Abstract: Neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay can in general produce electrons of either chirality, in contrast with the minimal Standard Model (SM) extension with only the addition of the Weinberg operator, which predicts two left-handed electrons in the final state. We classify the lepton number violating (LNV) effective operators with two leptons of either chirality but no quarks, ordered according to the magnitude of their contribution to 0 nu beta beta decay. We point out that, for each of the three chirality assignments, e(L)e(L), e(L)e(R) and e(R)e(R), there is only one LNV operator of the corresponding type to lowest order, and these have dimensions 5, 7 and 9, respectively. Neutrino masses are always induced by these extra operators but can be delayed to one or two loops, depending on the number of RH leptons entering in the operator. Then, the comparison of the 0 nu beta beta decay rate and neutrino masses should indicate the effective scenario at work, which confronted with the LHC searches should also eventually decide on the specific model elected by nature. We also list the SM additions generating these operators upon integration of the heavy modes, and discuss simple realistic examples of renormalizable theories for each case.

Abstract: Cosmological observations and cold dark matter N-body simulations indicate that our Universe is populated by numerous halos, where dark matter particles annihilate, potentially producing Standard Model particles. In this paper we calculate the contribution to the diffuse neutrino background from dark matter annihilations in halos at all redshifts and we estimate the future sensitivity to the annihilation cross section of neutrino telescopes such as IceCube or ANTARES. We consider various parametrizations to describe the internal halo properties and for the halo mass function in order to bracket the theoretical uncertainty in the limits from the modeling of the cosmological annihilation flux. We find that observations of the cosmic diffuse neutrino flux at large angular distances from the galactic center lead to constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section which are complementary to ( and for some extrapolations of the astrophysical parameters, better than) those stemming from observations of the Milky Way halo, especially for neutrino telescopes not pointing directly to the Milky Way center, as is the case of IceCube.

Abstract: We present the results of an updated fit of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data in the framework of 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing. We first consider v(e) and (v) over bar (e) disappearance in the light of the Gallium and reactor anomalies. We discuss the implications of the recent measurement of the reactor (v) over bar (e) spectrum in the NEOS experiment, which shifts the allowed regions of the parameter space towards smaller values of |U-e1|(2). The beta-decay constraints of the Mainz and Troitsk experiments allow us to limit the oscillation length between about 2 cm and 7 m at 3 sigma for neutrinos with an energy of 1 MeV. The corresponding oscillations can be discovered in a model-independent way in ongoing reactor and source experiments by measuring v(e) and (v) over bar (e), disappearance as a function of distance. We then consider the global fit of the data on short-baseline v(mu)((-)) -> v(e)((-)) transitions in the light of the LSND anomaly, taking into account the constraints from v(e)(( )) and v(mu)((-)) disappearance experiments, including the recent data of the MINOS and IceCube experiments. The combination of the NEOS constraints on |U-e4|(2) and the MINOS and IceCube constraints on |U-mu 4|(2) lead to an unacceptable appearance-disappearance tension which becomes tolerable only in a pragmatic fit which neglects the MiniBooNE low-energy anomaly. The minimization of the global chi(2) in the space of the four mixing parameters Delta m(41)(2), |U-e4|(2), |U-mu 4|(2) and |U-4 tau|(2) leads to three allowed regions with narrow Delta m(41)(2) widths at Delta m(41)(2) approximate to 1.7 (best-fit), 1.3 (at 2 sigma), 2.4 (at 3 sigma) eV(2). The effective amplitude of short-baseline v(mu)((-)) -> v(e)((-)) oscillations is limited by 0.00048 less than or similar to sin(2) 2 nu(e mu) less than or similar to 0.0020 at 3 sigma The restrictions of the allowed regions of the mixing parameters with respect to our previous global fits are mainly due to the NEOS constraints. We present a comparison of the allowed regions of the mixing parameters with the sensitivities of ongoing experiments, which show that it is likely that these experiments will determine in a definitive way if the reactor, Gallium and LSND anomalies are due to active-sterile neutrino oscillations or not.