Working group report: Astroparticle and neutrino physics

The working group on astroparticle and neutrino physics at WHEPP-9 covered a wide range of topics. The main topics were neutrino physics at INO, neutrino astronomy and recent constraints on dark energy coming from cosmological observations of large scale structure and CMB anisotropy.     

Atmospheric neutrinos and discovery of neutrino oscillations

Neutrino oscillation was discovered through studies of neutrinos produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. These neutrinos are called atmospheric neutrinos. They are produced as decay products in hadronic showers resulting from collisions of cosmic rays with nuclei in the atmosphere. Electron-neutrinos and muon-neutrinos are produced mainly by the decay chain of charged pions to muons to electrons. Atmospheric neutrino experiments observed zenith-angle and energy dependent deficit of muon-neutrino events. Neutrino oscillations between muon-neutrinos and tau-neutrinos explain these data well. Neutrino oscillations imply that neutrinos have small but non-zero masses. The small neutrino masses have profound implications to our understanding of elementary particle physics and the Universe. This article discusses the experimental discovery of neutrino oscillations.     

Astroparticle physics with high energy neutrinos: from AMANDA to IceCube

Kilometer-scale neutrino detectors such as IceCube are discovery instruments covering nuclear and particle physics, cosmology and astronomy. Examples of their multidisciplinary missions include the search for the particle nature of dark matter and for additional small dimensions of space. In the end, their conceptual design is very much anchored to the observational fact that Nature produces protons and photons with energies in excess of 10²⁰ eV and 10¹³ eV, respectively. The puzzle of where and how Nature accelerates the highest energy cosmic particles is unresolved almost a century after their discovery. The cosmic ray connection sets the scale of cosmic neutrino fluxes. In this context, we discuss the first results of the completed AMANDA detector and the science reach of its extension, IceCube. Similar experiments are under construction in the Mediterranean. Neutrino astronomy is also expanding in new directions with efforts to detect air showers, acoustic and radio signals initiated by super-EeV neutrinos. The outline of this review is as follows:

Introduction

Why kilometer-scale detectors?

Cosmic neutrinos associated with the highest energy cosmic rays

High energy neutrino telescopes: methodologies of neutrino detection

High energy neutrino telescopes: status

     

Overview on neutrinos and the Daya Bay experiment

Neutrinos are elementary particles in the Standard Model. Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon beyond the Standard Model. Neutrino oscillation can be described by two independent mass-squared differences Δm ₂₁ ² , Δm ₃₁ ² (or Δm ₃₂ ² ) and a 3 × 3 unitary matrix, containing three mixing angles θ ₁₂, θ ₂₃, θ ₁₃, and one charge-parity (CP) phase. θ ₁₂ is about 34° and determined by solar neutrino experiments and the reactor neutrino experiment KamLAND. θ ₂₃ is about 45° and determined by atmospheric neutrino experiments and accelerator neutrino experiments. θ ₁₃ can be measured by either accelerator or reactor neutrino experiments. On Mar. 8, 2012, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment reported the first observation of non-zero θ ₁₃ with 5.2 standard deviations. In June, with 2.5× previous data, Daya Bay improved the measurement of sin²2θ ₁₃ = 0.089 ± 0.010(stat) ± 0.005(syst).     

Transmission of neutrinos through matter

Neutrinos travel through matter with negligible absorption except in very extreme situations. However, the index of refraction of neutrinos can play an important role in the oscillation of one type of neutrino to another when passing through matter.     

2002年度诺贝尔物理奖

对2002年度的诺贝尔物理奖和中微子天文学以及一些相关的有趣问题作了比较详细的介绍。介绍了太阳中微子短缺之谜以及长达三四十年的奋斗历程;SN1987A中微子的发现以及最近太阳中微子短缺之谜的解决。还介绍了X射线天文学的发现和进展。现在,X射线天文学已经发展成为可与光学天文学、射电天文学媲美的一门举足轻重的学科。     

Solar Neutrino Problem in Seesaw Model

A specific texture for the Dirac and Majorana mass matrices in the seesaw model leading to a pair of almost degenerate neutrinos is discussed. This texture can be obtained by imposing a global U(1) symmetry. This model could solve the solar neutrino problem through the MSW mechanism and offer the hot component of the dark matter of the universe which requires Σm_vi = 7 eV.     

Bounds on neutrino mixing with exotic singlet neutrinos

We examine the effects of mixing induced non-diagonal light-heavy neutrino weak neutral currents on the amplitude for the process (with a=e, μ or τ). By imposing constraint that the amplitude should not exceed the perturbative unitarity limit at high energy , we obtain bounds on light-heavy neutrino mixing parameter sin² where is the mixing angle. In the case of one heavy neutrino (mass mξ) or mass degenerate heavy neutrinos, for Λ=1 TeV, no bound is obtained for mξ<0.50 TeV. However, sin² ≤3.8 × 10⁻⁶ for mξ=5 TeV and sin ≤6.0 × 10⁻⁸ for mξ=10 TeV. For Λ=∞, no constraint is obtained for mξ<0.99 TeV and sin² ≤3.8 × 10⁻² (for mξ=5 TeV) and sin² ≤9.6 × 10⁻³ (for mξ=10 TeV).     

Results from solar, atmospheric and K2K experiments and future possibilities with T2K

Recent results from solar, reactor, atmospheric and long baseline (K2K) experiments are discussed. With the improved data statistics and analyses, our knowledge on the neutrino masses and mixing angles are steadily improving. T2K is the next generation neutrino oscillation experiment between J-PARC in Tokai and Super-Kamiokande. This experiment will start in 2009. This experiment is expected to improve the current knowledge on the neutrino masses and mixings substantially.     

Astroparticle physics with AMS-02

The main physics goals of the AMS-02 experiment in the astroparticle domain are searches for antimatter and dark matter. The discovery potential of primordial antimatter by AMS-02 is presented, emphasizing the completeness of the AMS-02 detector for these searches. Meanwhile, antiproton detection suffers from a large secondary interaction background; the anti-⁴He or anti-³He signal would allow one to probe the Universe for existence of antimatter. The expected signal in AMS-02 is presented and compared to results from present experiments. The e⁺ and antiproton channels will contribute to the dark matter detection studies. A SUSY neutralino candidate is considered. The expected flux sensitivities in a three-year exposure for the e⁺/e^? ratio and antiproton yields as a function of energy are presented and compared to other direct and indirect searches.     

中微子物理

近十几年来积累的数据表明,有相当数量的太阳中微子流在从太阳到地球探测器的漫长旅程中丢失了。最新的大气中微子实验结果指出,宇宙射线引起的大气中νμ与νｅ的比例不是原有理论预言的２：１,而是接近１：１,而且发现从上而下的νμ数目比从下而上的多,νｅ的数量却基本不变,这两种现象可能是源于中微子振荡或其他的机制,然而这些机制并没有包含在２０世纪的最成功的理论－最小标准模型中。换言之,要合理解释反观测到的中     

Probing pseudo-Dirac neutrino through detection of neutrino-induced muons from gamma ray burst neutrinos

The possibility to verify the pseudo-Dirac nature of neutrinos is investigated here via the detection of ultra-high energy neutrinos from distant cosmological objects like γ-ray bursts (GRBs). The very long baseline and the energy range from ∼TeV to ∼EeV for such neutrinos invoke the likelihood to probe very small pseudo-Dirac splittings. The expected secondary muons from such neutrinos that can be detected by a kilometer scale detector such as ICECUBE is calculated and compared with the same in the case of mass-flavour oscillations and for no oscillation cases. The calculated muon yields indicate that to probe such small pseudo-Dirac splittings one needs to look for a nearby GRB (red shift z ∼ 0.03 or less) whereas for a distant GRB (z ∼ 1) the flux will be much depleted and such phenomenon cannot be distinguished. Also calculated are the muon-to-shower ratios.      

Antineutrino science by KamLAND

KamLAND measured the $\bar{\nu }$_e’s flux from distant nuclear reactors, and found fewer events than expected from standard assumptions about $\bar{\nu }$_e propagation at the 99.998% confidence level (C.L.). The observed energy spectrum disagrees with the expected spectral shape at 99.6% C.L., and prefers the distortion from neutrino oscillation effects. A two-flavor oscillation analysis of the data from KamLAND and solar neutrino experiments with CPT invariance, yields Δm2=7.9−0.5+0.6×10−5 eV² and tan2θ=0.40−0.07+0.10. All solutions to the solar neutrino problem except for the large mixing angle (LMA) region are excluded. KamLAND succeeded in detecting geoneutrinos produced by the decays of ²³⁸U and ²³²Th within the Earth. The total observed number of 4.5 to 54.2, assuming a Th/U mass concentration ratio of 3.9 is consistent with 19 predicted by geophysical models. This detection allows better estimation of the abundances and distributions of radioactive elements in the Earth, and of the Earth’s overall heat budget.     

太阳中微子问题与非标准电弱模型

非标准电弱模型似乎可以说明长达二十几年的太阳中微子问题，３类不同味的中微子可以彼此振荡地转变．但这个模型要求中微子必须具有质量，从而将带来粒子物理学沉重而激动人心的变革．新的实验正在探索发现中微子振荡的证据     

Precision measurements and tau neutrino physics in a future accelerator neutrino experiment

We investigate prospects of building a future accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiment in China, including site selection, beam optimization and tau neutrino physics aspects. CP violation, non-unitary mixing and non-standard neutrino interactions are discussed. We simulate neutrino beam setups based on muon and beta decay techniques and compare Chinese laboratory sites by their expected sensitivities. A case study on the Super Proton–Proton Collider and the China JinPing Laboratory is also presented. It is shown that the muon-decay-based beam setup can measure the Dirac CP phase by about 14.2° precision at 1σ CL, whereas non-unitarity can be probed down to ∣α_ij∣ ≲ 0.37 (i ≠ j = 1, 2, 3) and non-standard interactions to $| {epsilon }_{{ell }{ell }^{prime} }^{m}| lesssim $ 0.11 (${ell }ne {ell }^{prime} =e$, μ, τ) at 90% CL, respectively.     

Astroparticle physics: Working group report

The astroparticle physics working group witnessed intense discussion and activity covering a broad range of topics ranging from supergravity and baryogenesis to compact stars and the large scale structure of the Universe. A summary of some of the subject areas in which collaborations were initiated during WHEPP-5 is presented below.     

Solving Solar Neutrino Puzzle via LMA MSW Conversion

We analyze the existing solar neutrino experiment data and show the allowed regions. The result from SNO＇s salt phase itself restricts quite a lot the allowed region＇s area. Reactor neutrinos play an important role in determining oscillation parameters. KamLAND gives decisive conclusion on the solution to the solar neutrino puzzle, in particular, the spectral distortion in the 766.3 Ty KamLAND data gives another new improvement in the constraint of solar MSW-LMA solutions. We confirm that at 99.73% C.L. the high-LMA solution is excluded.     

Solving Solar Neutrino Puzzle via LMA MSW Conversion

We analyze the existing solar neutrino experiment data and show the allowed regions. The result from SNO‘s salt phase itself restricts quite a lot the allowed region‘s area. Reactor neutrinos play an important role in determining oscillation parameters. KamLAND gives decisive conclusion on the solution to the solar neutrino puzzle, in particular, the spectral distortion in the 766.3 Ty KamLAND data gives another new improvement in the constraint of solar MSW-LMA solutions. We confirm that at 99. 73% C.L. the high-LMA solution is excluded.