The composite electron

In this paper, the electron is considered a bound state of a neutrino and a negative pion. A model Lagrangian density that combines weak and electromagnetic interactions gives rise to equations of motion that define such a state. In this model, the muon is a bound state of an antineutrino and a negative pion, which explains why it cannot decay into an electron and a photon. The decay of unstable particles is reduced to pair creation plus particle recombination. The neutral pion is described by an interference between the charged-pion states. Several variations of the model are also presented.     

Neutrino masses from three-particle decays

The purely leptonic decays of the tau and the radiative decay of the pion provide determinations of the tau neutrino and muon neutrino masses, respectively. The shift of the energy at which the tau decay spectrum attains its maximum and the forward-backward ratio are both large enough to determine tau neutrino masses of about 100 MeV. The photon endpoint energy and partially integrated differential decay rate in pion decay are sensitive to a neutrino mass as small as 100 keV. Thus, the present bounds on neutrino masses can be significantly improved.     

KARMEN time anomaly: search for a neutral particle of mass 33.9 MeV in pion decay

We have searched for the pion decay pi(+)-->&mgr;+X, where X is a neutral particle of mass 33.905 MeV. This process was suggested by the KARMEN Collaboration to explain an anomaly in their observed time distribution of neutrino induced reactions. Having measured the muon momentum spectrum of charged pions decaying in flight, we find no evidence for this process and place an upper limit on the branching fraction eta相似文献   

Results from DONUT

The DONUT experiment has analyzed a sample of 203 neutrino interactions recorded in nuclear emulsion targets. Two decay search methods has done for long and short flight tau decay. Evidence of four tau neutrino interactions with an estimated background of 0.41 events and one with background of 0.22 events.     

Search for coherent charged pion production in neutrino-carbon interactions

We report the result from a search for charged-current coherent pion production induced by muon neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV. The data are collected with a fully active scintillator detector in the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. No evidence for coherent pion production is observed, and an upper limit of is set on the cross section ratio of coherent pion production to the total charged-current interaction at 90% confidence level. This is the first experimental limit for coherent charged pion production in the energy region of a few GeV.     

A large scale double beta and dark matter experiment: On the physics potential of GENIUS

The physics potential of GENIUS, a recently proposed double beta decay and dark matter experiment is discussed. The experiment will allow to probe neutrino masses down to 10^?(2–3) eV. GENIUS will test the structure of the neutrino mass matrix, and therefore implicitly neutrino oscillation parameters comparable or superior in sensitivity to the best proposed dedicated terrestrial neutrino oscillation experiments. If the 10^-3 eV level is reached, GENIUS will even allow to test the large angle MSW solution of the solar neutrino problem. Even in its first stage GENIUS will confirm or rule out degenerate or inverted neutrino mass scenarios, which have been widely discussed in the literature as a possible solution to current hints on finite neutrino masses and also test the ν_e ? ν_μ hypothesis of the atmospheric neutrino problem. GENIUS would contribute to the search for R-parity violating SUSY and right-handed W-bosons on a scale similar or superior to LHC. In addition, GENIUS would largely improve the current 0νββ decay searches for R-parity conserving SUSY and leptoquarks. Concerning cold dark matter (CDM) search, the low background anticipated for GENIUS would, for the first time ever, allow to cover the complete MSSM neutralino parameter space, making GENIUS competitive to LHC in SUSY discovery. If GENIUS could find SUSY CDM as a by-product it would confirm that R-parity must be conserved exactly. GENIUS will thus be a major tool for future non-accelerator particle physics.     

Pion-Muon Asymmetry Revisited

Long ago an unexpected and unexplainable phenomena was observed. The distribution of muons from positive pion decay at rest was anisotropic with an excess in the backward direction relative to the direction of the proton beam from which it was produced. Although this effect was observed by several different groups with pions produced by different means and detected by different methods, the result was not accepted by the physics community, because it is in direct conflict with a large set of other experiments indicating that the pion is a pseudoscalar particle. It is possible to satisfy both sets of experiments if helicity-zero vector particles exist and the pion is such a particle. Helicity-zero vector particles have direction but no net spin. For the neutral pion to be a vector particle requires an additional modification to conventional theory as discussed herein. An experiment is proposed which can prove that the asymmetry in the distribution of muons from pion decay is a genuine physical effect because the asymmetry can be modified in a controllable manner. A positive result will also prove that the pion is not a pseudoscalar particle.     

Observation of tau neutrino interactions

The DONUT experiment has analyzed 203 neutrino interactions recorded in nuclear emulsion targets. A decay search has found evidence of four tau neutrino interactions with an estimated background of 0.34 events. This number is consistent with the Standard Model expectation.     

Direct neutrino mass measurements

The determination of the neutrino rest mass plays an important role at the intersections of cosmology, particle physics and astroparticle physics. This topic is currently being addressed by two complementary approaches in laboratory experiments. Neutrinoless double beta decay experiments probe whether neutrinos are Majorana particles and determine an effective neutrino mass value. Single beta decay experiments such as KATRIN and MARE investigate the spectral shape of β-decay electrons close to their kinematic endpoint in order to determine the neutrino rest mass with a model-independent method. Owing to neutrino flavour mixing, the neutrino mass parameter appears as an average of all neutrino mass eigenstates contributing to the electron neutrino. The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) is currently the experiment in the most advanced status of commissioning. Applying an ultra-luminous molecular windowless gaseous tritium source and an integrating high-resolution spectrometer of MAC-E filter type, it allows β-spectroscopy close to the T ₂ end-point with unprecedented precision and will reach a sensitivity of 200 meV/c ² (90% C.L.) on the neutrino rest mass.     

Search for finite-mass neutrinos in the decay π+→μ+vμ

If neutrinos possess non-zero mass, pion decay might have small decay branches to neutrino states with large masses. We have searched for such branches in the decay of pions produced at the Indiana University Cyclotron. The energy spectrum of decay muons shows no evidence for such neutrino branches and if these decays do exist, their branching ratios must be less than 10^?2 to 10^?3 for neutrino masses in the ranFge 7–33 MeV.     

First Evidence for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

Double beta decay is indispensable to solve the question of the neutrino mass matrix together with oscillation experiments. Recent analysis of the most sensitive experiment since nine years—the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment in Gran-Sasso—yields a first indication for the neutrinoless decay mode. This result is the first evidence for lepton number violation and proves the neutrino to be a Majorana particle. We give the present status of the analysis in this report. It excludes several of the neutrino mass scenarios allowed from present neutrino oscillation experiments—only degenerate scenarios and those with inverse mass hierarchy survive. This result allows neutrinos to still play an important role as dark matter in the Universe. To improve the accuracy of the present result, considerably enlarged experiments are required, such as GENIUS. A GENIUS Test Facility has been funded and will come into operation by early 2003.     

Neutrino physics with cryogenic detectors

The recent results on neutrino oscillations and the consequent need to measure the value of the neutrino mass are briefly discussed. The operating principle of cryogenic detectors working at low temperatures, where the small heat capacity allows one to record and measure the temperature increase due to the tiny energy lost by a particle in form of heat is described. An application of these detectors is the measurement, or at least an upper constraint, of the neutrino mass in β decay. This approach is complementary and can, in the future, be competitive with experiments based on the spectrometric measurement of the electron energy. The search for neutrinoless double beta decay could reach a better sensitivity on the mass if a neutrino is a Majorana particle. A large cryogenic detector, named CUORICINO, on neutrinoless double beta decay (DBD) of ¹³⁰Te already yields the best constraint on the absolute value of the Majorana neutrino mass. A much larger detector, named CUORE, for Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events, is currently under construction. With its active mass of 750 kg of natural TeO₂ it aims to reach the sensitivity in the determination of the Majorana neutrino mass suggested by the results of neutrino oscillation under the inverse hierarchy hypothesis. The problem is closely connected with what I call “the second mystery of Ettore Majorana” who suggested a particle that would violate the lepton number.     

Neutrinoless double-beta decay—status of evidence and future

Double-beta decay is indispensable to solve the question of the neutrino mass matrix together with ν oscillation experiments. Recent analysis of the most sensitive experiment in the last eight years—the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment in Gran Sasso—yields evidence for the neutrinoless decay mode at a 97% C.L. This result is the first indication for lepton number violation and for the neutrino to be a Majorana particle. We give the present status of the analysis in these proceedings. It excludes several of the neutrino mass scenarios allowed from present neutrino oscillation experiments—essentially only degenerate and partially degenerate mass scenarios survive. To improve the present result, considerably enlarged experiments are required, such as GENIUS. A GENIUS Test Facility has just been funded and will come into operation by the end of 2002.     

Gravitons from anomalous decay

The decay rate of the neutral pion into two gravitons is calculated from the gravitational anomaly in the axial current. Although this decay rate is negligible relative to the decay rate of the neutral pion into two photons, the rate of decay into gravitons is proportional to the seventh power of the mass of the decaying particle, and to the square of the gravitational constant. The possibility that a particle of very large mass, associated with an axial current anomaly, was present in the early universe is considered. Such a particle would decay at a significant rate into gravitons. As these gravitons would not be thermaiized, they would result in a (potentially observable) nonthermal spectrum of gravitational waves present today. The peak frequency of this gravitational wave spectrum would be indicative of the mass of the decaying particle. Alternatively, if the gravitational constant were large at early times, then the gravitational decay of the pion would be significant in the early universe, giving rise to a nonthermal gravitational wave spectrum.     

Update of results from the SuperKamiokande detector (June 1999)

The data collected in the SuperKamiokande detector as of June 1999 are presented. This review covers the complete spectrum of neutrino interactions from solar neutrinos, through the entire spectrum of atmospheric neutrinos, and ending with the neutrino beam produced at KEK for a long-baseline experiment. Different interpretations of these data as demonstrations of neutrino oscillations are discussed. The results of a search for nucleon decay are also summarized.     

Can FSRQs produce the Ice Cube detected diffuse neutrino emission?

Ice Cube has reported the detection of a diffuse Te V-Pe V neutrino emission, for which the flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) have been proposed to be the candidate sources. Here we assume that the neutrino flux from FSRQs is proportional to their gamma-ray ones, and obtain the gamma-ray/neutrino flux ratio by the diffuse gamma-ray flux from Fermi-LAT measurement of FSRQs and the diffuse neutrino flux detected by Ice Cube. We apply this ratio to individual FSRQs and hence predict their neutrino flux. We find that a large fraction of candidate FSRQs from the northern sky in the Ice Cube point source search has predicted neutrino flux above the Ice Cube upper limit; and for the sample of stacking search for neutrinos by Ice Cube, the predicted stacked flux is even larger than the upper limit of stacked flux by orders of magnitude. Therefore the Ice Cube limit from stacking searches, combined with the Fermi-LAT observations, already rejects FSRQs as the main sources of Ice Cube-detected diffuse neutrinos: FSRQs can only account for 10%( 4%) of the Ice Cube-detected diffuse neutrino flux, according to the stacking searches from the whole(northern) sky. The derived small neutrino/gamma-ray flux ratio also implies that the gamma-ray emission from FSRQs cannot be produced by the secondary leptons and photons from the pion production processes. The caveat in the assumptions is discussed.     

The rich neutrino programme of the SNO+ experiment

The SNO+ experiment is a multi-faceted neutrino experiment re-using the existing infrastructure and detector hardware of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory located in Vale Inco’s Creighton mine, Sudbury (ON), Canada. The main aim of this, now fully-funded, experiment is the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, however, it has access to other, very interesting, measurements involving neutrinos, such as lower energy solar neutrinos, geo- and reactor-antineutrinos and supernova neutrinos.     

A large scale double beta and dark matter experiment: GENIUS

The recent results from the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment have demonstrated the large potential of double beta decay to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. To increase by a major step the present sensitivity for double beta decay and dark matter search much bigger source strengths and much lower backgrounds are needed than used in experiments under operation at present or under construction. We present here a study of a project proposed recently [1], which would operate one ton of ‘naked’ enriched GErmanium-detectorsinliquid NItrogenas shielding in an Underground Setup (GENIUS). It improves the sensitivity to neutrino masses to 0.01 eV. A ten ton version would probe neutrino masses even down to 10^?3 eV. The first version would allow to test the atmospheric neutrino problem, the second at least part of the solar neutrino problem. Both versions would allow in addition significant contributions to testing several classes of GUT models. These are especially tests of R-parity breaking supersymmetry models, leptoquark masses and mechanism and right-handed W-boson masses comparable to LHC. The second issue of the experiment is the search for dark matter in the universe. The entire MSSM parameter space for prediction of neutralinos as dark matter particles could be covered already in a first step of the full experiment with the same purity requirements, but using only 100 kg of ⁷⁶Ge or even of natural Ge making the experiment competitive to LHC in the search for supersymmetry. The layout ofthe proposed experiment is discussed and the shielding and purity requirements are studied using GEANT Monte Carlo simulations. As a demonstration of the feasibility of the experiment first results of operating a ‘naked’ Ge detector in liquid nitrogen are presented.     

Strange particle production and charmed particle search in the gargamelle neutrino experiment

Data is given for single and multiple strange particle production in neutrino reactions in both charged and neutral current channels. A total of 15000 neutrino and antineutrino events has been examined for possible evidence of semi-leptonic decay of a charmed particle. One candidate has been observed. Upper limits on charmed particle production cross-sections are given as a function of the neutrino energy and the invariant mass of the final state hadrons.