Baryogenesis via Sterile neutrino oscillation and neutrino parameters

We investigate baryogenesis in the νMSM which is the Minimal Standard Model (MSM) extended by three right-handed neutrinos with Majorana masses being smaller than the weak scale. In this model three sterile neutrinos, which are almost right-handed states, play important roles in cosmology. The baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU) is generated via mechanism through flavor oscillation between two sterile neutrinos N₂ and N₃ which are degenerate in masses. We consider the case when BAU is solely originated from the CP violating phases in the mixing matrix of active neutrinos, i.e., the Dirac phase δ and the Majorana phase η, and study how BAU depends on these CP violating phases.     

Fast invisible neutrino decays

Any value for the lifetime of neutrinos decaying into invisible modes (another neutrino and a Goldstone boson) is possible in theories in which the lepton number is a spontaneously broken global symmetry with different charges for every family. There are two types of models. Only in one of them neutrinos could, in a natural way, be relevant for cosmology.     

Cosmology and neutrino properties

A brief review for particle physicists on the cosmological impact of neutrinos and on restrictions on neutrino properties from cosmology is given. The paper includes a discussion of upper bounds on neutrino mass and possible ways to relax them, methods to observe the cosmic-neutrino background, bounds on the cosmological lepton asymmetry which are strongly improved by neutrino oscillations, cosmological effects of breaking of the spin-statistics theorem for neutrinos, bounds on mixing parameters of active and possible sterile neutrinos with account of active-neutrino oscillations, bounds on right-handed currents and neutrino magnetic moments, and some more. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Effects of neutrino degeneracy on the transport properties of presupernovae

Degeneracy of neutrinos undergoing coherent scattering by atomic nuclei inhibits their diffusion and enhances their thermal conduction and viscosity. For great degeneracy diffusion vanishes, while viscosity becomes independent of the temperature; the heat conductivity becomes independent of the neutrino chemical potential after attaining a maximum in the regime of intermediate degeneracy.     

Measurement of atmospheric neutrino flux consistent with tau neutrino appearance

A search for the appearance of tau neutrinos from nu(mu) <--> nu(tau) oscillations in the atmospheric neutrinos has been performed using 1489.2 days of atmospheric neutrino data from the Super-Kamiokande-I experiment. A best fit tau neutrino appearance signal of 138+/-48(stat)-32(+15)(syst) events is obtained with an expectation of 78+/-26(syst). The hypothesis of no tau neutrino appearance is disfavored by 2.4 sigma.     

Pair creation constrains superluminal neutrino propagation

The OPERA collaboration claims that muon neutrinos with a mean energy of 17.5 GeV travel 730 km from CERN to the Gran Sasso at a speed exceeding that of light by about 7.5 km/s or 25 ppm. However, we show that superluminal neutrinos may lose energy rapidly via the bremsstrahlung of electron-positron pairs (ν → ν + e- + e+). For the claimed superluminal velocity and at the stated mean energy, we find that most of the neutrinos would have suffered several pair emissions en route, causing the beam to be depleted of higher energy neutrinos. This presents a significant challenge to the superluminal interpretation of the OPERA data. Furthermore, we appeal to Super-Kamiokande and IceCube data to establish strong new limits on the superluminal propagation of high-energy neutrinos.     

The discovery of neutrino oscillations

The Nobel Prize for physics 2015 was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, showing that neutrinos have a mass. This article describes the two areas of research namely the atmospheric neutrino anomaly and the problem of missing solar neutrinos which lead to these groundbreaking discoveries.     

A xenon solar neutrino detector

The neutrino capture reaction by ¹³¹Xe with the threshold of 352 keV is suggested for solar neutrinos detection. The most important feature of this process is its high sensitivity to beryllium neutrinos, that contribute approximately 40% to the total capture rate predicted in the Standard Solar Model (45 SNU). The expected counting rate of the xenon detector from the main solar neutrino sources predicted by the Standard Solar Model is ≈ 1500 events/yr.     

Atomic effects in coherent neutrino scattering

The influence of atomic electrons on the coherent elastic scattering of low energy neutrinos is studied. For Q²R_atom²≲1, significant interference occurs between scattering from the electrons and from the nucleus, leading to large differences between ν_e and ν_μ cross sections. In particular, ν_e scattering shows a sharp minimum at Q² ≈ (10 keV)² for ²⁸Si and ⁵⁶Fe. As a consequence, for neutrinos in the 10 keV range, the radiation pressure exerted on a medium is much greater for ν_μ than for ν_e. The exceptional case of hydrogen is discussed also.     

Cosmological neutrino

A brief review of processes occurring at different stages of the evolution of the Universe and influencing the contemporary distribution of the number density of neutrinos is given.     

CP violation in neutrino oscillation and leptogenesis

We study the correlation between CP violation in neutrino oscillations and leptogenesis in the framework with two heavy Majorana neutrinos and three light neutrinos. Among three unremovable CP phases, a heavy Majorana phase contributes to leptogenesis. We show how the heavy Majorana phase contributes to Jarlskog determinant J as well as neutrinoless double beta decay by identifying a low energy CP-violating phase which signals the CP-violating phase for leptogenesis. For some specific cases of the Dirac mass term of neutrinos, a direct relation between lepton number asymmetry and J is obtained. We also study the effect coming from the phases which are not related to leptogenesis.     

Study of accelerator neutrino detection at a spallation source

We study the detection of accelerator neutrinos produced at the China Spallation Neutron Source(CSNS).Using the code FLUKA,we have simulated the production of neutrinos in a proton beam on a tungsten target and obtained the yield efficiency,numerical flux,and average energy of different flavors of neutrinos.Furthermore,detection of these accelerator neutrinos is investigated in two reaction channels:neutrino-electron reactions and neutrino-carbon reactions.The expected numbers of different flavors of neutrinos have also been calculated.     

A high-energy neutrino signature from supersymmetric relics

We compute the energy spectrum of high-energy (0.1–10 GeV) neutrinos produced by the annihilation of supersymmetric (SUSY) cold dark matter trapped in the sun. We compare this spectrum to the spectrum of atmospheric neutrinos and find that in the direction of the sun the solar flux of neutrinos can exceed the atmospheric background for neutrino energies E_ν 1 GeV, and are as much as a factor 30 above background for energies E_ν few GeV. We discuss these signatures for standard SUSY relics as well as for superstring relics.     

Cosmic-ray muon and atmospheric neutrino fluxes at very high energies

Estimates of cosmic-ray muon and atmospheric neutrino fluxes at TeV energies are obtained taking into account a “prompt” production of muons and neutrinos through charmed-particle decays and a “direct” lepton-pair production through the Drell-Yan mechanism and resonances. It is found that the contribution of charmed particles to the muon flux is equal to that from the conventional sources (pion and kaon decays) at 60 TeV, and the same equality can take place at 10 and 1 TeV for muon and electron neutrinos, respectively (for particles coming to sea level in the vertical direction). This “direct” production contribution to muon and neutrino fluxes is estimated very arbitrarily, but it cannot be excluded that this contribution is equal to that from the conventional source at energies of 0.5 and 0.05 PeV for muons and muon neutrinos, respectively. Currently, the estimates of the “prompt” and the “direct” contributions to cosmic-ray muons and atmospheric neutrinos are only qualitative. This is true especially for the “direct” contribution. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to attract attention to these potentially important sources of atmospheric muons and neutrinos.     

Oscillation properties of active and sterile neutrinos and neutrino anomalies at short distances

A generalized phenomenological (3 + 2 + 1) model featuring three active and three sterile neutrinos that is intended for calculating oscillation properties of neutrinos for the case of a normal activeneutrino mass hierarchy and a large splitting between the mass of one sterile neutrino and the masses of the other two sterile neutrinos is considered. A new parametrization and a specific form of the general mixing matrix are proposed for active and sterile neutrinos with allowance for possible CP violation in the lepton sector, and test values are chosen for the neutrino masses and mixing parameters. The probabilities for the transitions between different neutrino flavors are calculated, and graphs representing the probabilities for the disappearance of muon neutrinos/antineutrinos and the appearance of electron neutrinos/antineutrinos in a beam of muon neutrinos/antineutrinos versus the distance from the neutrino source for various values of admissible model parameters at neutrino energies not higher than 50 MeV, as well as versus the ratio of this distance to the neutrino energy, are plotted. It is shown that the short-distance accelerator anomaly in neutrino data (LNSD anomaly) can be explained in the case of a specific mixing matrix for active and sterile neutrinos (which belongs to the a₂ type) at the chosen parameter values. The same applies to the short-distance reactor and gallium anomalies. The theoretical results obtained in the present study can be used to interpret and predict the results of ground-based neutrino experiments aimed at searches for sterile neutrinos, as well as to analyze some astrophysical observational data.     

Magnetic neutrino scattering on atomic electrons revisited

We reexamine the role of electron binding effects in the inelastic neutrino–atom scattering induced by the neutrino magnetic moment. The differential cross section of the process is presented as a sum of the longitudinal and transverse components, according to whether the force that the neutrino magnetic moment exerts on electrons is parallel or perpendicular to momentum transfer. The atomic electrons are treated nonrelativistically. On this basis, the recent theoretical predictions concerning the magnetic neutrino-impact ionization of atoms are critically discussed. Numerical calculations are performed for ionization of a hydrogenlike Ge⁺³¹ ion by neutrino impact.     

AMANDA observations constrain the ultrahigh energy neutrino flux

A number of experimental techniques are currently being deployed in an effort to make the first detection of ultrahigh energy cosmic neutrinos. To accomplish this goal, techniques using radio and acoustic detectors are being developed, which are optimally designed for studying neutrinos with energies in the PeV-EeV range and above. Data from the AMANDA experiment, in contrast, have been used to place limits on the cosmic neutrino flux at less extreme energies (up to approximately 10 PeV). In this Letter, we show that by adopting a different analysis strategy, optimized for much higher energy neutrinos, the same AMANDA data can be used to place a limit competitive with radio techniques at EeV energies. We also discuss the sensitivity of the IceCube experiment, in various stages of deployment, to ultrahigh energy neutrinos.     

Pseudo-dirac neutrinos: a challenge for neutrino telescopes

Neutrinos may be pseudo-Dirac states, such that each generation is actually composed of two maximally mixed Majorana neutrinos separated by a tiny mass difference. The usual active neutrino oscillation phenomenology would be unaltered if the pseudo-Dirac splittings are deltam(2) less, similar 10(-12) eV(2); in addition, neutrinoless double beta decay would be highly suppressed. However, it may be possible to distinguish pseudo-Dirac from Dirac neutrinos using high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. By measuring flavor ratios as a function of L/E, mass-squared differences down to deltam(2) approximately 10(-18) eV(2) can be reached. We comment on the possibility of probing cosmological parameters with neutrinos.     

Solar neutrino experiments: Status and prospects

Solar neutrino experiments were originally conceived as a way to demonstrate that nuclear reactions are responsible for energy generation in stars. When solar neutrinos were first detected the measured flux was much less than what solar models predicted. The Solar Neutrino Problem thus came to be and it persisted for over thirty years. It is now known that the deficit in solar neutrinos (of electron neutrino flavour) was due to neutrino oscillations and that matter effects are important. Solar neutrino experiments played a key part in these discoveries and in recent developments in neutrino physics. This report summarizes Pontecorvo Neutrino Physics School lectures that explored the physics of solar neutrinos and the experiments that detected them. The lectures also included a look forward to future solar neutrino experiments and their physics goals and these are also discussed here.     

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.