Abstract: Recent data from long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments have provided new information on theta(13), hinting that 0.01 less than or similar to sin(2) 2 theta(13) less than or similar to 0.1 at 2 sigma confidence level. In the near future, further confirmation of this result with high significance will have a crucial impact on the optimization of the future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments designed to probe the neutrino mass ordering and leptonic CP violation. In this context, we expound in detail the physics reach of an experimental setup where neutrinos produced in a conventional wide-band beam facility at CERN are observed in a proposed Giant Liquid Argon detector at the Pyhasalmi mine, at a distance of 2290 km. Due to the strong matter effects and the high detection efficiency at both the first and second oscillation maxima, this particular setup would have unprecedented sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering and leptonic CP violation in the light of the emerging hints of large theta(13). With a 10 to 20 kt 'pilot' detector and just a few years of neutrino beam running, the neutrino mass hierarchy could be determined, irrespective of the true values of delta(CP) and the mass hierarchy, at 3 sigma (5 sigma) confidence level if sin(2) 2 theta(13)(true) = 0.05 (0.1). With the same exposure, we start to have 3 sigma sensitivity to CP violation if sin(2) 2 theta(13)(true) > 0.05, in particular testing maximally CP-violating scenarios at a high confidence level. After optimizing the neutrino and anti-neutrino running fractions, we study the performance of the setup as a function of the exposure, identifying three milestones to have roughly 30%, 50% and 70% coverage in delta(CP) (true) for 3 sigma CP violation discovery. For comparison, we also study the CERN to Slanic baseline of 1540 km. This work nicely demonstrates that an incremental program, staged in terms of the exposure, can achieve the desired physics goals within a realistically feasible timescale, and produce significant new results at each stage.

Abstract: Cosmological and astrophysical observations provide increasing evidence of the existence of dark matter in our Universe. Dark matter particles with a mass above a few GeV can be captured by the Sun, accumulate in the core, annihilate, and produce high energy neutrinos either directly or by subsequent decays of Standard Model particles. We investigate the prospects for indirect dark matter detection in the IceCube/DeepCore neutrino telescope and its capabilities to determine the dark matter mass.

Abstract: We propose a new detector concept, GraXe (to be pronounced as grace), to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in Xe-136. GraXe combines a popular detection medium in rare-event searches, liquid xenon, with a new, background-free material, grapheme. In our baseline design of GraXe, a sphere made of graphene-coated titanium mesh and filled with liquid xenon (LXe) enriched in the Xe-136 isotope is immersed in a large volume of natural LXe instrumented with photodetectors. Liquid xenon is an excellent scintillator, reasonably transparent to its own light. Graphene is transparent over a large frequency range, and impermeable to the xenon. Event position could be deduced from the light pattern detected in the photosensors. External backgrounds would be shielded by the buffer of natural LXe, leaving the ultra-radiopure internal volume virtually free of background. Industrial graphene can be manufactured at a competitive cost to produce the sphere. Enriching xenon in the isotope Xe-136 is easy and relatively cheap, and there is already near one ton of enriched xenon available in the world (currently being used by the EXO, KamLAND-Zen and NEXT experiments). All the cryogenic know-how is readily available from the numerous experiments using liquid xenon. An experiment using the GraXe concept appears realistic and affordable in a short time scale, and its physics potential is enormous.

Abstract: We present a search for neutrino induced events containing a single, exclusive photon using data from the NOMAD experiment at the CERN SPS where the average energy of the neutrino flux is similar or equal to 25 GeV. The search is motivated by an excess of electron-like events in the 200-475 MeV energy region as reported by the MiniBooNE experiment. In NOMAD, photons are identified via their conversion to e(+)e(-) in an active target embedded in a magnetic field. The background to the single photon signal is dominated by the asymmetric decay of neutral pions produced either in a coherent neutrino-nucleus interaction, or in a neutrino-nucleon neutral current deep inelastic scattering, or in an interaction occurring outside the fiducial volume. All three backgrounds are determined in situ using control data samples prior to opening the 'signal-box'. In the signal region, we observe 155 events with a predicted background of 129.2 +/- 8.5 +/- 3.3. We interpret this as null evidence for excess of single photon events, and set a limit. Assuming that the hypothetical single photon has a momentum distribution similar to that of a photon from the coherent pi(0) decay, the measurement yields an upper limit on single photon events, < 4.0 x 10(-4) per nu(mu) charged current event. Narrowing the search to events where the photon is approximately collinear with the incident neutrino, we observe 78 events with a predicted background of 76.6 +/- 4.9 +/- 1.9 yielding a more stringent upper limit, < 1.6 x 10(-4) per nu(mu) charged current event.

Abstract: The minimal Standard Model extension with the Weinberg operator does accommodate the observed neutrino masses and mixing, but predicts a neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay rate proportional to the effective electron neutrino mass, which can be then arbitrarily small within present experimental limits. However, in general 0 nu beta beta decay can have an independent origin and be near its present experimental bound; whereas neutrino masses are generated radiatively, contributing negligibly to 0 nu beta beta decay. We provide a realization of this scenario in a simple, well defined and testable model, with potential LHC effects and calculable neutrino masses, whose two-loop expression we derive exactly. We also discuss the connection of this model to others that have appeared in the literature, and remark on the significant differences that result from various choices of quantum number assignments and symmetry assumptions. In this type of models lepton flavor violating rates are also preferred to be relatively large, at the reach of foreseen experiments. Interestingly enough, in our model this stands for a large third mixing angle, sin(2) theta(13) greater than or similar to 0.008, when μ-> eee is required to lie below its present experimental limit.