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).

Abstract: An extension of the adjoint SU (5) model with a flavour symmetry based on the Z(4) group is investigated. The Z(4) symmetry is introduced with the aim of leading the up-and down-quark mass matrices to the Nearest-Neighbour-Interaction form. As a consequence of the discrete symmetry embedded in the SU (5) gauge group, the charged lepton mass matrix also gets the same form. Within this model, light neutrinos get their masses through type-I, type-III and one-loop radiative seesaw mechanisms, implemented, respectively, via a singlet, a triplet and an octet from the adjoint fermionic 24 fields. It is demonstrated that the neutrino phenomenology forces the introduction of at least three 24 fermionic multiplets. The symmetry SU (5) x Z(4) allows only two viable zero textures for the effective neutrino mass matrix. It is showed that one texture is only compatible with normal hierarchy and the other with inverted hierarchy in the light neutrino mass spectrum. Finally, it is also demonstrated that Z(4) freezes out the possibility of proton decay through exchange of coloured Higgs triplets at tree-level.

Abstract: A novel contribution to the leptonic CP asymmetries in type II seesaw leptogenesis scenarios is obtained for the cases in which flavor effects are relevant for the dynamics of leptogenesis. In the so-called flavored leptogenesis regime, the interference between the tree-level amplitude of the scalar triplet decaying into two leptons and the one-loop wave function correction with leptons in the loop, leads to a new nonvanishing CP asymmetry contribution. The latter conserves total lepton number but violates lepton flavor. Cases in which this novel contribution may be dominant in the generation of the baryon asymmetry are briefly discussed.

Abstract: We systematically analyze the d = 5 Weinberg operator at 2-loop order. Using a diagrammatic approach, we identify two different interesting categories of neutrino mass models: (i) Genuine 2-loop models for which both, tree-level and 1-loop contributions, are guaranteed to be absent. And (ii) finite 2-loop diagrams, which correspond to the 1-loop generation of some particular vertex appearing in a given 1-loop neutrino mass model, thus being effectively 2-loop. From the large list of all possible 2-loop diagrams, the vast majority are infinite corrections to lower order neutrino mass models and only a moderately small number of diagrams fall into these two interesting classes. Moreover, all diagrams in class (i) are just variations of three basic diagrams, with examples discussed in the literature before. Similarly, we also show that class (ii) diagrams consists of only variations of these three plus two more basic diagrams. Finally, we show how our results can be consistently and readily used in order to construct two-loop neutrino mass models.

Abstract: In this article we consider the presence of neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) in the production and detection processes of reactor antineutrinos at the Daya Bay experiment. We report for the first time, the new constraints on the flavor non-universal and flavor universal charged-current NSI parameters, estimated using the currently released 621 days of Daya Bay data. New limits are placed assuming that the new physics effects are just inverse of each other in the production and detection processes. With this special choice of the NSI parameters, we observe a shift in the oscillation amplitude without distorting the L/E pattern of the oscillation probability. This shift in the depth of the oscillation dip can be caused by the NSI parameters as well as by theta(13), making it quite difficult to disentangle the NSI effects from the standard oscillations. We explore the correlations between the NSI parameters and theta(13) that may lead to significant deviations in the reported value of the reactor mixing angle with the help of iso-probability surface plots. Finally, we present the limits on electron, muon/tau, and flavor universal (FU) NSI couplings with and without considering the uncertainty in the normalization of the total event rates. Assuming a perfect knowledge of the event rates normalization, we find strong upper bounds similar to 0.1% for the electron and FU cases improving the present limits by one order of magnitude. However, for a conservative error of 5% in the total normalization, these constraints are relaxed by almost one order of magnitude.