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Agarwalla, S. K., Prakash, S., & Sankar, S. U. (2013). Resolving the octant of theta(23) with T2K and NOvA. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 131–24pp.
Abstract: Preliminary results of MINOS experiment indicate that theta(23) is not maximal. Global fits to world neutrino data suggest two nearly degenerate solutions for theta(23): one in the lower octant (LO: theta(23) < 45 degrees) and the other in the higher octant (HO: theta(23) > 45 degrees). v(mu) -> v(e) oscillations in superbeam experiments are sensitive to the octant and are capable of resolving this degeneracy. We study the prospects of this resolution by the current T2K and upcoming NOvA experiments. Because of the hierarchy-delta(CP) degeneracy and the octant delta(CP) degeneracy, the impact of hierarchy on octant resolution has to be taken into account. As in the case of hierarchy determination, there exist favorable (unfavorable) values of delta(CP) for which octant resolution is easy (challenging). However, for octant resolution the unfavorable delta(CP) values of the neutrino data are favorable for the anti-neutrino data and vice-verse. This is in contrast to the case of hierarchy determination. In this paper, we compute the combined sensitivity of T2K and NOvA to resolve the octant ambiguity. If sin(2)theta(23) – 0.41, then NOvA can rule out all the values of theta(23) in HO at 2 sigma C.L., irrespective of the hierarchy and delta(CP). Addition of T2K data improves the octant sensitivity. If T2K were to have equal neutrino and anti-neutrino runs of 2.5 years each, a 2 sigma resolution of the octant becomes possible provided sin(2) theta(23) <= 0.43 or >= 0.58 for any value of delta(CP).
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Bernabeu, J., & Segarra, A. (2018). Stimulated transitions in resonant atom Majorana mixing. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 017–16pp.
Abstract: Massive neutrinos demand to ask whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles. Majorana neutrinos are an irrefutable proof of physics beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinoless double electron capture is not a process but a virtual Delta L = 2 mixing between a parent (A)Z atom and a daughter (A)(Z – 2) excited atom with two electron holes. As a mixing between two neutral atoms and the observable signal in terms of emitted two-hole X-rays, the strategy, experimental signature and background are different from neutrinoless double beta decay. The mixing is resonantly enhanced for almost degeneracy and, under these conditions, there is no irreducible background from the standard two-neutrino channel. We reconstruct the natural time history of a nominally stable parent atom since its production either by nature or in the laboratory. After the time periods of atom oscillations and the decay of the short-lived daughter atom, at observable times the relevant 'stationary" states are the mixed metastable long-lived state and the non-orthogonal short-lived excited state, as well as the ground state of the daughter atom. We find that they have a natural population inversion which is most appropriate for exploiting the bosonic nature of the observed atomic transitions radiation. Among different observables of the atom Majorana mixing, we include the enhanced rate of stimulated X-ray emission from the long-lived metastable state by a high-intensity X-ray beam: a gain factor of 100 can be envisaged at current XFEL facilities. On the other hand, the historical population of the daughter atom ground state can be probed by exciting it with a current pulsed optical laser, showing the characteristic absorption lines: the whole population can be excited in a shorter time than typical pulse duration.
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Donini, A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., & Meloni, D. (2011). The tau-contamination of the golden muon sample at the Neutrino Factory. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 095–16pp.
Abstract: We study the contribution of nu(e) -> nu(tau) -> tau -> μtransitions to the wrong-sign muon sample of the golden channel of the Neutrino Factory. Muons from tau decays are not really a background, since they contain information from the oscillation signal, and represent a small fraction of the sample. However, if not properly handled they introduce serious systematic error, in particular if the detector/analysis are sensitive to muons of low energy. This systematic effect is particularly troublesome for large theta(13) >= 1 degrees and prevents the use of the Neutrino Factory as a precision facility for large theta(13). Such a systematic error disappears if the tau contribution to the golden muon sample is taken into account. The fact that the fluxes of the Neutrino Factory are exactly calculable permits the knowledge of the tau sample due to the nu(e) -> nu(tau) oscillation. We then compute the contribution to the muon sample arising from this sample in terms of the apparent muon energy. This requires the computation of a migration matrix M-ij which describes the contributions of the tau neutrinos of a given energy E-i, to the muon neutrinos of an apparent energy E-j. We demonstrate that applying M-ij to the data permits the full correction of the otherwise intolerable systematic error.
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Chakraborty, K., Goswami, S., Gupta, C., & Thakore, T. (2019). Enhancing the hierarchy and octant sensitivity of ESS nu SB in conjunction with T2K, NO nu A and ICAL@INO. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 137–26pp.
Abstract: The main aim of the ESSSB proposal is the discovery of the leptonic CP phase (CP) with a high significance (5 sigma for 50% values of (CP)) by utilizing the physics at the second oscillation maxima of the P-e channel. It can achieve 3 sigma sensitivity to hierarchy for all values of (CP). In this work, we concentrate on the hierarchy and octant sensitivity of the ESSSB experiment. We show that combining the ESSSB experiment with the atmospheric neutrino data from the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) experiment can result in an increased sensitivity to mass hierarchy. In addition, we also combine the results from the ongoing experiments T2K and NOa assuming their full run-time and present the combined sensitivity of ESSSB + ICAL@INO + T2K + NOA. We show that while by itself ESSSB can have up to 3 sigma hierarchy sensitivity, the combination of all the experiments can give up to 5 sigma sensitivity depending on the true hierarchy-octant combination. The octant sensitivity of ESSSB is low by itself. However the combined sensitivity of all the above experiments can give up to 3 sigma sensitivity depending on the choice of true hierarchy and octant. We discuss the various degeneracies and the synergies that lead to the enhanced sensitivity when combining different experimental data.
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Barducci, D., Bertuzzo, E., Caputo, A., & Hernandez, P. (2020). Minimal flavor violation in the see-saw portal. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 185–28pp.
Abstract: We consider an extension of the Standard Model with two singlet leptons, with masses in the electroweak range, that induce neutrino masses via the see-saw mechanism, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale, A. We apply the minimal flavor violation (MFV) principle to the corresponding Effective Field Theory (nu SMEFT) valid at energy scales E << A. We identify the irreducible sources of lepton flavor and lepton number violation at the renormalizable level, and apply the MFV ansatz to derive the scaling of the Wilson coefficients of the nu SMEFT operators up to dimension six. We highlight the most important phenomenological consequences of this hypothesis in the rates for exotic Higgs decays, the decay length of the heavy neutrinos, and their production modes at present and future colliders. We also comment on possible astrophysical implications.
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