arXiv subjects

C. Giunti

Publications and source records attributed to C. Giunti.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Short-baseline oscillation scenarios at JUNO and TAO

We study the sensitivity of JUNO and TAO to the oscillations induced by two well-motivated scenarios beyond the standard model: Large Extra Dimensions (LED) and light sterile neutrinos in the context of 3+1 neutrino mixing. We find that JUNO+TAO can set competitive bounds on the parameter space of each scenario. In particular, we find that JUNO+TAO can be competitive with MINOS, DUNE or KATRIN in the context of LED. If LED are present in nature, we show that the parameters could be measured with a similar precision as the standard oscillation parameters. We also show that JUNO+TAO can test nearly all of the parameter space preferred by Gallium experiments in the context of 3+1 mixing. Finally, we discuss the possibility to distinguish the two scenarios from each other.

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arXiv2022

Reactor antineutrino anomaly in light of recent flux model refinements

We study the status of the reactor antineutrino anomaly in light of recent reactor flux models obtained with the conversion and summation methods. We present a new improved calculation of the IBD yields of the standard Huber-Mueller (HM) model and those of the new models. We show that the reactor rates and the fuel evolution data are consistent with the predictions of the Kurchatov Institute (KI) conversion model and with those of the Estienne-Fallot (EF) summation model, leading to a plausible robust demise of the reactor antineutrino anomaly. We show that the results of several goodness of fit tests favor the KI and EF models over other models that we considered. We also discuss the implications of the new reactor flux models for short-baseline neutrino oscillations due to active-sterile oscillations. We show that reactor data give upper bounds on active-sterile neutrino mixing that are not very different for the reactor flux models under consideration and are in tension with the large mixing required by the Gallium anomaly that has been refreshed by the recent results of the BEST experiment.

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arXiv2022

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering: Terrestrial and astrophysical applications

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS) is a process in which neutrinos scatter on a nucleus which acts as a single particle. Though the total cross section is large by neutrino standards, CE$ν$NS has long proven difficult to detect, since the deposited energy into the nucleus is $\sim$ keV. In 2017, the COHERENT collaboration announced the detection of CE$ν$NS using a stopped-pion source with CsI detectors, followed up the detection of CE$ν$NS using an Ar target. The detection of CE$ν$NS has spawned a flurry of activities in high-energy physics, inspiring new constraints on beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, and new experimental methods. The CE$ν$NS process has important implications for not only high-energy physics, but also astrophysics, nuclear physics, and beyond. This whitepaper discusses the scientific importance of CE$ν$NS, highlighting how present experiments such as COHERENT are informing theory, and also how future experiments will provide a wealth of information across the aforementioned fields of physics.

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arXiv2021

New insights into nuclear physics and weak mixing angle using electroweak probes

Using the new results on coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering data in cesium-iodide provided by the COHERENT experiment, we determine a new measurement of the average neutron rms radius of $^{133}\text{Cs}$ and $^{127}\text{I}$. In combination with the atomic parity violation (APV) experimental result, we derive the most precise measurement of the neutron rms radii of $^{133}\text{Cs}$ and $^{127}\text{I}$, disentangling for the first time the contributions of the two nuclei. By exploiting these measurements we determine the corresponding neutron skin values for $^{133}\text{Cs}$ and $^{127}\text{I}$. These results suggest a preference for models which predict large neutron skin values, as corroborated by the only other electroweak measurements of the neutron skin of $^{208}\text{Pb}$ performed by PREX experiments. Moreover, for the first time, we obtain a data-driven APV+COHERENT measurement of the low-energy weak mixing angle with a percent uncertainty, independent of the value of the average neutron rms radius of $^{133}\text{Cs}$ and $^{127}\text{I}$, that is allowed to vary freely in the fit. The value of the low-energy weak mixing angle that we found is slightly larger than the standard model prediction.

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arXiv2021

Non-unitary neutrino mixing in short and long-baseline experiments

Non-unitary neutrino mixing in the light neutrino sector is a direct consequence of type-I seesaw neutrino mass models. In these models, light neutrino mixing is described by a sub-matrix of the full lepton mixing matrix and, then, it is not unitary in general. In consequence, neutrino oscillations are characterized by additional parameters, including new sources of CP violation. Here we perform a combined analysis of short and long-baseline neutrino oscillation data in this extended mixing scenario. We did not find a significant deviation from unitary mixing, and the complementary data sets have been used to constrain the non-unitarity parameters. We have also found that the T2K and NOvA tension in the determination of the Dirac CP-phase is not alleviated in the context of non-unitary neutrino mixing.

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arXiv2021

Muon and electron g-2 and proton and cesium weak charges implications on dark $\mathbf{Z_d}$ models

Theories beyond the standard model involving a sub-GeV-scale vector $Z_d$ mediator have been largely studied as a possible explanation of the experimental values of the muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments. Motivated by the recent determination of the anomalous muon magnetic moment performed at Fermilab, we derive the constraints on such a model obtained from the magnetic moment determinations and the measurements of the proton and cesium weak charge, $Q_W$, performed at low-energy transfer. In order to do so, we revisit the determination of the cesium $Q_W$ from the atomic parity violation experiment, which depends critically on the value of the average neutron rms radius of $^{133}\text{Cs}$, by determining the latter from a practically model-independent extrapolation from the recent average neutron rms radius of $^{208}\text{Pb}$ performed by the PREX-2 Collaboration. From a combined fit of all the aforementioned experimental results, we obtain rather precise limits on the mass and the kinetic mixing parameter of the $Z_d$ boson, namely $m_{Z_d} = 47{}^{+61}_{-16} \, \mathrm{MeV}$ and $\varepsilon = 2.3{}^{+1.1}_{-0.4} \times 10^{-3}$, when marginalizing over the $Z-Z_d$ mass mixing parameter $δ$.

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arXiv2021

Neutrino-4 anomaly: oscillations or fluctuations?

We present a deep study of the Neutrino-4 data aimed at finding the statistical significance of the large-mixing short-baseline neutrino oscillation signal claimed by the Neutrino-4 collaboration at more than $3σ$. We found that the results of the Neutrino-4 collaboration can be reproduced approximately only by neglecting the effects of the energy resolution of the detector. Including these effects, we found that the best fit is obtained for a mixing that is even larger, close to maximal, but the statistical significance of the short-baseline neutrino oscillation signal is only about $2.7σ$ if evaluated with the usual method based on Wilks' theorem. We show that the large Neutrino-4 mixing is in strong tension with the KATRIN, PROSPECT, STEREO, and solar $ν_{e}$ bounds. Using a more reliable Monte Carlo simulation of a large set of Neutrino-4-like data, we found that the statistical significance of the Neutrino-4 short-baseline neutrino oscillation signal decreases to about $2.2σ$. We also show that it is not unlikely to find a best-fit point that has a large mixing, even maximal, in the absence of oscillations. Therefore, we conclude that the claimed Neutrino-4 indication in favor of short-baseline neutrino oscillations with very large mixing is rather doubtful.

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arXiv2021

Constraints on light vector mediators through coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering data from COHERENT

We present new constraints on three different models, the so-called universal, $B-L$ and $L_μ-L_τ$ models, involving a yet to be observed light vector $Z'$ mediator, by exploiting the recent observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS) in argon and cesium-iodide performed by the COHERENT Collaboration. We compare the results obtained from a combination of the above data sets with the limits derived from searches in fixed target, accelerator, solar neutrino and reactor CE$ν$NS experiments, and with the parameter region that could explain the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We show that for the universal and the $B-L$ models, the COHERENT data allow us to put stringent limits in the light vector mediator mass, $M_{Z'}$, and coupling, $g_{Z'}$, parameter space.

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arXiv2020

A new analysis of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess

We present the results of a new analysis of the data of the MiniBooNE experiment taking into account the additional background of photons from $Δ^{+/0}$ decay proposed in arXiv:1909.08571 and additional contributions due to coherent photon emission, incoherent production of higher mass resonances, and incoherent non-resonant nucleon production. We show that the new background can explain part of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess and the statistical significance of the MiniBooNE indication in favor of short-baseline neutrino oscillation decreases from $5.1σ$ to $3.6σ$. We also consider the implications for short-baseline neutrino oscillations in the 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing framework. We show that the new analysis of the MiniBooNE data indicates smaller active-sterile neutrino mixing and may lead us towards a solution of the appearance-disappearance tension in the global fit of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data.

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arXiv2020

Physics results from the first COHERENT observation of CE$ν$NS in argon and their combination with cesium-iodide data

We present the results on the radius of the neutron distribution in $^{40}\text{Ar}$, on the low-energy value of the weak mixing angle, and on the electromagnetic properties of neutrinos obtained from the analysis of the coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering data in argon recently published by the COHERENT collaboration, taking into account proper radiative corrections. We present also the results of the combined analysis of the COHERENT argon and cesium-iodide data for the determination of the low-energy value of the weak mixing angle and the electromagnetic properties of neutrinos. In particular, the COHERENT argon data allow us to improve significantly the only existing laboratory bounds on the electric charge $q_{μμ}$ of the muon neutrino and on the transition electric charge $q_{μτ}$.

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arXiv2020

Statistical Significance of Reactor Antineutrino Active-Sterile Oscillations

We performed Monte Carlo calculations of the statistical distribution of the $χ^2$ test statistic used in the analysis of the data of the NEOS, DANSS, Bugey-3, and PROSPECT short-baseline reactor experiments. We show that the statistical significance of the NEOS and DANSS indications in favor of active-sterile neutrino oscillations is smaller than that obtained with the usual method based on the $χ^2$ distribution. In the combined analysis of the data of the four experiments we find that the statistical significance of active-sterile neutrino oscillations is reduced from $2.4σ$ to $1.8σ$.

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arXiv2020

KATRIN bound on 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing and the reactor antineutrino anomaly

We present the bounds on 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing obtained from the first results of the KATRIN experiment. We show that the KATRIN data extend the Mainz and Troitsk bound to smaller values of $Δ{m}^2_{41}$ for large mixing and improves the exclusion of the large-$Δ{m}^2_{41}$ solution of the Huber-Muller reactor antineutrino anomaly. We also show that the combined bound of the Mainz, Troitsk, and KATRIN tritium experiments and the Bugey-3, NEOS, PROSPECT, and DANSS reactor spectral ratio measurements exclude most of the region in the ($\sin^2\!2\vartheta_{ee},Δ{m}^2_{41}$) plane allowed by the Huber-Muller reactor antineutrino anomaly. Considering two new calculations of the reactor neutrino fluxes, we show that one, that predicts a lower $^{235}\text{U}$ neutrino flux, is in agreement with the tritium and reactor spectral ratio measurements, whereas the other leads to a larger tension than the Huber-Muller prediction. We also show that the combined reactor spectral ratio and tritium measurements disfavor the Neutrino-4 indication of large active-sterile mixing. We finally discuss the constraints on the gallium neutrino anomaly.

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arXiv2020

Neutrino Charge Radii from COHERENT Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering

Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering is a powerful probe of neutrino properties, in particular of the neutrino charge radii. We present the bounds on the neutrino charge radii obtained from the analysis of the data of the COHERENT experiment. We show that the time information of the COHERENT data allows us to restrict the allowed ranges of the neutrino charge radii. We also obtained for the first time bounds on the neutrino transition charge radii, which are quantities beyond the Standard Model.

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arXiv2020

General COHERENT Constraints on Neutrino Non-Standard Interactions

We present the results of a systematic study of the constraints on neutrino neutral-current non-standard interactions (NSI) that can be obtained from the analysis of the COHERENT spectral and temporal data. First, we consider the general case in which all the ten relevant neutral-current NSI parameters are considered as free. We show that they are very weakly constrained by the COHERENT data because of possible cancellations between the up and down quark contributions. However, the up-down average parameters are relatively well constrained and the strongest constraints are obtained for an appropriate linear combination of up and down NSI parameters. We also consider the case in which there are only NSI with either up or down quarks, and we show that the LMA-Dark fit of solar neutrino data is excluded at $5.6σ$ and $7.2σ$ respectively, for NSI with up and down quark. We finally present the tight constraints that can be obtained on each NSI parameter if it is the dominant one, assuming that the effects of the others are negligible.

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arXiv2019

Neutrino, Electroweak and Nuclear Physics from COHERENT Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering with a New Quenching Factor

We present an updated analysis of the coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering data of the COHERENT experiment taking into account the new quenching factor published recently in Phys. Rev. D100, 033003 (2019). Through a fit of the COHERENT time-integrated energy spectrum, we show that the new quenching factor leads to a better determination of the average rms radius of the neutron distributions of $^{133}\text{Cs}$ and $^{127}\text{I}$, while in combination with the atomic parity violation (APV) experimental results it allows to determine a data-driven APV measurement of the low-energy weak mixing angle in very good agreement with the Standard Model prediction. We also find a $3.7σ$ evidence of the suppression of coherence due to the nuclear structure. Neutrino properties are better constrained by considering the COHERENT time-dependent spectral data, that allow us to improve the bounds on the neutrino charge radii and magnetic moments. We also present for the first time constraints on the neutrino charges obtained with coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering data. In particular, we obtain the first laboratory constraints on the diagonal charge of $ν_μ$ and the $ν_μ$-$ν_τ$ transition charge.

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arXiv2019

Potentialities of a low-energy detector based on $^4$He evaporation to observe atomic effects in coherent neutrino scattering and physics perspectives

We propose an experimental setup to observe coherent elastic neutrino-atom scattering (CE$ν$AS) using electron antineutrinos from tritium decay and a liquid helium target. In this scattering process with the whole atom, that has not beeen observed so far, the electrons tend to screen the weak charge of the nucleus as seen by the electron antineutrino probe. The interference between the nucleus and the electron cloud produces a sharp dip in the recoil spectrum at atomic recoil energies of about 9 meV, reducing sizeably the number of expected events with respect to the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering case. We estimate that with a 60 g tritium source surrounded by 500 kg of liquid helium in a cylindrical tank, one could observe the existence of CE$ν$AS processes at 3$σ$ in 5 years of data taking. Keeping the same amount of helium and the same data-taking period, we test the sensitivity to the Weinberg angle and a possible neutrino magnetic moment for three different scenarios: 60 g, 160 g, and 500 g of tritium. In the latter scenario, the Standard Model (SM) value of the Weinberg angle can be measured with a statistical uncertainty of $\sin^2{\vartheta_W^{\mathrm{SM}}}^{+0.015}_{-0.016}$. This would represent the lowest-energy measurement of $\sin^2{\vartheta_W}$, with the advantage of being not affected by the uncertainties on the neutron form factor of the nucleus as the current lowest-energy determination. Finally, we study the sensitivity of this apparatus to a possible electron neutrino magnetic moment and we find that using 60 g of tritium it is possible to set an upper limit of about $7\times10^{-13}\,μ_B$ at 90% C.L., that is more than one order of magnitude smaller than the current experimental limit.

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arXiv2019

Short-baseline neutrino oscillations with 3+1 non-unitary mixing

We consider a scenario with unitary mixing of the three light standard neutrinos and a non-unitary mixing contribution of a heavier massive neutrino that can generate short-baseline neutrino oscillations. We show that this scenario predicts constant flavor-changing probabilities at short-baseline distances. Therefore, it cannot explain the spectral distortions observed in the LSND and MiniBooNE appearance experiments. On the other hand, the survival probabilities oscillate as functions of $L/E$ and could explain oscillations in short-baseline disappearance experiments. We also derive the bounds on the mixing parameters from the existing short-baseline neutrino oscillation data.

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arXiv2019

eV-scale Sterile Neutrinos

We address the phenomenology of light sterile neutrinos, with emphasis on short-baseline neutrino oscillations. After a review of the observed short-baseline neutrino oscillation anomalies, we discuss the global fit of the data and the current appearance-disappearance tension. We also review briefly the effects of light sterile neutrinos in $β$ decay, neutrinoless double-$β$ decay and cosmology. Finally, we discuss the future perspective in the search for the effects of eV-scale sterile neutrinos.

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