similar to 50 GeV ( 90 GeV), for sterile neutrino masses M-N less than or similar to MDM ( M-N << M-DM). We also estimate the impact of AMS-02 anti-proton data on this scenario.
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Fonseca, R. M., & Grimus, W. (2014). Classification of lepton mixing matrices from finite residual symmetries. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 033–54pp.
Abstract: Assuming that neutrinos are Majorana particles, we perform a complete classification of all possible mixing matrices which are fully determined by residual symmetries in the charged-lepton and neutrino mass matrices. The classification is based on the assumption that the residual symmetries originate from a finite flavour symmetry group. The mathematical tools which allow us to accomplish this classification are theorems on sums of roots of unity. We find 17 sporadic cases plus one infinite series of mixing matrices associated with three-flavour mixing, all of which have already been discussed in the literature. Only the infinite series contains mixing matrices which are compatible with the data at the 3 sigma level.
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Fonseca, R. M., & Hirsch, M. (2016). A flipped 331 model. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 003–12pp.
Abstract: Models based on the extended SU(3)(C) x SU(3)(L) x U(1)(X) (331) gauge group usually follow a common pattern: two families of left-handed quarks are placed in anti triplet representations of the SU(3)(L) group; the remaining quark family, as well as the left-handed leptons, are assigned to triplets (or vice-versa). In this work we present a flipped 331 model where this scheme is reversed: all three quark families are in the same representation and it is the lepton families which are discriminated by the gauge symmetry. We discuss fermion masses and mixing, as well as Z' interactions, in a minimal model implementing this idea.
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Fontes, D., Romao, J. C., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Electroweak breaking and Higgs boson profile in the simplest linear seesaw model. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 245–28pp.
Abstract: We examine the simplest realization of the linear seesaw mechanism within the Standard Model gauge structure. Besides the standard scalar doublet, there are two lepton-number-carrying scalars, a nearly inert SU(2)(L) doublet and a singlet. Neutrino masses result from the spontaneous violation of lepton number, implying the existence of a Nambu-Goldstone boson. Such “majoron” would be copiously produced in stars, leading to stringent astrophysical constraints. We study the profile of the Higgs bosons in this model, including their effective couplings to the vector bosons and their invisible decay branching ratios. A consistent electroweak symmetry breaking pattern emerges with a compressed spectrum of scalars in which the “Standard Model” Higgs boson can have a sizeable invisible decay into the invisible majorons.
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Forero, D. V., Morisi, S., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2011). Lepton flavor violation and non-unitary lepton mixing in low-scale type-I seesaw. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 142–18pp.
Abstract: Within low-scale seesaw mechanisms, such as the inverse and linear seesaw, one expects (i) potentially large lepton flavor violation (LFV) and (ii) sizeable non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI). We consider the interplay between the magnitude of non-unitarity effects in the lepton mixing matrix, and the constraints that follow from LFV searches in the laboratory. We find that NSI parameters can be sizeable, up to percent level in some cases, while LFV rates, such as that for μ-> e gamma, lie within current limits, including the recent one set by the MEG collaboration. As a result the upcoming long baseline neutrino experiments offer a window of opportunity for complementary LFV and weak universality tests.
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Freitas, E. D. C., Monteiro, C. M. B., Ball, M., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Lopes, J. A. M., Lux, T., et al. (2010). Secondary scintillation yield in high-pressure xenon gas for neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) search. Phys. Lett. B, 684(4-5), 205–210.
Abstract: The search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) is an important topic in contemporary physics with many active experiments. New projects are planning to use high-pressure xenon gas as both source and detection medium. The secondary scintillation processes available in noble gases permit large amplification with negligible statistical fluctuations, offering the prospect of energy resolution approaching the Fano factor limit. This Letter reports results for xenon secondary scintillation yield, at room temperature, as a function of electric field in the gas scintillation gap for pressures ranging from 2 to 10 bar. A Large Area Avalanche Photodiode (LAAPD) collected the VUV secondary scintillation produced in the gas. X-rays directly absorbed in the LAAPD are used as a reference for determining the number of charge carriers produced by the scintillation pulse and, hence, the number of photons impinging the LAAPD. The number of photons produced per drifting electron and per kilovolt, the so-called scintillation amplification parameter, displays a small increase with pressure, ranging from 141 +/- 6 at 2 bar to 170 +/- 10 at 8 bar. In our setup, this Parameter does not increase above 8 bar due to nonnegligible electron attachment. The results are in good agreement with those presented in the literature in the 1 to 3 bar range. The increase of the scintillation amplification parameter with pressure for high gas densities has been also observed in former work at cryogenic temperatures.
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Garani, R., & Palomares-Ruiz, S. (2017). Dark matter in the Sun: scattering off electrons vs nucleons. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 007–41pp.
Abstract: The annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles accumulated in the Sun could produce a flux of neutrinos, which is potentially detectable with neutrino detectors/telescopes and the DM elastic scattering cross section can be constrained. Although the process of DM capture in astrophysical objects like the Sun is commonly assumed to be due to interactions only with nucleons, there are scenarios in which tree-level DM couplings to quarks are absent, and even if loop-induced interactions with nucleons are allowed, scatterings off electrons could be the dominant capture mechanism. We consider this possibility and study in detail all the ingredients necessary to compute the neutrino production rates from DM annihilationsin the Sun (capture, annihilation and evaporation rates) for velocity-independent and isotropic, velocity-dependent and isotropic and momentum-dependent scattering cross sections for DM interactions with electrons and compare them with the results obtained for the case of interactions with nucleons. Moreover, we improve the usual calculations in a number of ways and provide analytical expressions in three appendices. Interestingly, we find that the evaporation mass in the case of interactions with electrons could be below the GeV range, depending on the high-velocity tail of the DM distribution in the Sun, which would open a new mass window for searching for this type of scenarios.
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Gariazzo, S., Archidiacono, M., de Salas, P. F., Mena, O., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2018). Neutrino masses and their ordering: global data, priors and models. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 011–22pp.
Abstract: We present a full Bayesian analysis of the combination of current neutrino oscillation, neutrinoless double beta decay and Cosmic Microwave Background observations. Our major goal is to carefully investigate the possibility to single out one neutrino mass ordering, namely Normal Ordering or Inverted Ordering, with current data. Two possible parametrizations (three neutrino masses versus the lightest neutrino mass plus the two oscillation mass splittings) and priors (linear versus logarithmic) are exhaustively examined. We find that the preference for NO is only driven by neutrino oscillation data. Moreover, the values of the Bayes factor indicate that the evidence for NO is strong only when the scan is performed over the three neutrino masses with logarithmic priors; for every other combination of parameterization and prior, the preference for NO is only weak. As a by-product of our Bayesian analyses, we are able to (a) compare the Bayesian bounds on the neutrino mixing parameters to those obtained by means of frequentist approaches, finding a very good agreement; (b) determine that the lightest neutrino mass plus the two mass splittings parametrization, motivated by the physical observables, is strongly preferred over the three neutrino mass eigenstates scan and (c) find that logarithmic priors guarantee a weakly-to-moderately more efficient sampling of the parameter space. These results establish the optimal strategy to successfully explore the neutrino parameter space, based on the use of the oscillation mass splittings and a logarithmic prior on the lightest neutrino mass, when combining neutrino oscillation data with cosmology and neutrinoless double beta decay. We also show that the limits on the total neutrino mass Sigma m(nu) can change dramatically when moving from one prior to the other. These results have profound implications for future studies on the neutrino mass ordering, as they crucially state the need for self-consistent analyses which explore the best parametrization and priors, without combining results that involve different assumptions.
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Gariazzo, S., de Salas, P. F., & Pastor, S. (2019). Thermalisation of sterile neutrinos in the early universe in the 3+1 scheme with full mixing matrix. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 014–30pp.
Abstract: In the framework of a 3+1 scheme with an additional inert state, we consider the thermalisation of sterile neutrinos in the early Universe taking into account the full 4 x 4 mixing matrix. The evolution of the neutrino energy distributions is found solving the momentum-dependent kinetic equations with full diagonal collision terms, as in previous analyses of flavour neutrino decoupling in the standard case. The degree of thermalisation of the sterile state is shown in terms of the effective number of neutrinos, N-eff, and its dependence on the three additional mixing angles (theta(14), theta(24), theta(34)) and on the squared mass difference Delta m(41)(2) is discussed. Our results are relevant for fixing the contribution of a fourth light neutrino species to the cosmological energy density, whose value is very well constrained by the final Planck analysis. For the preferred region of active-sterile mixing parameters from short-baseline neutrino experiments, we find that the fourth state is fully thermalised (N-eff similar or equal to 4).
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