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Ternes, C. A., Gariazzo, S., Hajjar, R., Mena, O., Sorel, M., & Tortola, M. (2019). Neutrino mass ordering at DUNE: An extra nu bonus. Phys. Rev. D, 100(9), 093004–10pp.
Abstract: We study the possibility of extracting the neutrino mass ordering at the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment using atmospheric neutrinos, which will be available before the muon neutrino beam starts being operational. The large statistics of the atmospheric muon neutrino and antineutrino samples at the far detector, together with the baselines of thousands of kilometers that these atmospheric (anti) neutrinos travel, provide ideal ingredients to extract the neutrino mass ordering via matter effects in the neutrino propagation through Earth. Crucially, muon capture by argon provides excellent charge tagging, allowing us to disentangle the neutrino and antineutrino signature. This is an important extra benefit of having a liquid argon time projection chamber as a far detector, that could render an similar to 3.5 sigma extraction of the mass ordering after approximately 7 yr of exposure.
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Anamiati, G., De Romeri, V., Hirsch, M., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2019). Quasi-Dirac neutrino oscillations at DUNE and JUNO. Phys. Rev. D, 100(3), 035032–12pp.
Abstract: Quasi-Dirac neutrinos are obtained when the Lagrangian density of a neutrino mass model contains both Dirac and Majorana mass terms, and the Majorana terms are sufficiently small. This type of neutrino introduces new mixing angles and mass splittings into the Hamiltonian, which will modify the standard neutrino oscillation probabilities. In this paper, we focus on the case where the new mass splittings are too small to be measured, but new angles and phases are present. We perform a sensitivity study for this scenario for the upcoming experiments DUNE and JUNO, finding that they will improve current bounds on the relevant parameters. Finally, we also explore the discovery potential of both experiments, assuming that neutrinos are indeed quasi-Dirac particles.
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Barenboim, G., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2019). New physics vs new paradigms: distinguishing CPT violation from NSI. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(5), 390–7pp.
Abstract: Our way of describing Nature is based on local relativistic quantum field theories, and then CPT symmetry, a natural consequence of Lorentz invariance, locality and hermiticity of the Hamiltonian, is one of the few if not the only prediction that all of them share. Therefore, testing CPT invariance does not test a particular model but the whole paradigm. Current and future long baseline experiments will assess the status of CPT in the neutrino sector at an unprecedented level and thus its distinction from similar experimental signatures arising from non-standard interactions is imperative. Whether the whole paradigm is at stake or just the standard model of neutrinos crucially depends on that.
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Barenboim, G., Denton, P. B., Parke, S. J., & Ternes, C. A. (2019). Neutrino oscillation probabilities through the looking glass. Phys. Lett. B, 791, 351–360.
Abstract: In this paper we review different expansions for neutrino oscillation probabilities in matter in the context of long-baseline neutrino experiments. We examine the accuracy and computational efficiency of different exact and approximate expressions. We find that many of the expressions used in the literature are not precise enough for the next generation of long-baseline experiments, but several of them are while maintaining comparable simplicity. The results of this paper can be used as guidance to both phenomenologists and experimentalists when implementing the various oscillation expressions into their analysis tools.
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de Salas, P. F., Pastor, S., Ternes, C. A., Thakore, T., & Tortola, M. (2019). Constraining the invisible neutrino decay with KM3NeT-ORCA. Phys. Lett. B, 789, 472–479.
Abstract: Several theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model consider that neutrinos can decay. In this work we assume that the standard mechanism of neutrino oscillations is altered by the decay of the heaviest neutrino mass state into a sterile neutrino and, depending on the model, a scalar or a Majoron. We study the sensitivity of the forthcoming KM3NeT-ORCA experiment to this scenario and find that it could improve the current bounds coming from oscillation experiments, where three-neutrino oscillations have been considered, by roughly two orders of magnitude. We also study how the presence of this neutrino decay can affect the determination of the atmospheric oscillation parameters sin(2) theta(23) and Delta m(31)(2), as well as the sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering.
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