arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D. Marfatia.
This is the report for the topical group Theory of Neutrino Physics (TF11/NF08) for Snowmass 2021. This report summarizes the progress in the field of theoretical neutrino physics in the past decade, the current status of the field, and the prospects for the upcoming decade.
The Magnificent CE$ν$NS Workshop (2018) was held November 2 & 3 of 2018 on the University of Chicago campus and brought together theorists, phenomenologists, and experimentalists working in numerous areas but sharing a common interest in the process of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS). This is a collection of abstract-like summaries of the talks given at the meeting, including links to the slides presented. This document and the slides from the meeting provide an overview of the field and a snapshot of the robust CE$ν$NS-related efforts both planned and underway.
The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment has observed two air shower events with energy $\sim 500~{\rm PeV}$ emerging from the Earth with exit angles $\sim 30^\circ$ above the horizon. As was immediately noted by the ANITA Collaboration, these events (in principle) could originate in the atmospheric decay of an upgoing $τ$-lepton produced through a charged current interaction of a $ν_τ$ inside the Earth. However, the relatively steep arrival angles of these perplexing events create tension with the standard model (SM) neutrino-nucleon interaction cross section. Deepening the conundrum, the IceCube neutrino telescope and the Pierre Auger Observatory with substantially larger exposures to cosmic $ν_τ$'s in this energy range have not observed any events. This lack of observation implies that the messenger particle (MP) giving rise to ANITA events must produce an air shower event rate at least a factor of 40 larger than that produced by a flux of $τ$-neutrinos to avoid conflicts with the upper limits reported by the IceCube and the Pierre Auger collaborations. In addition, the sensitivity of ANITA to MP-induced events must be comparable to or larger than those of IceCube and Auger to avoid conflict with the non-observation of any signal at these facilities. Beyond SM interpretations of ANITA events can be classified according to whether the MPs: (i) live inside the Earth, (ii) originate in neutrino-nucleon collisions inside the Earth, (iii) come from cosmological distances. In this communication we investigate the positive and negative facets of these three classes of models.
The standard model coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS) cross section is subject to nuclear form factor uncertainties, mainly driven by the root-mean-square radius of the neutron density distribution. Motivated by COHERENT phases I-III and future multi-ton direct detection dark matter searches, we evaluate these uncertainties in cesium iodide, germanium, xenon and argon detectors. We find that the uncertainties become relevant for momentum transfers $q\gtrsim 20$ MeV and are essentially independent of the form factor parameterization. Consequently, form factor uncertainties are not important for CE$ν$NS induced by reactor or solar neutrinos. Taking into account these uncertainties, we then evaluate their impact on measurements of CE$ν$NS at COHERENT, the diffuse supernova background (DSNB) neutrinos and sub-GeV atmospheric neutrinos. We also calculate the relative uncertainties in the number of COHERENT events for different nuclei as a function of recoil energy. For DSNB and atmospheric neutrinos, event rates at a liquid argon detector can be uncertain to more than 5%. Finally, we consider the impact of form factor uncertainties on searches for nonstandard neutrino interactions, sterile neutrinos and neutrino generalized interactions. We point out that studies of new physics using CE$ν$NS data are affected by neutron form factor uncertainties, which if not properly taken into account may lead to the misidentification of new physics signals. The uncertainties quantified here are also relevant for dark matter direct detection searches.
We derive expressions for the neutrino mixing parameters that result from complex perturbations on (1) the Majorana neutrino mass matrix (in the basis of charged lepton mass eigenstates) and on (2) the charged lepton mass matrix, for arbitrary initial (unperturbed) mixing matrices. In the first case, we find that the phases of the elements of the perturbation matrix, and the initial values of the Dirac and Majorana phases, strongly impact the leading order corrections to the neutrino mixing parameters and phases. For experimentally compatible scenarios wherein the initial neutrino mass matrix has $μ-τ$ symmetry, we find that the Dirac phase can take any value under small perturbations. Similarly, in the second case, perturbations to the charged lepton mass matrix can generate large corrections to the mixing angles and phases of the PMNS matrix. As an illustration of our generalized procedure, we apply it to a situation in which nonstandard scalar and nonstandard vector interactions simultaneously affect neutrino oscillations.
In the context of the Type I seesaw mechanism, we carry out a systematic study of the constraints that result from zeros in both the Dirac and right-handed Majorana neutrino mass matrices. We find that most constraints can be expressed in the standard form with one or two element/cofactor zeros alone, while there are 9 classes of nonstandard constraints. We show that all the constraints are stable under one-loop renormalization group running from the lightest right-handed neutrino mass scale to the electroweak scale. We study the predictions of the nonstandard constraints for the lightest neutrino mass, Dirac CP phase and neutrinoless double beta decay.
We study a model with partial quark-lepton universality that can naturally arise in grand unified theories. We find that constraints on the model can be reduced to a single condition on the Dirac CP phase $δ$ in the neutrino sector. Using our current knowledge of the CKM and PMNS mixing matrices, we predict $-32.4^\circ < δ< 32.0^\circ$ at $2σ$.
Now that PeV neutrinos have been discovered by IceCube, we optimistically entertain the possibility that neutrinos with energy above 100 PeV exist. We evaluate the dependence of event rates of such neutrinos on the neutrino-nucleon cross section at observatories that detect particles, atmospheric fluorescence, or Cherenkov radiation, initiated by neutrino interactions. We consider how (i) a simple scaling of the total standard model neutrino-nucleon cross section, (ii) a new elastic neutral current interaction, and (iii) a new completely inelastic interaction, individually impact event rates.
We constrain the possibility of a new pseudoscalar coupling between the muon and proton using a recent measurement of the 2S hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen.
The Glashow resonance at E_ν=6.3 PeV is a measure of the \barν_e content of the astrophysical neutrino flux. The fractional \barν_e content depends on the neutrino production model at the cosmic neutrino source, and the environment at the source. Thus, the strength of the Glashow resonance event rate is a potential window into astrophysical sources. We quantify the "Glashow resonometer" and comment on the significance that no Glashow events are observed in the IceCube three-year data.
There may be a high-energy cutoff of neutrino events in IceCube data. In particular, IceCube does not observe either continuum events above 2 PeV, or the Standard Model Glashow-resonance events expected at 6.3 PeV. There are also no higher energy neutrino signatures in the ANITA and Auger experiments. This absence of high-energy neutrino events motivates a fundamental restriction on neutrino energies above a few PeV. We postulate a simple scenario to terminate the neutrino spectrum that is Lorentz-invariance violating, but with a limiting neutrino velocity that is always smaller than the speed of light. If the limiting velocity of the neutrino applies also to its associated charged lepton, then a significant consequence is that the two-body decay modes of the charged pion are forbidden above two times the maximum neutrino energy, while the radiative decay modes are suppressed at higher energies. Such stabilized pions may serve as cosmic ray primaries.
We study Majorana neutrino mass matrices that have two texture zeros, or two cofactor zeros, or one texture zero and one cofactor zero. The two texture/cofactor zero conditions give four constraints, which in conjunction with the five measured oscillation parameters completely determine the nine independent real parameters of the neutrino mass matrix. We also study the implications that future measurements of neutrinoless double beta decay and the Dirac CP phase will have on these cases.
We explore the sensitivity of an experiment at the Daya Bay site, with a point radioactive source and a few meter baseline, to neutrino oscillations involving one or more eV mass sterile neutrinos. We find that within a year, the entire 3+2 and 1+3+1 parameter space preferred by global fits can be excluded at the 3σlevel, and if an oscillation signal is found, the 3+1 and 3+2 scenarios can be distinguished from each other at more than the 3σlevel provided one of the sterile neutrinos is lighter than 0.5 eV.
With the recent observation of nonzero θ_{13}, five neutrino oscillation parameters are now known. By imposing four zeros in the Yukawa coupling matrix of the type I seesaw model, the number of parameters in the neutrino mass matrix is reduced to seven, and we are able to make predictions for the lightest neutrino mass, Dirac CP phase, and neutrinoless double beta decay. Four texture zeros in the Yukawa coupling matrix is equivalent to either a single texture zero or a single cofactor zero for an off-diagonal element of the light neutrino mass matrix. We find strong similarities between single texture zero models with one mass ordering and single cofactor zero models with the opposite mass ordering. In the context of a specific class of single-flavor leptogenesis models, we find additional constraints on the parameter space.
Many neutrino mixing scenarios that have μ-τsymmetry with θ_{13}=0 are in disagreement with recent experimental results that indicate a nonzero value for θ_{13}. We investigate the effect of small perturbations on Majorana mass matrices with μ-τsymmetry and derive analytic formulae for the corrections to the mixing angles. We find that since m_1 and m_2 are nearly degenerate, μ-τsymmetry mixing scenarios are able to explain the experimental data with about the same size perturbation for most values of θ_{12}. This suggests that the underlying unperturbed mixing need not have θ_{12} close to the experimentally preferred value. One consequence of this is that a new class of models with μ-τsymmetry is possible, with unperturbed θ_{12} equal to zero or 90 degrees for arbitrary unperturbed θ_{13}.
This white paper addresses the hypothesis of light sterile neutrinos based on recent anomalies observed in neutrino experiments and the latest astrophysical data.
Motivated by the tentative observation of superluminal neutrinos by the OPERA experiment, we present a model of active-sterile neutrino oscillations in which sterile neutrinos are superluminal and active neutrinos appear superluminal by virtue of neutrino mixing. The model demonstrates some interesting possibilities and challenges that apply to a large class of models aiming to explain the OPERA result.
Data from the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments, and revised expectations of the antineutrino flux from nuclear reactors suggest the existence of eV-mass sterile neutrinos. 3+2 and 1+3+1 scenarios accommodate all relevant short-baseline neutrino data except for the low-energy MiniBooNE anomaly. We analyze the angular distribution of upward going atmospheric neutrino events in the IceCube-40 dataset for evidence of sterile neutrinos within these scenarios. Depending on how systematic uncertainties are handled, we find strong evidence for, or weak evidence against sterile neutrinos. We show that future IceCube data will definitively settle the issue.