Abstract: Prompted by the recent Dresden-II reactor data, we examine its implications for the determination of the weak mixing angle, paying attention to the effect of the quenching function. We also determine the resulting constraints on the unitarity of the neutrino mixing matrix, as well as on the most general type of nonstandard neutral-current neutrino interactions.

Abstract: We examine the capabilities of the DUNE experiment as a probe of the neutrino mixing paradigm. Taking the current status of neutrino oscillations and the design specifications of DUNE, we determine the experiment's potential to probe the structure of neutrino mixing and CP violation. We focus on the poorly determined parameters theta(23) and delta(cp) and consider both two and seven years of run. We take various benchmarks as our true values, such as the current preferred values of theta(23) and delta(cp), as well as several theory-motivated choices. We determine quantitatively DUNE's potential to perform a precision measurement of theta(23), as well as to test the CP violation hypothesis in a model-independent way. We find that, after running for seven years, DUNE will make a substantial step in the precise determination of these parameters, bringing to quantitative test the predictions of various theories of neutrino mixing.

Abstract: We explore the idea that dark matter stability results from the presence of a matter-parity symmetry, arising naturally as a consequence of the spontaneous breaking of an extended SU(3) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) circle times U(1)(N) electroweak gauge symmetry with fully gauged B-L. Using this framework we construct a theory for scotogenic dark matter and analyze its main features.

Abstract: We investigate the production of primordial Gravitational Waves (GWs) arising from First Order Phase Transitions (FOPTs) associated to neutrino mass generation in the context of type-I and inverse seesaw schemes. We examine both “high-scale” as well as “low-scale” variants, with either explicit or spontaneously broken lepton number symmetry U(1)(L), in the neutrino sector. In the latter case, a pseudo-Goldstone majoron-like boson may provide a candidate for cosmological dark matter. We find that schemes with softly-broken U(1)(L), and with single Higgs-doublet scalar sector lead to either no FOPTs or too weak FOPTs, precluding the detestability of GWs in present or near future measurements. Nevertheless, we found that, in the majoron-like seesaw scheme with spontaneously broken U(1)(L), at finite temperatures, one can have strong FOPTs and non-trivial primordial GW spectra which can fall well within the frequency and amplitude sensitivity of upcoming experiments, including LISA, BBO and u-DECIGO. However, GWs observability clashes with invisible Higgs decay constraints from the LHC. A simple and consistent fix is to assume the majoron-like mass to lie above the Higgs-decay kinematical threshold. We also found that the majoron-like variant of the low-scale seesaw mechanism implies a different GW spectrum than the one expected in the high-scale seesaw. This feature will be testable in future experiments. Our analysis shows that GWs can provide a new and complementary portal to test the neutrino mass generation mechanism.

Abstract: We propose that neutrino masses are “seeded” by a dark sector within the inverse seesaw mechanism. This way we have a new, “hidden”, variant of the scotogenic scenario for radiative neutrino masses. We discuss both explicit and dynamical lepton number violation. In addition to invisible Higgs decays with majoron emission, we discuss in detail the pheneomenolgy of dark matter, as well as the novel features associated to charged lepton flavour violation, and neutrino physics.