Abstract: We have explored the question of whether the renormalization group running of the neutrino mixing parameters in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is detectable with ultra-high energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei (AGN). We use as observables the ratios of neutrino fluxes produced at the AGN, focusing on four different neutrino production models: (Phi(0)(v epsilon+(v) over bar epsilon) : Phi(0)(v mu+(v) over bar mu) : Phi(0)(v tau+(v) over bar tau)) = (1 : 2 : 0), (0 : 1 : 0), (1 : 0 : 0), and (1 : 1 : 0). The prospects for observing deviations experimentally are taken into consideration, and we find out that it is necessary to impose a cut-off on the transferred momentum of Q(2) >= 10(7) GeV(2). However, this condition, together with the expected low value of the diffuse AGN neutrino flux, yields a negligible event rate at a km-scale. Cerenkov detector such as IceCube.

Abstract: The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is a very active field in which the number of proposals for next-generation experiments has proliferated. In this paper we attempt to address both the sense and the sensitivity of such proposals. Sensitivity comes first, by means of proposing a simple and unambiguous statistical recipe to derive the sensitivity to a putative Majorana neutrino mass, m(beta beta). In order to make sense of how the different experimental approaches compare, we apply this recipe to a selection of proposals, comparing the resulting sensitivities. We also propose a “physics-motivated range” (PMR) of the nuclear matrix elements as a unifying criterium between the different nuclear models. The expected performance of the proposals is parametrized in terms of only four numbers: energy resolution, background rate (per unit time, isotope mass and energy), detection efficiency, and beta beta isotope mass. For each proposal, both a reference and an optimistic scenario for the experimental performance are studied. In the reference scenario we find that all the proposals will be able to partially explore the degenerate spectrum, without fully covering it, although four of them (KamLAND-Zen, CUORE, NEXT and EXO) will approach the 50 meV boundary. In the optimistic scenario, we find that CUORE and the xenon-based proposals (KamLAND-Zen, EXO and NEXT) will explore a significant fraction of the inverse hierarchy, with NEXT covering it almost fully. For the long term future, we argue that Xe-136-based experiments may provide the best case for a 1-ton scale experiment, given the potentially very low backgrounds achievable and the expected scalability to large isotope masses.

Abstract: We propose a realization of the so-called bimodal/schizophrenic model proposed recently. We assume 54, the permutation group of four objects as flavor symmetry giving tri-bimaximal lepton mixing at leading order. In these models the second massive neutrino state is assumed quasi-Dirac and the remaining neutrinos are Majorana states. In the case of inverse mass hierarchy, the lower bound on the neutrinoless double beta decay parameter m(ee) is about two times that of the usual lower bound, within the range of sensitivity of the next generation of experiments.

Abstract: We explore the potential of several Neutrino Factory (NF) setups to constrain, discover and measure new physics effects due to Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) in propagation through Earth matter. We first study the impact of NSI in the measurement of theta(13): we find that these could be large due to strong correlations of theta(13) with NSI parameters in the golden channel, and the inclusion of a detector at the magic baseline is crucial in order to reduce them as much as possible. We present, then, the sensitivity of the considered NF setups to the NSI parameters, paying special attention to correlations arising between them and the standard oscillation parameters, when all NSI parameters are introduced at once. Off-diagonal NSI parameters could be tested down to the level of 10(-3), whereas the diagonal combinations (epsilon(ee) – epsilon(tau tau)) and (epsilon(mu mu) – epsilon(tau tau)) can be tested down to 10(-1) and 10(-2), respectively. The possibilities of observing CP violation in this context are also explored, by presenting a first scan of the CP discovery potential of the NF setups to the phases phi(e mu), phi(e tau) and delta. We study separately the case where CP violation comes only from non-standard sources, and the case where it is entangled with the standard source, delta. In case delta turns out to be CP conserving, the interesting possibility of observing CP violation for reasonably small values of the NSI parameters emerges.

Abstract: Within low-scale seesaw mechanisms, such as the inverse and linear seesaw, one expects (i) potentially large lepton flavor violation (LFV) and (ii) sizeable non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI). We consider the interplay between the magnitude of non-unitarity effects in the lepton mixing matrix, and the constraints that follow from LFV searches in the laboratory. We find that NSI parameters can be sizeable, up to percent level in some cases, while LFV rates, such as that for μ-> e gamma, lie within current limits, including the recent one set by the MEG collaboration. As a result the upcoming long baseline neutrino experiments offer a window of opportunity for complementary LFV and weak universality tests.