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Diana Navas Nicolás

Publications and source records attributed to Diana Navas Nicolás.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

After 60 years, here comes the Sun

For sixty years, the Sun served neutrino physics more than the reverse: its neutrinos established oscillations rather than probing the star itself. That is now changing. Reactor antineutrinos have pinned down the oscillation parameters governing solar-neutrino flavour conversion so precisely that the propagation-related uncertainty is becoming negligible -- closing the first of two abysses. Solar neutrinos can, at last, be turned on the Sun. Yet a second abyss remains: today's solar-neutrino detection falls an order of magnitude short of the precision the Standard Solar Model already predicts for the dominant pp flux ($>\,$90$\%$) -- a gap no reactor experiment can close. The intrinsic $^{14}\mathrm{C}$ background walls off the pp region; only new detection techniques can breach it. Bridging this second abyss demands a revolution, not an increment. Combined with helioseismology's complementary reading of the Sun's mechanical structure, precision neutrino measurements of the nuclear source terms would enable a multi-messenger heliotomography of the solar interior -- reading our star from both sides at once. A new age of solar discoveries may follow, on one condition: that the field builds the instruments equal to the task.

hep-ex↗

Synergies and Prospects for Early Resolution of the Neutrino Mass Ordering

The measurement of neutrino Mass Ordering (MO) is a fundamental element for the understanding of leptonic flavour sector of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Its determination relies on the precise measurement of $Δm^2_{31}$ and $Δm^2_{32}$ using either neutrino vacuum oscillations, such as the ones studied by medium baseline reactor experiments, or matter effect modified oscillations such as those manifesting in long-baseline neutrino beams (LB$ν$B) or atmospheric neutrino experiments. Despite existing MO indication today, a fully resolved MO measurement ($\geq$5$σ$) is most likely to await for the next generation of neutrino experiments: JUNO, whose stand-alone sensitivity is $\sim$3$σ$, or LB$ν$B experiments (DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande). Upcoming atmospheric neutrino experiments are also expected to provide precious information. In this work, we study the possible context for the earliest full MO resolution. A firm resolution is possible even before 2028, exploiting mainly vacuum oscillation, upon the combination of JUNO and the current generation of LB$ν$B experiments (NOvA and T2K). This opportunity is possible thanks to a powerful synergy boosting the overall sensitivity where the sub-percent precision of $Δm^2_{32}$ by LB$ν$B experiments is found to be the leading order term for the MO earliest discovery. We also found that the comparison between matter and vacuum driven oscillation results enables unique discovery potential for physics beyond the Standard Model.

hep-ph↗