Hirsch, M., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2018). Can one ever prove that neutrinos are Dirac particles? Phys. Lett. B, 781, 302–305.
Abstract: According to the “Black Box” theorem the experimental confirmation of neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu 2 beta) would imply that at least one of the neutrinos is a Majorana particle. However, a null 0 nu 2 beta signal cannot decide the nature of neutrinos, as it can be suppressed even for Majorana neutrinos. In this letter we argue that if the null 0 nu 2 beta decay signal is accompanied by a 0 nu 2 beta quadruple beta decay signal, then at least one neutrino should be a Dirac particle. This argument holds irrespective of the underlying processes leading to such decays.
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Fonseca, R. M., Hirsch, M., & Srivastava, R. (2018). Delta L=3 processes: Proton decay and the LHC. Phys. Rev. D, 97(7), 075026–7pp.
Abstract: We discuss lepton number violation in three units. From an effective field theory point of view, Delta L = 3 processes can only arise from dimension 9 or higher operators. These operators also violate baryon number, hence many of them will induce proton decay. Given the high dimensionality of these operators, in order to have a proton half-life in the observable range, the new physics associated to Delta L = 3 processes should be at a scale as low as 1 TeV. This opens up the possibility of searching for such processes not only in proton decay experiments but also at the LHC. In this work we analyze the relevant d = 9, 11, 13 operators which violate lepton number in three units. We then construct one simple concrete model with interesting low- and high-energy phenomenology.
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Ding, G. J., Nath, N., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Status and prospects of 'bi-large' leptonic mixing. Phys. Lett. B, 796, 162–167.
Abstract: Bi-large patterns for the leptonic mixing matrix are confronted with current neutrino oscillation data. We analyse the status of these patterns and determine, through realistic simulations, the potential of the upcoming long-baseline experiment DUNE in testing bi-large ansatze and discriminating amongst them.
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De Romeri, V., Majumdar, A., Papoulias, D. K., & Srivastava, R. (2024). XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN constraints on DSNB-boosted dark matter. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 028–34pp.
Abstract: We consider a scenario in which dark matter particles are accelerated to semirelativistic velocities through their scattering with the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background. Such a subdominant, but more energetic dark matter component can be then detected via its scattering on the electrons and nucleons inside direct detection experiments. This opens up the possibility to probe the sub -GeV mass range, a region of parameter space that is usually not accessible at such facilities. We analyze current data from the XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN experiments and we obtain novel constraints on the scattering cross sections of sub -GeV boosted dark matter with both nucleons and electrons. We also highlight the importance of carefully taking into account Earth's attenuation effects as well as the finite nuclear size into the analysis. By comparing our results to other existing constraints, we show that these effects lead to improved and more robust constraints.
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Chen, P., Ding, G. J., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Predicting neutrino oscillations with “bi-large” lepton mixing matrices. Phys. Lett. B, 792, 461–464.
Abstract: We propose two schemes for the lepton mixing matrix U = (U1U nu)-U-dagger, where U = U-1 refers to the charged sector, and U-v denotes the neutrino diagonalization matrix. We assume U-nu to be CP conserving and its three angles to be connected with the Cabibbo angle in a simple manner. CP violation arises solely from the U-1, assumed to have the CKM form, U-1 similar or equal to V-CKM, suggested by unification. Oscillation parameters depend on a single parameter, leading to narrow ranges for the “solar” and “accelerator” angles theta(12) and theta(23), as well as for the CP phase, predicted as delta(CP) similar to +/- 1.3 pi.
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