Decay of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos

Existing limits on the nonradiative decay of one neutrino to another plus a massless particle (e.g., a singlet Majoron) are very weak. The best limits on the lifetime to mass ratio come from solar neutrino observations and are tau/m greater, similar 10(-4) s/eV for the relevant mass eigenstate(s). For lifetimes even several orders of magnitude longer, high-energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources would decay. This would strongly alter the flavor ratios from the phi(nu(e)):phi(nu(mu)):phi(nu(tau))=1:1:1 expected from oscillations alone and should be readily visible in the near future in detectors such as IceCube.     

Measuring the 13 neutrino mixing angle and the CP phase with neutrino telescopes

The observed excess of high-energy cosmic rays from the Galactic plane in the energy range around 10(18) eV may be explained by neutron primaries generated in the photodissociation of heavy nuclei. In this scenario, lower-energy neutrons decay before reaching the Earth and produce a detectable flux in a 1 km(3) neutrino telescope. The initial flavor composition of the neutrino flux, phi(nu(e)):phi(nu(mu)):phi(nu(tau))=1:0:0, permits a combined nu(mu)/nu(tau) appearance and nu(e) disappearance experiment. The observable flux ratio phi(nu(mu))/phi(nu(e)+nu(tau) at Earth depends on the 13 mixing angle theta(13) and the leptonic CP phase delta(CP), thus opening a new way to measure these two quantities.     

Measurement of the rate of nu(e) + d --> p + p + e(-) interactions produced by (8)B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Solar neutrinos from (8)B decay have been detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory via the charged current (CC) reaction on deuterium and the elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. The flux of nu(e)'s is measured by the CC reaction rate to be straight phi(CC)(nu(e)) = 1.75 +/- 0.07(stat)(+0.12)(-0.11)(syst) +/- 0.05(theor) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1). Comparison of straight phi(CC)(nu(e)) to the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration's precision value of the flux inferred from the ES reaction yields a 3.3 sigma difference, assuming the systematic uncertainties are normally distributed, providing evidence of an active non- nu(e) component in the solar flux. The total flux of active 8B neutrinos is determined to be 5.44+/-0.99 x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1).     

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.     

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.     

Observation of long-lived muonic hydrogen in the 2S state

The kinetic energy distribution of ground state muonic hydrogen atoms mup(1S) is determined from time-of-flight spectra measured at 4, 16, and 64 hPa H2 room-temperature gas. A 0.9 keV component is discovered and attributed to radiationless deexcitation of long-lived mu p(2S) atoms in collisions with H2 molecules. The analysis reveals a relative population of about 1%, and a pressure-dependent lifetime (e.g., 30.4 +21.4/-9.7 ns at 64 hPa) of the long-lived mu p(2S) population, equivalent to a 2S quench rate in mu p(2S)+H2 collisions of 4.4 +2.1/-1.8 x 10(11) s(-1) at liquid-hydrogen density.     

Neutrinos from CNO cycle at the present epoch of the solar neutrino research

The CNO cycle contributes only a small fraction to the energy generated in the Sun but there’s still no experimental data on exactly how small this contribution is. After the results of Borexino experiment the CNO neutrinos it is the last missing chain to compose the total picture of the energy generation of the Sun. To get precision in the evaluation of the flux of pp-neutrinos one needs to measure the flux of CNO neutrinos. Then it will be possible to address the question on the presence of still unknown (hidden) sources of solar energy and/or on the presence of sterile neutrinos. The future experimental program to measure the effect from CNO neutrinos is discussed.     

Direct measurement of the phi(1020) leptonic branching ratio

The process e(+)e(-)-->mu(+)mu(-) has been studied by the SND detector at the VEPP-2M e(+)e(-) collider in the phi(1020)-resonance energy region. The measured effective phi meson leptonic branching ratio B(phi-->l(+)l(-)) identical with square root of B(phi-->e(+)e(-))B(phi-->mu(+)mu(-))] = (2.89 +/- 0.10 +/- 0.06) x 10(-4) agrees well with the Particle Data Group value B(phi-->e(+)e(-)) = (2.91 +/- 0.07) x 10(-4), confirming mu-e universality. Without additional assumption of mu-e universality the branching ratio B(phi-->mu(+)mu(-)) = (2.87 +/- 0.20 +/- 0.14) x 10(-4) was obtained.     

Neutrino astronomy and massive long-lived particles from the big bang

We consider the neutrino flux from the decay of long-lived big-bang particles. The red-shift z_tr at which the neutrino transparency of the universe sets in is calculated as a function of neutrino energy: z_tr 1 × 10⁵ for TeV neutrinos and z_tr 3 × 10⁶ for 10 MeV neutrinos. One might expect the production of detectable neutrino flux at z z_tr, but, as demonstrated in this paper, the various upper limits, most notably due to nucleosynthesis and diffuse X- and gamma-rays, preclude this possibility. Unless the particle decay is strongly dominated by the pure neutrino channel, observable neutrino flux can be produced only at the current epoch, corresponding to red-shift z ≈ 0. For the thermal relics which annihilate through the gauge bosons of SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) group, the neutrino flux can be marginally detectable at 0.1 < E_v < 10 TeV. As an example of non-thermal relics we consider gravitinos. If gravitinos are the lightest supersymmetric particles (LSP) they can produce the detectable neutrino flux in the form of a neutrino line with energy , where M_G is the gravitino mass. The flux strongly depends on the mechanisms of R-parity violation. It is shown that heavy gravitinos (M_G 100 GeV) can make up the dark matter in the universe.     

The status of the study of solar CNO neutrinos in the Borexino experiment

Although less than 1% of solar energy is generated in the CNO cycle, it plays a critical role in astrophysics, since this cycle is the primary source of energy in certain more massive stars and at later stages of evolution of solar-type stars. Electron neutrinos are produced in the CNO cycle reactions. These neutrinos may be detected by terrestrial neutrino detectors. Various solar models with different abundances of elements heavier than helium predict different CNO neutrino fluxes. A direct measurement of the CNO neutrino flux could help distinguish between these models and solve several other astrophysical problems. No CNO neutrinos have been detected directly thus far, and the best upper limit on their flux was set in the Borexino experiment. The work on reducing the background in the region of energies of CNO neutrinos (up to 1.74 MeV) and developing novel data analysis methods is presently under way. These efforts may help detect the CNO neutrino flux in the Borexino experiment at the level predicted by solar models.     

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.     

Limits on neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts with the 40 string IceCube detector

IceCube has become the first neutrino telescope with a sensitivity below the TeV neutrino flux predicted from gamma-ray bursts if gamma-ray bursts are responsible for the observed cosmic-ray flux above 10(18) eV. Two separate analyses using the half-complete IceCube detector, one a dedicated search for neutrinos from pγ interactions in the prompt phase of the gamma-ray burst fireball and the other a generic search for any neutrino emission from these sources over a wide range of energies and emission times, produced no evidence for neutrino emission, excluding prevailing models at 90% confidence.     

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.     

Measurement of angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons in p+d interactions at 800 GeV/c

We report a measurement of the angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons produced using an 800 GeV/c proton beam on a deuterium target. The muon angular distributions in the dilepton rest frame have been measured over the kinematic range 4.5相似文献   

Prompt neutrino production in a proton beam-dump experiment

In the interactions of 400 GeV/c protons with copper nuclei, a flux of prompt neutrinos is observed. The reactions produced by these neutrinos in our apparatus appear consistent with those of electron- and muon-neutrinos. The prompt neutrino fluxes are interpreted as being due to associated production and subsequent semileptonic decay of charmed hadrons. The prompt flux ratio \(\bar v_\mu /v_\mu = 0.46_{ - 0.16}^{ + 0.21} \) suggests a sizeable production of charmed baryons near the forward direction. The ratio of prompte ^?+e ⁺ toµ ^?+µ ⁺ event rates is 0.64 _?0.15 ^+0.22 , where unity is expected frome-μ universality.     

Redistributing Chern numbers of Landau subbands: tight-binding electrons under staggered modulated magnetic fields

We investigate the magnetotransport properties of electrons on a square lattice under a magnetic field with the alternate flux strength phi+/-Deltaphi in neighboring plaquettes. A new peculiar behavior of the Hall conductance has been found and is robust against weak disorder: if phi=(p/2N)2pi (p and 2N are coprime integers) is fixed, the Chern numbers of Landau subbands will be redistributed between neighboring pairs and hence the total quantized Hall conductance exhibits a direct transition by +/-Ne2/h at critical fillings when Deltaphi is increased from 0 up to a critical value Deltaphi_{c}. This effect can be an experimental probe of the staggered-flux phase.     

Direct evidence for neutrino flavor transformation from neutral-current interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Observations of neutral-current nu interactions on deuterium in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are reported. Using the neutral current (NC), elastic scattering, and charged current reactions and assuming the standard 8B shape, the nu(e) component of the 8B solar flux is phis(e) = 1.76(+0.05)(-0.05)(stat)(+0.09)(-0.09)(syst) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1) for a kinetic energy threshold of 5 MeV. The non-nu(e) component is phi(mu)(tau) = 3.41(+0.45)(-0.45)(stat)(+0.48)(-0.45)(syst) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1), 5.3sigma greater than zero, providing strong evidence for solar nu(e) flavor transformation. The total flux measured with the NC reaction is phi(NC) = 5.09(+0.44)(-0.43)(stat)(+0.46)(-0.43)(syst) x 10(6) cm(-2) s(-1), consistent with solar models.     

Physics prospects of the Jinping neutrino experiment

The China Jinping Underground Laboratory(CJPL), which has the lowest cosmic-ray muon flux and the lowest reactor neutrino flux of any laboratory, is ideal to carry out low-energy neutrino experiments. With two detectors and a total fiducial mass of 2000 tons for solar neutrino physics(equivalently, 3000 tons for geo-neutrino and supernova neutrino physics), the Jinping neutrino experiment will have the potential to identify the neutrinos from the CNO fusion cycles of the Sun, to cover the transition phase for the solar neutrino oscillation from vacuum to matter mixing, and to measure the geo-neutrino flux, including the Th/U ratio. These goals can be fulfilled with mature existing techniques. Efforts on increasing the target mass with multi-modular neutrino detectors and on developing the slow liquid scintillator will increase the Jinping discovery potential in the study of solar neutrinos,geo-neutrinos, supernova neutrinos, and dark matter.     

Magnetic behavior of na films with Fe, Co, and Ni impurities

Thin films of Na with Fe, Co, and Ni impurities are investigated. The magnetization of the impurities is measured by means of the anomalous Hall resistance. Fe and Co show a moment of about 6mu(B), while for Ni no moment is detected. Furthermore, the magnetic dephasing of the conduction electrons is measured by means of weak localization. The dephasing rate 1/tau(phi) of the 3d impurities differ qualitatively. For Fe impurities, 1/tau(phi) is so large that it cannot be measured. For Co, 1/tau(phi) has a moderate value while Ni shows hardly a dephasing effect at all.     

Sterile neutrinos and future solar neutrino experiments

It is shown that future solar neutrino experiments (SNO, Super-Kamiokande and others), in which high energy neutrinos will be detected (mostly from ⁸B decay), may allow to answer in a model independent way the question whether there are transitions of solar v_e's into sterile states. No assumptions about the initial flux of ⁸B neutrinos are made. Lower bounds for the probability of transition of solar v_e's into all sterile states are derived and expressed through measurable quantities.