Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at Daya Bay

Electron neutrino and antineutrino appearance in the full MINOS data sample

We report on ν(e) and ν(e) appearance in ν(μ) and ν(μ) beams using the full MINOS data sample. The comparison of these ν(e) and ν(e) appearance data at a 735 km baseline with θ13 measurements by reactor experiments probes δ, the θ23 octant degeneracy, and the mass hierarchy. This analysis is the first use of this technique and includes the first accelerator long-baseline search for ν(μ) → ν(e). Our data disfavor 31% (5%) of the three-parameter space defined by δ, the octant of the θ23, and the mass hierarchy at the 68% (90%) C.L. We measure a value of 2sin(2)(2θ13)sin(2)(θ23) that is consistent with reactor experiments.

Status of non-standard neutrino interactions

The phenomenon of neutrino oscillations has been established as the leading mechanism behind neutrino flavor transitions, providing solid experimental evidence that neutrinos are massive and lepton flavors are mixed. Here we review sub-leading effects in neutrino flavor transitions known as non-standard neutrino interactions (NSIs), which is currently the most explored description for effects beyond the standard paradigm of neutrino oscillations. In particular, we report on the phenomenology of NSIs and their experimental and phenomenological bounds as well as an outlook for future sensitivity and discovery reach.

Sterile neutrinos as the origin of dark and baryonic matter

We demonstrate for the first time that three sterile neutrinos alone can simultaneously explain neutrino oscillations, the observed dark matter, and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe without new physics above the Fermi scale. The key new point of our analysis is leptogenesis after sphaleron freeze-out, which leads to resonant dark matter production, evading thus the constraints on sterile neutrino dark matter from structure formation and x-ray searches. We identify the range of sterile neutrino properties that is consistent with all known constraints. We find a domain of parameters where the new particles can be found with present day experimental techniques, using upgrades to existing experimental facilities.

New antineutrino energy spectra predictions from the summation of beta decay branches of the fission products

In this Letter, we study the impact of the inclusion of the recently measured beta decay properties of the (102;104;105;106;107)Tc, (105)Mo, and (101)Nb nuclei in an updated calculation of the antineutrino energy spectra of the four fissible isotopes (235,238)U and (239,241)Pu. These actinides are the main contributors to the fission processes in pressurized water reactors. The beta feeding probabilities of the above-mentioned Tc, Mo, and Nb isotopes have been found to play a major role in the γ component of the decay heat of (239)Pu, solving a large part of the γ discrepancy in the 4-3000 s range. They have been measured by using the total absorption technique, insensitive to the pandemonium effect. The calculations are performed by using the information available nowadays in the nuclear databases, summing all the contributions of the beta decay branches of the fission products. Our results provide a new prediction of the antineutrino energy spectra of (235)U, (239,241)Pu, and, in particular, (238)U for which no measurement has been published yet. We conclude that new total absorption technique measurements are mandatory to improve the reliability of the predicted spectra.

Theory of neutrinoless double-beta decay

Neutrinoless double-beta decay, which is a very old and yet elusive process, is reviewed. Its observation will signal that the lepton number is not conserved and that the neutrinos are Majorana particles. More importantly it is our best hope for determining the absolute neutrino-mass scale at the level of a few tens of meV. To achieve the last goal certain hurdles must be overcome involving particle, nuclear and experimental physics. Nuclear physics is important for extracting useful information from the data. One must accurately evaluate the relevant nuclear matrix elements--a formidable task. To this end, we review the sophisticated nuclear structure approaches which have recently been developed, and which give confidence that the required nuclear matrix elements can be reliably calculated employing different methods: (a) the various versions of the quasiparticle random phase approximations, (b) the interacting boson model, (c) the energy density functional method and (d) the large basis interacting shell model. It is encouraging that, for the light neutrino-mass term at least, these vastly different approaches now give comparable results. From an experimental point of view it is challenging, since the life times are long and one has to fight against formidable backgrounds. One needs large isotopically enriched sources and detectors with high-energy resolution, low thresholds and very low background. If a signal is found, it will be a tremendous accomplishment. The real task then, of course, will be the extraction of the neutrino mass from the observations. This is not trivial, since current particle models predict the presence of many mechanisms other than the neutrino mass, which may contribute to or even dominate this process. In particular, we will consider the following processes: The neutrino induced, but neutrino-mass independent contribution. Heavy left and/or right-handed neutrino-mass contributions. Intermediate scalars (doubly charged, etc). Supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions. We will show that it is possible to disentangle the various mechanisms and unambiguously extract the important neutrino-mass scale, if all the signatures of the reaction are searched for in a sufficient number of nuclear isotopes.

Neutrino mass hierarchy and octant determination with atmospheric neutrinos

The recent discovery by the Daya-Bay and RENO experiments, that θ(13) is nonzero and relatively large, significantly impacts existing experiments and the planning of future facilities. In many scenarios, the nonzero value of θ(13) implies that θ(23) is likely to be different from π/4. Additionally, large detectors will be sensitive to matter effects on the oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, making it possible to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and the octant of θ(23). We show that a 50 kT magnetized liquid argon neutrino detector can ascertain the mass hierarchy with a significance larger than 4σ with moderate exposure times, and the octant at the level of 2-3σ with greater exposure.

B-L violating proton decay modes and new baryogenesis scenario in SO(10)

We show that grand unified theories based on SO(10) generate quite naturally baryon number violating dimension seven operators that violate B-L, and lead to novel nucleon decay modes such as n→e(-)K(+), e(-)π(+) and p→νπ(+). We find that in two-step breaking schemes of nonsupersymmetric SO(10), the partial lifetimes for these modes can be within reach of experiments. The interactions responsible for these decay modes also provide a new way to understand the origin of matter in the Universe via the decays of grand unified theory (GUT) scale scalar bosons of SO(10). Their (B-L)-violating nature guarantees that the GUT scale induced baryon asymmetry is not washed out by the electroweak sphaleron interactions. In minimal SO(10) models this asymmetry is closely tied to the masses of quarks, leptons and the neutrinos.