|
|
Fernandez-Martinez, E., Li, T., Pascoli, S., & Mena, O. (2010). Improvement of the low energy neutrino factory. Phys. Rev. D, 81(7), 073010–13pp.
Abstract: The low energy neutrino factory has been proposed as a very sensitive setup for future searches for CP violation and matter effects. Here we study how its performance is affected when the experimental specifications of the setup are varied. Most notably, we have considered the addition of the “platinum'' nu(mu) -> nu(e) channel. We find that, while theoretically the extra channel provides very useful complementary information and helps to lift degeneracies, its practical usefulness is lost when considering realistic background levels. Conversely, an increase in statistics in the ”golden'' nu(mu) -> nu(e) channel and, to some extent, an improvement in the energy resolution, lead to an important increase in the performance of the facility, given the rich energy dependence of the "golden'' channel at these energies. We show that a low energy neutrino factory with a baseline of 1300 km, muon energy of 4.5 GeV, and either a 20 kton totally active scintillating detector or 100 kton liquid argon detector, can have outstanding sensitivity to the neutrino oscillation parameters theta(13), delta, and the mass hierarchy. For our estimated exposure of 2: 8 x 10(23) kton x decays per muon polarity, the low energy neutrino factory has sensitivity to theta(13) and delta for sin(2)(2 theta(13)) > 10(-4) and to the mass hierarchy for sin(2)(2 theta(13)) > 10(-3)
|
|
|
|
Di Valentino, E., Mena, O., Pan, S., Visinelli, L., Yang, W. Q., Melchiorri, A., et al. (2021). In the realm of the Hubble tension – a review of solutions. Class. Quantum Gravity, 38(15), 153001–110pp.
Abstract: The simplest ΛCDM model provides a good fit to a large span of cosmological data but harbors large areas of phenomenology and ignorance. With the improvement of the number and the accuracy of observations, discrepancies among key cosmological parameters of the model have emerged. The most statistically significant tension is the 4 sigma to 6 sigma disagreement between predictions of the Hubble constant, H (0), made by the early time probes in concert with the 'vanilla' ΛCDM cosmological model, and a number of late time, model-independent determinations of H (0) from local measurements of distances and redshifts. The high precision and consistency of the data at both ends present strong challenges to the possible solution space and demands a hypothesis with enough rigor to explain multiple observations-whether these invoke new physics, unexpected large-scale structures or multiple, unrelated errors. A thorough review of the problem including a discussion of recent Hubble constant estimates and a summary of the proposed theoretical solutions is presented here. We include more than 1000 references, indicating that the interest in this area has grown considerably just during the last few years. We classify the many proposals to resolve the tension in these categories: early dark energy, late dark energy, dark energy models with 6 degrees of freedom and their extensions, models with extra relativistic degrees of freedom, models with extra interactions, unified cosmologies, modified gravity, inflationary models, modified recombination history, physics of the critical phenomena, and alternative proposals. Some are formally successful, improving the fit to the data in light of their additional degrees of freedom, restoring agreement within 1-2 sigma between Planck 2018, using the cosmic microwave background power spectra data, baryon acoustic oscillations, Pantheon SN data, and R20, the latest SH0ES Team Riess, et al (2021 Astrophys. J. 908 L6) measurement of the Hubble constant (H (0) = 73.2 +/- 1.3 km s(-1) Mpc(-1) at 68% confidence level). However, there are many more unsuccessful models which leave the discrepancy well above the 3 sigma disagreement level. In many cases, reduced tension comes not simply from a change in the value of H (0) but also due to an increase in its uncertainty due to degeneracy with additional physics, complicating the picture and pointing to the need for additional probes. While no specific proposal makes a strong case for being highly likely or far better than all others, solutions involving early or dynamical dark energy, neutrino interactions, interacting cosmologies, primordial magnetic fields, and modified gravity provide the best options until a better alternative comes along.
|
|
|
|
Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., Pan, S., & Yang, W. Q. (2021). Interacting dark energy in a closed universe. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 502(1), L23–L28.
Abstract: Recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Anisotropies power spectra measured by the Planck satellite show a preference for a closed universe at more than 99 per cent confidence level (CL). Such a scenario is however in disagreement with several low redshift observables, including luminosity distances of Type Ia supernovae. Here we show that interacting dark energy (IDE) models can ease the discrepancies between Planck and supernovae Ia data in a closed Universe, leading to a preference for both a coupling and a curvature different from zero above the 99 per cent CL. Therefore IDE cosmologies remain as very appealing scenarios, as they can provide the solution to a number of observational tensions in different fiducial cosmologies. The results presented here strongly favour broader analyses of cosmological data, and suggest that relaxing the usual flatness and vacuum energy assumptions can lead to a much better agreement among theory and observations.
|
|
|
|
Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., & Vagnozzi, S. (2020). Interacting dark energy in the early 2020s: A promising solution to the H-0 and cosmic shear tensions. Phys. Dark Universe, 30, 100666–12pp.
Abstract: We examine interactions between dark matter and dark energy in light of the latest cosmological observations, focusing on a specific model with coupling proportional to the dark energy density. Our data includes Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements from the Planck 2018 legacy data release, late-time measurements of the expansion history from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Supernovae Type Ia (SNeIa), galaxy clustering and cosmic shear measurements from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results, and the 2019 local distance ladder measurement of the Hubble constant H-0 from the Hubble Space Telescope. Considering Planck data both in combination with BAO or SNeIa data reduces the H-0 tension to a level which could possibly be compatible with a statistical fluctuation. The very same model also significantly reduces the Omega(m) – sigma(8) tension between CMB and cosmic shear measurements. Interactions between the dark sectors of our Universe remain therefore a promising joint solution to these persisting cosmological tensions.
|
|
|
|
Stadler, J., Boehm, C., & Mena, O. (2020). Is it mixed dark matter or neutrino masses? J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 039–18pp.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore a scenario where the dark matter is a mixture of interacting and non interacting species. Assuming dark matter-photon interactions for the interacting species, we find that the suppression of the matter power spectrum in this scenario can mimic that expected in the case of massive neutrinos. Our numerical studies include present limits from Planck Cosmic Microwave Background data, which render the strength of the dark matter photon interaction unconstrained when the fraction of interacting dark matter is small. Despite the large entangling between mixed dark matter and neutrino masses, we show that future measurements from the Dark Energy Instrument (DESI) could help in establishing the dark matter and the neutrino properties simultaneously, provided that the interaction rate is very close to its current limits and the fraction of interacting dark matter is at least of O (10%). However, for that region of parameter space where a small fraction of interacting DM coincides with a comparatively large interaction rate, our analysis highlights a considerable degeneracy between the mixed dark matter parameters and the neutrino mass scale.
|
|
|
|
Giare, W., Renzi, F., Mena, O., Di Valentino, E., & Melchiorri, A. (2023). Is the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum coming back? ACT preference for n(s) similar to 1 and its discordance with Planck. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 521(2), 2911–2918.
Abstract: The Data Release 4 of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) shows an agreement with an Harrison-Zel'dovich primordial spectrum (n(s) = 1.009 +/- 0.015), introducing a tension with a significance of 99.3 per cent Confidence Level (CL) with the results from the Planck satellite. The discrepancy on the value of the scalar spectral index is neither alleviated with the addition of large scale structure information nor with the low multipole polarization data. We discuss possible avenues to alleviate the tension relying on either neglecting polarization measurements from ACT or in extending different sectors of the theory.
|
|
|
|
Gariazzo, S., Di Valentino, E., Mena, O., & Nunes, R. C. (2022). Late-time interacting cosmologies and the Hubble constant tension. Phys. Rev. D, 106(2), 023530–12pp.
Abstract: In this manuscript we reassess the potential of interacting dark matter-dark energy models in solving the Hubble constant tension. These models have been proposed but also questioned as possible solutions to the H0 problem. Here we examine several interacting scenarios against cosmological observations, focusing on the important role played by the calibration of supernovae data. In order to reassess the ability of interacting dark matter-dark energy scenarios in easing the Hubble constant tension, we systematically confront their theoretical predictions using a prior on the supernovae Ia absolute magnitude MB, which has been argued to be more robust and certainly less controversial than using a prior on the Hubble constant H0. While some data combinations do not show any preference for interacting dark sectors and in some of these scenarios the clustering sigma 8 tension worsens, interacting cosmologies with a dark energy equation of state w < -1 are preferred over the canonical lambda CDM picture even with cosmic microwave background data alone and also provide values of sigma 8 in perfect agreement with those from weak lensing surveys. Future cosmological surveys will test these exotic dark energy cosmologies by accurately measuring the dark energy equation of state and its putative redshift evolution.
|
|
|
|
Giare, W., Mena, O., & Di Valentino, E. (2023). Lensing impact on cosmic relics and tensions. Phys. Rev. D, 108(10), 103539–9pp.
Abstract: Cosmological bounds on neutrinos and additional hypothetical light thermal relics, such as QCD axions, are currently among the most restrictive ones. These limits mainly rely on cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies. Nonetheless, one of the largest cosmological signatures of thermal relics is that on gravitational lensing, due to their free-streaming behavior before their nonrelativistic period. We investigate late-time only hot-relic mass constraints, primarily based on recently released lensing data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, both alone and in combination with lensing data from the Planck satellite. Additionally, we consider other local probes, such as baryon acoustic oscillations measurements, shear-shear, galaxy-galaxy, and galaxy-shear correlation functions from the dark energy survey, and distance moduli measurements from Type-Ia Supernovae. The tightest bounds we find are Sigma m(v) < 0.43 eV and m(a) < 1.1 eV, both at 95% CL Interestingly, these limits are still much stronger than those found on e.g., laboratory neutrino mass searches, reassessing the robustness of the extraction of thermal relic properties via cosmological observations. In addition, when considering lensing-only data, the significance of the Hubble constant tension is considerably reduced, while the clustering parameter sigma 8 controversy is completely absent.
|
|
|
|
Adey, D. et al, Cervera-Villanueva, A., Donini, A., Ghosh, T., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Hernandez, P., et al. (2014). Light sterile neutrino sensitivity at the nuSTORM facility. Phys. Rev. D, 89(7), 071301–7pp.
Abstract: A facility that can deliver beams of electron and muon neutrinos from the decay of a stored muon beam has the potential to unambiguously resolve the issue of the evidence for light sterile neutrinos that arises in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and from estimates of the effective number of neutrino flavors from fits to cosmological data. In this paper, we show that the nuSTORM facility, with stored muons of 3.8 GeV/c +/- 10%, will be able to carry out a conclusive muon neutrino appearance search for sterile neutrinos and test the LSND and MiniBooNE experimental signals with 10 sigma sensitivity, even assuming conservative estimates for the systematic uncertainties. This experiment would add greatly to our knowledge of the contribution of light sterile neutrinos to the number of effective neutrino flavors from the abundance of primordial helium production and from constraints on neutrino energy density from the cosmic microwave background. The appearance search is complemented by a simultaneous muon neutrino disappearance analysis that will facilitate tests of various sterile neutrino models.
|
|
|
|
DUNE Collaboration(Abi, B. et al), Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Cervera-Villanueva, A., De Romeri, V., Garcia-Peris, M. A., et al. (2020). Long-baseline neutrino oscillation physics potential of the DUNE experiment. Eur. Phys. J. C, 80(10), 978–34pp.
Abstract: The sensitivity of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) to neutrino oscillation is determined, based on a full simulation, reconstruction, and event selection of the far detector and a full simulation and parameterized analysis of the near detector. Detailed uncertainties due to the flux prediction, neutrino interaction model, and detector effects are included. DUNE will resolve the neutrino mass ordering to a precision of 5 sigma, for all delta CP values, after 2 years of running with the nominal detector design and beam configuration. It has the potential to observe charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector to a precision of 3 sigma (5 sigma) after an exposure of 5 (10) years, for 50% of all delta CP values. It will also make precise measurements of other parameters governing long-baseline neutrino oscillation, and after an exposure of 15 years will achieve a similar sensitivity to sin22 theta 13 to current reactor experiments.
|
|
