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Jimenez, R., Kitching, T., Pena-Garay, C., & Verde, L. (2010). Can we measure the neutrino mass hierarchy in the sky? J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 035–14pp.
Abstract: Cosmological probes are steadily reducing the total neutrino mass window, resulting in constraints on the neutrino-mass degeneracy as the most significant outcome. In this work we explore the discovery potential of cosmological probes to constrain the neutrino hierarchy, and point out some subtleties that could yield spurious claims of detection. This has an important implication for next generation of double beta decay experiments, that will be able to achieve a positive signal in the case of degenerate or inverted hierarchy of Majorana neutrinos. We find that cosmological experiments that nearly cover the whole sky could in principle distinguish the neutrino hierarchy by yielding 'substantial' evidence for one scenario over the another, via precise measurements of the shape of the matter power spectrum from large scale structure and weak gravitational lensing.
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Barenboim, G., & Rasero, J. (2011). Baryogenesis from a right-handed neutrino condensate. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 097–15pp.
Abstract: We show that the baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be generated by a strongly coupled right handed neutrino condensate which also drives inflation. The resulting model has only a small number of parameters, which completely determine not only the baryon asymmetry of the Universe and the mass of the right handed neutrino but also the inflationary phase. This feature allows us to make predictions that will be tested by current and planned experiments. As compared to the usual approach our dynamical framework is both economical and predictive.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Aguilar, J. A. et al), Bigongiari, C., Dornic, D., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2011). AMADEUS-The acoustic neutrino detection test system of the ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 626, 128–143.
Abstract: The AMADEUS (ANTARES Modules for the Acoustic Detection Under the Sea) system which is described in this article aims at the investigation of techniques for acoustic detection of neutrinos in the deep sea. It is integrated into the ANTARES neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. Its acoustic sensors, installed at water depths between 2050 and 2300 m, employ piezo-electric elements for the broad-band recording of signals with frequencies ranging up to 125 kHz. The typical sensitivity of the sensors is around – 145 dB re 1 V/mu Pa (including preamplifier). Completed in May 2008, AMADEUS consists of six “acoustic clusters”, each comprising six acoustic sensors that are arranged at distances of roughly 1 m from each other. Two vertical mechanical structures (so-called lines) of the ANTARES detector host three acoustic clusters each. Spacings between the clusters range from 14.5 to 340 m. Each cluster contains custom-designed electronics boards to amplify and digitise the acoustic signals from the sensors. An on-shore computer cluster is used to process and filter the data stream and store the selected events. The daily volume of recorded data is about 10 GB. The system is operating continuously and automatically, requiring only little human intervention. AMADEUS allows for extensive studies of both transient signals and ambient noise in the deep sea, as well as signal correlations on several length scales and localisation of acoustic point sources. Thus the system is excellently suited to assess the background conditions for the measurement of the bipolar pulses expected to originate from neutrino interactions.
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Bustamante, M., Gago, A. M., & Pena-Garay, C. (2010). Energy-independent new physics in the flavour ratios of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 066–28pp.
Abstract: We have studied the consequences of breaking the CPT symmetry in the neutrino sector, using the expected high-energy neutrino flux from distant cosmological sources such as active galaxies. For this purpose we have assumed three different hypotheses for the neutrino production model, characterised by the flavour fluxes at production phi(0)(e) : phi(0)(mu) : phi(0)(tau) = 1 : 2 : 0, 0 : 1 : 0, and 1 : 0 : 0, and studied the theoretical and experimental expectations for the muon-neutrino flux at Earth, phi(mu), and for the flavour ratios at Earth, R = phi(mu)/phi(e) and S = phi(tau)/phi(mu). CPT violation (CPTV) has been implemented by adding an energy-independent term to the standard neutrino oscillation Hamiltonian. This introduces three new mixing angles, two new eigenvalues and three new phases, all of which have currently unknown values. We have varied the new mixing angles and eigenvalues within certain bounds, together with the parameters associated to pure standard oscillations. Our results indicate that, for the models 1 : 2 : 0 and 0 : 1 : 0, it might be possible to find large deviations of phi(mu), R, and S between the cases without and with CPTV, provided the CPTV eigenvalues lie within 10(-29) – 10(-27) GeV, or above. Moreover, if CPTV exists, there are certain values of R and S that can be accounted for by up to three production models. If no CPTV were observed, we could set limits on the CPTV eigenvalues of the same order. Detection prospects calculated using IceCube suggest that for the models 1 : 2 : 0 and 0 : 1 : 0, the modifications due to CPTV are larger and more clearly separable from the standard-oscillations predictions. We conclude that IceCube is potentially able to detect CPTV but that, depending on the values of the CPTV parameters, there could be a mis-determination of the neutrino production model.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Aguilar, J. A. et al), Bigongiari, C., Dornic, D., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2011). Time calibration of the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Astropart Phys., 34(7), 539–549.
Abstract: The ANTARES deep-sea neutrino telescope comprises a three-dimensional array of photomultipliers to detect the Cherenkov light induced by upgoing relativistic charged particles originating from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the detector. The large scattering length of light in the deep sea facilitates an angular resolution of a few tenths of a degree for neutrino energies exceeding 10 TeV. In order to achieve this optimal performance, the time calibration procedures should ensure a relative time calibration between the photomultipliers at the level of similar to 1 ns. The methods developed to attain this level of precision are described.
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Casas, J. A., Moreno, J. M., Rius, N., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Zaldivar, B. (2011). Fair scans of the seesaw. Consequences for predictions on LFV processes. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 034–22pp.
Abstract: We give a straightforward procedure to scan the seesaw parameter-space, using the common “R-parametrization”, in a complete way. This includes a very simple rule to incorporate the perturbativity requirement as a condition for the entries of the R-matrix. As a relevant application, we show that the somewhat propagated belief that BR(mu -> e, gamma) in supersymmetric seesaw models depends strongly on the value of theta(13) is an “optical effect” produced by incomplete scans, and does not hold after a careful analytical and numerical study. When the complete scan is done, BR(mu -> e, gamma) gets very insensitive to theta(13). This holds even if the right-handed neutrino masses are kept constant or under control (as is required for succesful leptogenesis). In most cases the values of BR(mu -> e, gamma) are larger than the experimental upper bound. Including (unflavoured) leptogenesis does not introduce any further dependence on theta(13), although decreases the typical value of BR(mu -> e, gamma).
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ANTARES Collaboration(Aguilar, J. A. et al), Bigongiari, C., Dornic, D., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2011). Search for a diffuse flux of high-energy nu(mu) with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Phys. Lett. B, 696(1-2), 16–22.
Abstract: A search for a diffuse flux of astrophysical muon neutrinos, using data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope is presented. A (0.83 x 2 pi) sr sky was monitored for a total of 334 days of equivalent live time. The searched signal corresponds to an excess of events, produced by astrophysical sources, over the expected atmospheric neutrino background. The observed number of events is found compatible with the background expectation. Assuming an E-2 flux spectrum, a 90% c.l. upper limit on the diffuse nu(mu) flux of E-2 Phi(90%) = 5.3 x 10(-8) GeV cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1) in the energy range 20 TeV-2.5 PeV is obtained. Other signal models with different energy spectra are also tested and some rejected.
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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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Blennow, M., Dasgupta, B., Fernandez-Martinez, E., & Rius, N. (2011). Aidnogenesis via leptogenesis and dark sphalerons. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 014–14pp.
Abstract: We discuss aidnogenesis,(1) i.e. the generation of a dark matter asymmetry, via new sphaleron processes associated to an extra non-abelian gauge symmetry common to both the visible and the dark sectors. Such a theory can naturally produce an abundance of asymmetric dark matter which is of the same size as the lepton and baryon asymmetries, as suggested by the similar sizes of the observed baryonic and dark matter energy content, and provide a definite prediction for the mass of the dark matter particle. We discuss in detail a minimal realization in which the Standard Model is only extended by dark matter fermions which form “dark baryons” through an SU(3) interaction, and a (broken) horizontal symmetry that induces the new sphalerons. The dark matter mass is predicted to be similar to 6GeV, close to the region favored by DAMA and CoGeNT. Furthermore, a remnant of the horizontal symmetry should be broken at a lower scale and can also explain the Tevatron dimuon anomaly.
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Hirsch, M., Kernreiter, T., Romao, J. C., & del Moral, A. V. (2010). Minimal supersymmetric inverse seesaw: neutrino masses, lepton flavour violation and LHC phenomenology. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 103–21pp.
Abstract: We study neutrino masses in the framework of the supersymmetric inverse seesaw model. Different from the non-supersymmetric version a minimal realization with just one pair of singlets is sufficient to explain all neutrino data. We compute the neutrino mass matrix up to 1-loop order and show how neutrino data can be described in terms of the model parameters. We then calculate rates for lepton flavour violating (LFV) processes, such as μ-> e gamma and chargino decays to singlet scalar neutrinos. The latter decays are potentially observable at the LHC and show a characteristic decay pattern dictated by the same parameters which generate the observed large neutrino angles.
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