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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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Blennow, M., Fernandez-Martinez, E., Mena, O., Redondo, J., & Serra, E. P. (2012). Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Radiation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 022–23pp.
Abstract: Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) models invoke a particle-antiparticle asymmetry, similar to the one observed in the Baryon sector, to account for the Dark Matter (DM) abundance. Both asymmetries are usually generated by the same mechanism and generally related, thus predicting DM masses around 5 GeV in order to obtain the correct density. The main challenge for successful models is to ensure efficient annihilation of the thermally produced symmetric component of such a light DM candidate without violating constraints from collider or direct searches. A common way to overcome this involves a light mediator, into which DM can efficiently annihilate and which subsequently decays into Standard Model particles. Here we explore the scenario where the light mediator decays instead into lighter degrees of freedom in the dark sector that act as radiation in the early Universe. While this assumption makes indirect DM searches challenging, it leads to signals of extra radiation at BBN and CMB. Under certain conditions, precise measurements of the number of relativistic species, such as those expected from the Planck satellite, can provide information on the structure of the dark sector. We also discuss the constraints of the interactions between DM and Dark Radiation from their imprint in the matter power spectrum.
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Blennow, M., Coloma, P., Donini, A., & Fernandez-Martinez, E. (2013). Gain fractions of future neutrino oscillation facilities over T2K and NOvA. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 159–23pp.
Abstract: We evaluate the probability of future neutrino oscillation facilities to discover leptonic CP violation and/or measure the neutrino mass hierarchy. We study how this probability is affected by positive or negative hints for these observables to be found at T2K and NO nu A. We consider the following facilities: LBNE; T2HK; and the 10 GeV Neutrino Factory (NF10), and show how their discovery probabilities change with the running time of T2K and NO nu A conditioned to their results. We find that, if after 15 years T2K and NO nu A have not observed a 90% CL hint of CP violation, then LBNE and T2HK have less than a 10% chance of achieving a 5 sigma discovery, whereas NF10 still has a similar to 40% chance to do so. Conversely, if T2K and NO nu A have an early 90% CL hint in 5 years from now, T2HK has a rather large chance to achieve a 5 sigma CP violation discovery (75% or 55%, depending on whether the mass hierarchy is known or not). This is to be compared with the 90% (30%) probability that NF10 (LBNE) would have to observe the same signal at 5 sigma. A hierarchy measurement at 5 sigma is achievable at both LBNE and NF10 with more than 90% probability, irrespectively of the outcome of T2K and NO nu A. We also find that if LBNE or a similar very long baseline super-beam is the only next generation facility to be built, then it is very useful to continue running T2K and NO nu A (or at least T2K) beyond their original schedule in order to increase the CP violation discovery chances, given their complementarity.
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Vincent, A. C., Fernandez Martinez, E., Hernandez, P., Mena, O., & Lattanzi, M. (2015). Revisiting cosmological bounds on sterile neutrinos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 006–23pp.
Abstract: We employ state-of-the art cosmological observables including supernova surveys and BAO information to provide constraints on the mass and mixing angle of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino species, showing that cosmology can effectively rule out sterile neutrinos which decay between BBN and the present day. The decoupling of an additional heavy neutrino species can modify the time dependence of the Universe's expansion between BBN and recombination and, in extreme cases, lead to an additional matter-dominated period; while this could naively lead to a younger Universe with a larger Hubble parameter, it could later be compensated by the extra radiation expected in the form of neutrinos from sterile decay. However, recombination-era observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the shift parameter R-CMB and the sound horizon r(s) from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) severely constrain this scenario. We self-consistently include the full time-evolution of the coupled sterile neutrino and standard model sectors in an MCMC, showing that if decay occurs after BBN, the sterile neutrino is essentially bounded by the constraint sin(2) theta less than or similar to 0.026(m(s)/eV)(-2).
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De Romeri, V., Fernandez-Martinez, E., & Sorel, M. (2016). Neutrino oscillations at DUNE with improved energy reconstruction. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 030–25pp.
Abstract: We study the physics reach of the long-baseline oscillation analysis of the DUNE experiment when realistic simulations are used to estimate its neutrino energy reconstruction capabilities. Our studies indicate that significant improvements in energy resolution compared to what is customarily assumed are plausible. This improved energy resolution can increase the sensitivity to leptonic CP violation in two ways. On the one hand, the CP-violating term in the oscillation probability has a characteristic energy dependence that can be better reproduced. On the other hand, the second oscillation maximum, especially sensitive to delta(CP), is better reconstructed. These effects lead to a significant improvement in the fraction of values of delta(CP) for which a 5 sigma discovery of leptonic CP-violation would be possible. The precision of the delta(CP) measurement could also be greatly enhanced, with a reduction of the maximum uncertainties from 26 degrees to 18 degrees for a 300 MW.kt.yr exposure. We therefore believe that this potential gain in physics reach merits further investigations of the detector performance achievable in DUNE.
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