Beta-delayed (multi-)particle decay studies

Here we report on beta-delayed multi-particle-breakup studies made at IGISOL to determine the nuclear structure and eventual alpha clustering in light nuclei. The experimental studies were performed in full kinematics and we will dedicate part of this article to technical details of the experiments. In particular we will discuss the breakup of excited states in ¹²C fed by beta decay from ¹²B and ¹²N, the study of the beta decay of ¹³O, as well as studies determining the neutrino spectrum of ⁸B.     

Determination of the 8B neutrino spectrum

We have measured the total energy of the alpha particles following the beta decay of 8B by implanting 8B into a planar silicon surface barrier detector. Calibration was performed using alpha particles following the beta decay of 20Na, similarly implanted. The alpha spectrum is used to infer the 8B neutrino spectrum which is an important input in the interpretation of experiments that detect energetic neutrinos from the Sun. The alpha spectrum reported here is in disagreement with the previous best measurement which used two detectors in coincidence.     

TEXONO低能中微子实验中的CsI(T1)晶体探测器

TEXONO合作组首次采用CsI(T1)晶体测量反应堆中微子的能量、通量和反常磁矩,描述了实验的基本原理,探测器结构及其性能.     

Limits on the neutrino magnetic moment using 1496 days of Super-Kamiokande-I solar neutrino data

A search for a nonzero neutrino magnetic moment has been conducted using 1496 live days of solar neutrino data from Super-Kamiokande-I. Specifically, we searched for distortions to the energy spectrum of recoil electrons arising from magnetic scattering due to a nonzero neutrino magnetic moment. In the absence of a clear signal, we found micro(nu)相似文献   

Measurement of day and night neutrino energy spectra at SNO and constraints on neutrino mixing parameters

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) has measured day and night solar neutrino energy spectra and rates. For charged current events, assuming an undistorted 8B spectrum, the night minus day rate is 14.0%+/-6.3%(+1.5%)(-1.4%) of the average rate. If the total flux of active neutrinos is additionally constrained to have no asymmetry, the nu(e) asymmetry is found to be 7.0%+/-4.9%(+1.3%)(-1.2%). A global solar neutrino analysis in terms of matter-enhanced oscillations of two active flavors strongly favors the large mixing angle solution.     

Constraints and tests of the OPERA superluminal neutrinos

The superluminal neutrinos detected by OPERA indicate Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) of the neutrino sector at the order of 10(-5). We study the implications of the result in this work. We find that such a large LIV implied by OPERA data will make the neutrino production process π → μ + ν(μ) kinematically forbidden for a neutrino energy greater than about 5 GeV. The OPERA detection of neutrinos at 40 GeV can constrain the LIV parameter to be smaller than 3×10(-7). Furthermore, the neutrino decay in the LIV framework will modify the neutrino spectrum greatly. The atmospheric neutrino spectrum measured by the IceCube Collaboration can constrain the LIV parameter to the level of 10(-12). The future detection of astrophysical neutrinos of galactic sources is expected to be able to give an even stronger constraint on the LIV parameter of neutrinos.     

Constraining the spectrum of supernova neutrinos from nu-process induced light element synthesis

We constrain energy spectra of supernova neutrinos through the avoidance of an overproduction of the 11B abundance during Galactic chemical evolution. In supernova nucleosynthesis calculations with a parametrized neutrino spectrum as a function of temperature of nu(mu,tau) and nu(mu,tau) and total neutrino energy, we find a strong neutrino temperature dependence of the 11B yield. When the yield is combined with observed abundances, the acceptable range of the nu(mu,tau) and nu(mu,tau) temperature is found to be 4.8 to 6.6 MeV. Nonzero neutrino chemical potentials would reduce this temperature range by about 10% for a degeneracy parameter eta(nu) = mu(nu)/kT(nu) smaller than 3.     

What do we (not) know theoretically about solar neutrino fluxes?

Solar model predictions of 8B and p-p neutrinos agree with the experimentally determined fluxes (including oscillations): phi(pp)(measured)=(1.02+/-00.02+/-0.01)phi(pp)(theory) and phi(8B)(measured)=(0.88+/-0.04+/-0.23)phi(8B)(theory), 1sigma experimental and theoretical uncertainties, respectively. We use improved input data for nuclear fusion reactions, the equation of state, and the chemical composition of the Sun. The solar composition is the dominant uncertainty in calculating the 8B and CNO neutrino fluxes; the cross section for the 3He(4He,gamma)7Be reaction is the most important uncertainty for the calculated 7Be neutrino flux.     

Indications of neutrino oscillation in a 250 km long-baseline experiment

The K2K experiment observes indications of neutrino oscillation: a reduction of nu(mu) flux together with a distortion of the energy spectrum. Fifty-six beam neutrino events are observed in Super-Kamiokande (SK), 250 km from the neutrino production point, with an expectation of 80.1(+6.2)(-5.4). Twenty-nine one ring mu-like events are used to reconstruct the neutrino energy spectrum, which is better matched to the expected spectrum with neutrino oscillation than without. The probability that the observed flux at SK is explained by statistical fluctuation without neutrino oscillation is less than 1%.     

Shape of the 8B alpha and neutrino spectra

The beta-delayed alpha spectrum from the decay of 8B has been measured with a setup that minimized systematic uncertainties that affected previous measurements. Consequently the deduced neutrino spectrum presents much smaller uncertainties than the previous recommendation [J. N. Bahcall et al., Phys. Rev. C 54, 411 (1996)]. The 8B nu spectrum is found to be harder than previously recommended with about (10-20)% more neutrinos at energies between 12-14 MeV. The integrated cross sections of the 37Cl, 71Ga, 40Ar, and Super-Kamiokande detectors are, respectively, 3.6%, 1.4%, 5.7%, and 2.1% larger than previously thought.     

Updated solution to the solar neutrino problem based on non-standard neutrino interactions

We present an updated version of the solution to the solar neutrino problem based on non-standard flavor changing neutrino interactions (FCNI) and non-universal flavor diagonal neutrino interactions (FDNI). We find a good fit not only to the total rates measured by all solar neutrino experiments but also to the day-night and seasonal variations of the event rate, as well as the recoil electron energy spectrum measured by the SuperKamiokande collaboration.     

Neutrino masses and the dark energy equation of state: relaxing the cosmological neutrino mass bound

At present, cosmology provides the nominally strongest constraint on the masses of standard model neutrinos. However, this constraint is extremely dependent on the nature of the dark energy component of the Universe. When the dark energy equation of state parameter is taken as a free (but constant) parameter, the neutrino mass bound is sigma m(v) < or = 1.48 eV (95% C.L.), compared with sigma m(v) < or = 0.65 eV (95% C.L.) in the standard model where the dark energy is in the form of a cosmological constant. This has important consequences for future experiments aimed at the direct measurement of neutrino masses. We also discuss prospects for future cosmological measurements of neutrino masses.     

Measurement of the neutron spectrum of a Pu-C source with a liquid scintillator

The neutron response function for a BC501A liquid scintillator (LS) has been measured using a series of monoenergetic neutrons produced by the p-T reaction. The proton energies were chosen such as to produce neutrons in the energy range of 1 to 20 MeV. The principles of the technique of unfolding a neutron energy spectrum by using the measured neutron response function and the measured Pulse Height (PH) spectrum is briefly described. The PH spectrum of neutrons from the Pu-C source, which will be used for the calibration of the reactor antineutrino detectors for the Daya Bay neutrino experiment, was measured and analyzed to get the neutron energy spectrum. Simultaneously the neutron energy spectrum of an Am-Be source was measured and compared with other measurements as a check of the result for the Pu-C source. Finally, an error analysis and a discussion of the results are given.     

Detection of Supernova Neutrinos on the Earth for Large θ_(13)

Supernova （SN） neutrinos detected on the Earth are subject to the shock wave effects, the Mikheyev- Smirnov-Wolfenstein （MSW） effects, the neutrino collective effects and the Earth matter effects. Considering the recent experimental result about the large mixing angle 013 （-8.8°） provided by the Daya Bay Collaboration and applying the available knowledge for the neutrino conversion probability in the high resonance region of SN, PH , which is in the form of hypergeometric function in the case of large 813, we deduce the expression of PH taking into account the shock wave effects. It is found that PH is not zero in a certain range of time due to the shock wave effects. After considering all the four physical effects and scanning relevant parameters, we calculate the event numbers of SN neutrinos for the ＂Garehing＂ distribution of neutrino energy spectrum. From the numerical results, it is found that the behaviors of neutrino event numbers detected on the Earth depend on the neutrino mass hierarchy and neutrino spectrum parameters including the dimensionless pinching parameter βa （where a refers to neutrino flavor）, the average energy 〈Ea〉, and the SN neutrino luminosities La. Finally, we give the ranges of SN neutrino event numbers that will be detected at the Daya Bay experiment.     

Scattering of solar beryllium neutrinos by electrons

The flavor of solar beryllium neutrinos is investigated. Possible presence of neutral leptons of all generations (families), related (electron) antineutrinos, and “sterile” particles in the solar beryllium neutrino flux is considered. The angular distribution and energy spectrum of electrons at beryllium neutrino scattering are analyzed within the standard electroweak model.     

Addendum to: “The SNO solar neutrino data, neutrinoless double beta-decay and neutrino mass spectrum”: [Phys. Lett. B 544 (2002) 239]

We update our earlier study [Phys. Lett. B 544 (2002) 239], which was inspired by the 2002 SNO data, on the implications of the results of the solar neutrino experiments for the predictions of the effective Majorana mass in neutrinoless double beta-decay, |m|. We obtain predictions for |m| using the values of the neutrino oscillation parameters, obtained in the analyzes of the presently available solar neutrino data, including the just published data from the salt phase of the SNO experiment, the atmospheric neutrino and CHOOZ data and the first data from the KamLAND experiment. The main conclusion reached in the previous study [Phys. Lett. B 544 (2002) 239] of the existence of significant lower bounds on |m| in the cases of neutrino mass spectrum of inverted hierarchical (IH) and quasi-degenerate (QD) type is strongly reinforced by fact that combined solar neutrino data (i) exclude the possibility of cos2θ=0 at more than 5 s.d., (ii) determine as a best fit value cos2θ=0.40, and (iii) imply at 95% C.L. that cos2θ0.22, θ being the solar neutrino mixing angle. For the IH and QD spectra we get using, e.g., the 90% C.L. allowed ranges of values of the oscillation parameters, |m|0.010 eV and |m|0.043 eV, respectively. We also comment on the possibility to get information on the neutrino mass spectrum and on the CP-violation in the lepton sector due to Majorana CP-violating phases.     

Non-equilibrium plasma production by pulsed laser ablation of gold

A gold target has been irradiated with a Q-switched Nd:Yag laser having 1064?nm wavelength, 9?ns pulse width, 900?mJ maximum pulse energy and a maximum power density of the order of 10¹⁰?W/cm². The laser–target interaction produces a strong gold etching with production of a plasma in front of the target. The plasma contains neutrals and ions having a high charge state. Time-of-flight (TOF) measurements are presented for the analysis of the ion production and ion velocity. A cylindrical electrostatic deflection ion analyzer permits measurement of the yield of the emitted ions, their charge state and their ion energy distribution. Measurements indicate that the ion charge state reaches 6⁺ and 10⁺ at a laser fluence of 100?J/cm² and 160?J/cm², respectively. The maximum ion energy reaches about 2?keV and 8?keV at these low and high laser fluences, respectively. Experimental ion energy distributions are given as a function of the ion charge state. Obtained results indicate that electrical fields, produced in the plume, along the normal to the plane of the target surface, exist in the unstable plasma. The electrical fields induce ion acceleration away from the target with a final velocity dependent on the ion charge state. The ion velocity distributions follow a “shifted Maxwellian distribution”, which the authors have corrected for the Coulomb interactions occurring inside the plasma.     

The measurement of upward going muons using the MACRO detector

The upward-going muon flux (E_μ > 1 GeV) has been measured with the underground detector MACRO at LNGS. The total number of measured events is compatible at the 8% c.l. with the expected one. Moreover, the zenith angular distribution of the measured flux does not match the expectation showing a deficit in the vertical direction where the apparatus performance is best known. Assuming an oscillation hypothesis with parameters in the range recently suggested to solve the atmospheric neutrino problem, the agreement increases, but not significantly. The results of an indirect dark matter search for a signal of WIMPs from the core of the Sun and of the Earth are given. Neutrino astronomy with MACRO is giving interesting results regarding possible high energy neutrino emission from pointlike sources and coincidences of neutrino events with γ-ray bursts.     

Probing the violation of equivalence principle at a muon storage ring via neutrino oscillation

We examine the possible tests of violation of the gravitational equivalence principle (VEP) at a muon storage ring via neutrino oscillation experiments. If the gravitational interactions of the neutrinos are not diagonal in the flavour basis and the gravitational interaction eigenstates have different couplings to the gravitational field, this leads to the neutrino oscillation. If one starts with μ⁺ beam then appearance of τ^±, e⁺ and μ⁻ in the final state are the signals for neutrino oscillation. We have estimated the number of μ⁻ events in this scenario in ν_μ–N deep inelastic scattering. Final state lepton energy distribution can be used to distinguish the VEP scenario from the others. A large area of VEP parameter space can be explored at a future muon storage ring facility with moderate beam energy.     

Neutrino oscillation beyond the Standard Model

A short review of the theory of neutrino oscillation for non-standard neutrino interaction (NSI) which may exist at low energy is presented. Depending on the NSI, initial neutrino states can be mixed and final oscillation rates not necessarily factorize.