Neutrino mixing and leptonic CP phase in neutrino oscillations

Oscillations of the Dirac neutrinos of three generations in vacuum are considered with allowance made for the effect of the CP-violating leptonic phase (analogue of the quark CP phase) in the lepton mixing matrix. The general formulas for the probabilities of neutrino transition from one sort to another in oscillations are obtained as functions of three mixing angles and the CP phase. It is found that the leptonic CP phase can, in principle, be reconstructed by measuring the oscillation-averaged probabilities of neutrino transition from one sort to another. The manifestation of the CP phase as a deviation of the probabilities of direct processes from those of inverse processes is an effect that is practically unobservable as yet.     

Measuring the sterile neutrino CP phase at DUNE and T2HK

The CP phases associated with the sterile neutrino cannot be measured in the dedicated short-baseline experiments being built to test the sterile neutrino hypothesis. On the other hand, these phases can be measured in long-baseline experiments, even though the main goal of these experiments is not to test or measure sterile neutrino parameters. In particular, the sterile neutrino phase \(\delta _{24}\) affects the charged-current electron appearance data in long-baseline experiment. In this paper we show how well the sterile neutrino phase \(\delta _{24}\) can be measured by the next-generation long-baseline experiments DUNE, T2HK (and T2HKK). We also show the expected precision with which this sterile phase can be measured by combining the DUNE data with data from T2HK or T2HKK. The T2HK experiment is seen to be able to measure the sterile phase \(\delta _{24}\) to a reasonable precision. We also present the sensitivity of these experiments to the sterile mixing angles, both by themselves, as well as when DUNE is combined with T2HK or T2HKK.     

High-energy astrophysics with neutrino telescopes

Neutrino astrophysics offers new perspectives on the Universe investigation: high-energy neutrinos, produced by the most energetic phenomena in our Galaxy and in the Universe, carry complementary (if not exclusive) information about the cosmos with respect to photons. While the small interaction cross section of neutrinos allows them to come from the core of astrophysical objects, it is also a drawback, as their detection requires a large target mass. This is why it is convenient to put huge cosmic neutrino detectors in natural locations, like deep underwater or under-ice sites. In order to supply for such extremely hostile environmental conditions, new frontier technologies are under development. The aim of this work is to review the motivations for high-energy neutrino astrophysics, the present status of experimental results and the technologies used in underwater/ice Cherenkov experiments, with a special focus on the efforts for the construction of a km³-scale detector in the Mediterranean Sea.     

Physics with underwater neutrino telescopes

We give a short review of the ongoing efforts in the construction of large underwater photomultiplier arrays aiming at the detection of neutrinos of astrophysical origin.     

Two-texture zeros and near-maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing angle

We study the implications of a large value of the effective Majorana neutrino mass for a class of two-texture zero neutrino mass matrices in the flavour basis. We find that these textures predict near-maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing angle in the limit of large effective Majorana neutrino mass. We present the symmetry realization of these textures using the discrete cyclic group Z₃. It is found that the texture zeros realized in this work remain stable under the renormalization group running of the effective neutrino mass matrix at one-loop level.     

Non-unitary neutrino mixing and CP violation in the minimal inverse seesaw model

We propose a simplified version of the inverse seesaw model, in which only two pairs of the gauge-singlet neutrinos are introduced, to interpret the observed neutrino mass hierarchy and lepton flavor mixing at or below the TeV scale. This “minimal” inverse seesaw scenario (MISS) is technically natural and experimentally testable. In particular, we show that the effective parameters describing the non-unitary neutrino mixing matrix are strongly correlated in the MISS, and thus, their upper bounds can be constrained by current experimental data in a more restrictive way. The Jarlskog invariants of non-unitary CP violation are calculated, and the discovery potential of such new CP-violating effects in the near detector of a neutrino factory is discussed.     

A precise determination of the electroweak mixing angle from semileptonic neutrino scattering

The cross-section ratio of neutral-current and charged-current semileptonic interactions of muon-neutrinos on isoscalar nuclei has been measured with the result:R ^v =0.3093±0.0031 for hadronic energy larger than 4 GeV. From this ratio we determined the electroweak mixing angle sin² θ _W , wherem _c is the charm-quark mass in GeV/c². Comparison with direct measurements ofm _w andm _z determines the radiative shift of the intermediate boson mass Δr=0.077±0.025(exp.)±0.038(syst.), in agreement with the prediction. Assuming the validity of the electroweak standard theory we determined ?=0.990?0.013(m _c ?1.5)±0.009(exp.)±0.003(theor.).     

CP violation and neutrino oscillations

We review the basic mechanisms of neutrino mass generation and the corresponding structure of the lepton mixing matrix. We summarize the status of three-neutrino oscillation parameters as determined from current observations, using state-of-the-art solar and atmospheric neutrino fluxes, as well as latest experimental data as of September 2007. We also comment on recent attempts to account for these results and to understand flavour from first principles. We discuss extensively the prospects of probing the strength of CP violation in two near term accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments, T2K and , as well as possible extensions such as T2KK and a second large off-axis detector near the detector. We also briefly discuss the possibility of probing the effect of Majorana phases in future neutrinoless double beta decay searches and discuss other implications of leptonic CP violation such as leptogenesis. Finally we comment on the issue of robustness of the current oscillation interpretation and possible ways of probing for non-standard neutrino interactions in precision oscillation studies.     

Status of indirect dark matter search with neutrino telescopes

We discuss here the latest results of high energy neutrino experiments with neutrino telescopes in search for neutrino emissions from astrophysical sources where there is every likelihood that relic dark matter has been clumped and annihilates till presently, e.g. in the Sun, in the Galaxy Center and in the Dwarfs.     

Impact of large mixing angle MSW solution on neutrino mass matrix

We have discussed the quark-lepton mass matrices with the U(1) and O(3) flavor symmetry in SU(5), which lead to the large mixing angle MSW solution of solar neutrinos.     

Near tribimaximal neutrino mixing with symmetry

The discrete subgroup Δ(27) of SU(3) has the interesting multiplication rule , which is used to obtain near tribimaximal neutrino mixing. Using present neutrino oscillation data as input, this model predicts that the effective mass m_ee measured in neutrinoless double beta decay will be 0.14 eV.     

A maximal atmospheric mixing from a maximal CP violating phase

We point out an elegant mechanism to predict a maximal atmospheric angle, which is based on a maximal CP violating phase difference between second and third lepton families in the flavour symmetry basis. In this framework, a discussion of the general formulas for θ₁₂${\theta }_{12}$, |U_e3|$|U_{e3}|$, δ   and their possible correlations in some limiting cases is provided. We also present an explicit realisation in terms of an SO(3)$\mathit{SO}(3)$ flavour symmetry model.     

Lepton mixing and neutrino oscillations

The present article is a review of phenomena connected with neutrino oscillations. Mixing of two neutrinos (Majorana as well as Dirac) with masses m₁ and m₂ is considered in detail. It is shown that the hypothesis of lepton mixing is not in contradiction with the existing data if |m₁²?m₂²| ? 1 (eV)². Possible experiments designed to reveal neutrino oscillations at reactor, meson factory and high energy accelerator facilities are considered. In such experiments oscillation might be found if $\text{|m}{}_1{}^2\text{?m}{}_2{}^2\text{| ? 0.01}\text{(eV)}{}^2$. The possibilities of searching for oscillations by experiments on cosmic ray neutrinos and especially on solar neutrinos are discussed in detail. The last experiments have an incredible high sensitivity from the point of view of testing the lepton mixing hypothesis (oscillation effects might be observable if $\text{|m}{}_1{}^2\text{?m}{}_2{}^2\text{| ? 10}{}^{\mathrm{?12}}\text{(eV)}{}^2$). The “solar neutrino puzzle” is also discussed from the point of view of lepton mixing. Neutrino oscillations are considered then in the case where in nature there exist N ? 2 neutrino types.In conclusion the case of heavy lepton mixing is considered. It is shown that in a concrete scheme with right-handed currents, the probabilities of such processes as μ → eγ, μ → 3e etc. can be close to existing experimental upper limits, provided the heavy lepton masses are of an order of a few GeV, whereas the probabilities of the above processes are entirely negligible if only neutrinos are mixed.     

Seesaw neutrino masses and mixing with extended democracy

In the context of a minimal extension of the Standard Model with three extra heavy right-handed neutrinos, we propose a model for neutrino masses and mixing based on the hipothesis of a complete alignment of the lepton mass matrices in flavour space. Considering a uniform quasi-democratic structure for these matrices, we show that, in the presence of a highly hierarchical right-handed neutrino mass spectrum, the effective neutrino mass matrix, obtained through the seesaw mechanism, can reproduce all the solutions of the solar neutrino problem.