arXiv subjects

M. Masip

Publications and source records attributed to M. Masip.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Quantum gravity phenomenology at the dawn of the multi-messenger era -- A review

The exploration of the universe has recently entered a new era thanks to the multi-messenger paradigm, characterized by a continuous increase in the quantity and quality of experimental data that is obtained by the detection of the various cosmic messengers (photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves) from numerous origins. They give us information about their sources in the universe and the properties of the intergalactic medium. Moreover, multi-messenger astronomy opens up the possibility to search for phenomenological signatures of quantum gravity. On the one hand, the most energetic events allow us to test our physical theories at energy regimes which are not directly accessible in accelerators; on the other hand, tiny effects in the propagation of very high energy particles could be amplified by cosmological distances. After decades of merely theoretical investigations, the possibility of obtaining phenomenological indications of Planck-scale effects is a revolutionary step in the quest for a quantum theory of gravity, but it requires cooperation between different communities of physicists (both theoretical and experimental). This review is aimed at promoting this cooperation by giving a state-of-the art account of the interdisciplinary expertise that is needed in the effective search of quantum gravity footprints in the production, propagation and detection of cosmic messengers.

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arXiv2020

The $\rho$ parameter and $H^0\to \ell_i \ell_j$ in models with TeV sterile neutrinos

The presence of massive sterile neutrinos $N$ mixed with the active ones induces flavor violating processes in the charged lepton sector at the loop level. In particular, the amplitude of $H^0\to \bar{\ell}_i\ell_j$ is expected to be proportional to the product of heavy-light Yukawa couplings $y_iy_j=2 \,s_{\nu_i} s_{\nu_j}\, m_N^2/v^2$, where $s_{\nu_{i,j}}$ express the heavy-light neutrino mixings. Here we revisit these Higgs decays in the most generic extension of the neutrino sector, focusing on large values of $y_{i}$. We show that decoupling effects and a cancellation between the two dominant contributions to these processes makes the amplitude about one hundred times smaller than anticipated. We find that perturbative values of $y_{i}$ giving an acceptable contribution to the $\rho$ parameter imply ${\cal B}(H^0\to \bar{\ell}_i\ell_j)<10^{-8}$ for any lepton flavors, a rate that is not accessible at current colliders.

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arXiv2019

Effects of heavy Majorana neutrinos on lepton flavor violating processes

The observation of lepton flavor violating processes at colliders could be a clear signal of a non-minimal neutrino sector. We define a 5-parameter model with a pair of TeV fermion singlets and arbitrary mixings with the three active neutrino flavors. Then we analyze several flavor violating transitions ($\ell\to \ell^{\prime}\gamma,\,\ell^{\prime}\ell^{\prime\prime}\bar{\ell}^{\prime\prime\prime}$ or $\mu-e$ conversions in nuclei) and $Z\to\bar{\ell}\,\ell^{\prime}$ decays induced by the presence of heavy neutrinos. In particular, we calculate all the one-loop contributions to these processes and present their analytic expressions. We focus on the genuine effects of the heavy Majorana masses, comparing the results in that case with the ones obtained when the two heavy neutrinos define a Dirac field. Finally, we use our results to update the bounds on the heavy-light mixings in the neutrino sector.

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arXiv2019

The pros and cons of beyond standard model interpretations of ANITA events

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 $\tau$-lepton produced through a charged current interaction of a $\nu_\tau$ 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 $\nu_\tau$'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 $\tau$-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.

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arXiv2018

High energy neutrinos

We describe several components in the diffuse flux of high energy neutrinos reaching the Earth and discuss whether they could explain IceCube's observations. Then we focus on TeV neutrinos from the Sun. We show that this solar neutrino flux is correlated with the cosmic-ray shadow of the Sun measured by HAWC, and we find that it is much larger than the flux of atmospheric neutrinos. Stars like our Sun provide neutrinos with a very steep spectrum and no associated gammas. We argue that this is the type of contribution that could solve the main puzzle presented by the high energy IceCube data.

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arXiv2017

Origin of the high energy neutrino flux at IceCube

We discuss the spectrum of the different components in the astrophysical neutrino flux reaching the Earth and the possible contribution of each component to the high-energy IceCube data. We show that the diffuse flux from cosmic ray interactions with gas in our galaxy implies just 2 events among the 54 event sample. We argue that the neutrino flux from cosmic ray interactions in the intergalactic (intracluster) space depends critically on the transport parameter $δ$ describing the energy dependence in the diffusion coefficient of galactic cosmic rays. Our analysis motivates a E^{-2.1} neutrino spectrum with a drop at PeV energies that fits well the data, including the non-observation of the Glashow resonance at 6.3 PeV. We also show that a cosmic ray flux described by an unbroken power law may produce a neutrino flux with interesting spectral features (bumps and breaks) related to changes in the cosmic ray composition.

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arXiv2017

High energy neutrinos from the Sun

The Sun is a main source of high energy neutrinos. These neutrinos appear as secondary particles after the Sun absorbs high-energy cosmic rays, that find there a low-density environment (much thinner than our atmosphere) where most secondary pions, kaons and muons can decay before they lose energy. The main uncertainty in a calculation of the solar neutrino flux is due to the effects of the magnetic fields on the absorption rate of charged cosmic rays. We use recent data from HAWC on the cosmic-ray shadow of the Sun to estimate this rate. We evaluate the solar neutrino flux and show that at 1 TeV it is over ten times larger than the atmospheric one at zenith theta_z=30^o/150^o. The flux that we obtain has a distinct spectrum and flavor composition, and it could be detected in current and upcoming neutrino telescopes. KM3NeT, in particular, looks very promising: it will see the Sun high in the sky (the atmospheric background is lower there than near the horizon) and expects a very good angular resolution (the Sun's radius is just 0.27^o).

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arXiv2017

Diffuse flux of galactic neutrinos and gamma rays

We calculate the fluxes of neutrinos and gamma rays from interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar matter in our galaxy. We use EPOS-LHC, SIBYLL and GHEISHA to obtain the yield of these particles in proton, helium and iron collisions at kinetic energies between 1 and 10^8 GeV, and we correlate the cosmic ray density with the mean magnetic field strength in the disk and the halo of our galaxy. We find that at E>1 PeV the fluxes depend very strongly on the cosmic-ray composition, whereas at 1-5 GeV the main source of uncertainty is the cosmic-ray spectrum out of the heliosphere. We show that the diffuse flux of galactic neutrinos becomes larger than the conventional atmospheric one at E>1 PeV, but that at all IceCube energies it is 4 times smaller than the atmospheric flux from forward-charm decays.

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arXiv2016

A new observable in extensive air showers

We find that the ratio r_{mu e} of the muon to the electromagnetic component of an extended air shower at the ground level provides an indirect measure of the depth X_{max} of the shower maximum. This result, obtained with the air-shower code AIRES, is independent of the hadronic model used in the simulation. We show that the value of r_{mu e} in a particular shower discriminates its proton or iron nature with a 98% efficiency. We also show that the eventual production of forward heavy quarks inside the shower may introduce anomalous values of r_{mu e} in isolated events.

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arXiv2015

Production of unstable heavy neutrinos in proto-neutron stars

We discuss the production of a class of heavy sterile neutrinos $ν_h$ in proto-neutron stars. The neutrinos, of mass around $50$ MeV, have a negligible mixing with the active species but relatively large dimension-5 electromagnetic couplings. In particular, a magnetic dipole moment $μ\approx 10^{-6}$ GeV$^{-1}$ implies that they are thermally produced through $e^+ e^-\to \bar ν_h ν_h$ in the early phase of the core collapse, whereas a heavy--light transition moment $μ_{\rm tr}\approx 10^{-8}$ GeV$^{-1}$ allows their decay $ν_h\to ν_i γ$ with a lifetime around $10^{-3}$ s. This type of electromagnetic couplings has been recently proposed to explain the excess of electron-like events in baseline experiments. We show that the production and decay of these heavy neutrinos would transport energy from the central regions of the star to distances $d\approx 400$ km, providing a very efficient mechanism to enhance the supernova shock front and heat the material behind it.

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arXiv2014

J-PAS: The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) is a narrow band, very wide field Cosmological Survey to be carried out from the Javalambre Observatory in Spain with a purpose-built, dedicated 2.5m telescope and a 4.7 sq.deg. camera with 1.2Gpix. Starting in late 2015, J-PAS will observe 8500sq.deg. of Northern Sky and measure $0.003(1+z)$ photo-z for $9\times10^7$ LRG and ELG galaxies plus several million QSOs, sampling an effective volume of $\sim 14$ Gpc$^3$ up to $z=1.3$ and becoming the first radial BAO experiment to reach Stage IV. J-PAS will detect $7\times 10^5$ galaxy clusters and groups, setting constrains on Dark Energy which rival those obtained from its BAO measurements. Thanks to the superb characteristics of the site (seeing ~0.7 arcsec), J-PAS is expected to obtain a deep, sub-arcsec image of the Northern sky, which combined with its unique photo-z precision will produce one of the most powerful cosmological lensing surveys before the arrival of Euclid. J-PAS unprecedented spectral time domain information will enable a self-contained SN survey that, without the need for external spectroscopic follow-up, will detect, classify and measure $σ_z\sim 0.5\%$ redshifts for $\sim 4000$ SNeIa and $\sim 900$ core-collapse SNe. The key to the J-PAS potential is its innovative approach: a contiguous system of 54 filters with $145Å$ width, placed $100Å$ apart over a multi-degree FoV is a powerful "redshift machine", with the survey speed of a 4000 multiplexing low resolution spectrograph, but many times cheaper and much faster to build. The J-PAS camera is equivalent to a 4.7 sq.deg. "IFU" and it will produce a time-resolved, 3D image of the Northern Sky with a very wide range of Astrophysical applications in Galaxy Evolution, the nearby Universe and the study of resolved stellar populations.

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arXiv2013

Contamination of Dark Matter Experiments from Atmospheric Magnetic Dipoles

Dark matter collisions with heavy nuclei (Xe, Ge, Si, Na) may produce recoils observable at direct-search experiments. Given that some of these experiments are yielding conflicting information, however, it is worth asking if physics other than dark matter may produce similar nuclear recoils. We examine under what conditions an atmospherically-produced neutral particle with a relatively large magnetic dipole moment could fake a dark matter signal. We argue that a very definite flux could explain the signals seen at DAMA/LIBRA, CDMS/Si and CoGeNT consistently with the bounds from XENON100 and CDMS/Ge. To explore the plausibility of this scenario, we discuss a concrete model with 10-50 MeV sterile neutrinos that was recently proposed to explain the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies.

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arXiv2013

Production and propagation of heavy hadrons in air-shower simulators

Very energetic charm and bottom hadrons may be produced in the upper atmosphere when a primary cosmic ray or the leading hadron in an extensive air shower collide with a nucleon. At $E\approx 10^8$ GeV their decay length becomes of the order of 10 km, implying that they tend to interact in the air instead of decaying. Since the inelasticity in these collisions is much smaller than the one in proton and pion collisions, there could be rare events where a heavy-hadron component transports a significant amount of energy deep into the atmosphere. We have developed a module for the detailed simulation of these processes and have included it in a new version of the air shower simulator AIRES. We study the frequency, the energy distribution and the depth of charm and bottom production, as well as the depth and the energy distribution of these quarks when they decay. As an illustration, we consider the production and decay of tau leptons (from $D_s$ decays) and the lepton flux at PeV energies from a 30 EeV proton primary. The proper inclusion of charm and bottom hadrons in AIRES opens the possibility to search for air-shower observables that are sensitive to heavy quark effects.

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arXiv2012

Supersymmetry with long-lived staus at the LHC

We consider SUSY extensions of the standard model where the gravitino is the dark-matter particle and the stau is long lived. If there is a significant mass gap with squarks and gluinos, the staus produced at hadron colliders tend to be fast (beta>0.8), and the searches based on their delay in the time of flight or their anomalous ionization become less effective. Such staus would be identified as regular muons with the same linear momentum and a slightly reduced energy. Compared to the usual SUSY models where a neutralino is the LSP, this scenario implies (i) more leptons (the two staus at the end of the decay chains), (ii) a strong e-mu asymmetry, and (iii) less missing E_T (just from neutrinos, as the lightest neutralino decays into stau). We study the bounds on this SUSY from current LHC analyses (same-sign dileptons and multilepton events) and discuss the best strategy for its observation.

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arXiv2011

Propagation of B mesons in the atmosphere

Collisions of cosmic rays in the atmosphere may produce heavy hadrons of very high energy. The decay length of a $B$ meson of energy above $10^7$ GeV is larger than 1 km, implying that such a particle tends to interact in the air before it decays. We show that the fraction of energy deposited in these interactions is much smaller than in proton and pion collisions. We parameterize their elasticity and determine the average number of interactions and the atmospheric depth at the decay point for different initial energies. We find that the profile of a $3\times 10^9$ GeV bottom shower may be very different from the profile of a proton shower of the same energy, defining either a very deep maximum, or two maxima, or other features that cannot be parameterized with a single Gaisser-Hillas function. Finally, we discuss under what conditions a bottom hadron inside the parent air shower may provide observable effects.

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arXiv2011

Propagation in the atmosphere of ultrahigh-energy charmed hadrons

Charmed mesons may be produced when a primary cosmic ray or the leading hadron in an air shower collide with an atmospheric nucleon. At energies \ge 10^8 GeV their decay length becomes larger than 10 km, which implies that they tend to interact in the air instead of decaying. We study the collisions of long-lived charmed hadrons in the atmosphere. We show that (Λ_c,D)-proton diffractive processes and partonic collisions of any q^2 where the charm quark is an spectator have lower inelasticity than (p,π)-proton collisions. In particular, we find that a D meson deposits in each interaction just around 55% of the energy deposited by a pion. On the other hand, collisions involving the valence c quark (its annihilation with a sea cbar quark in the target or c-quark exchange in the t channel) may deposit most of D meson energy, but their frequency is low (below 0.1% of inelastic interactions). As a consequence, very energetic charmed hadrons may keep a significant fraction of their initial energy after several hadronic interactions, reaching much deeper in the atmosphere than pions or protons of similar energy.

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arXiv2010

Cosmic Magnetic Lenses

Magnetic fields play a critical role in the propagation of charged cosmic rays. Particular field configurations supported by different astrophysical objects may be observable in cosmic ray maps. We consider a simple configuration, a constant azimuthal field in a disk-like object, that we identify as a cosmic magnetic lens. Such configuration is typical in most spiral galaxies, and we assume that it can also appear at smaller or larger scales. We show that the magnetic lens deflects cosmic rays in a regular geometrical pattern, very much like a gravitational lens deflects light but with some interesting differences. In particular, the lens acts effectively only in a definite region of the cosmic-ray spectrum, and it can be convergent or divergent depending on the (clockwise or counterclockwise) direction of the magnetic field and the (positive or negative) electric charge of the cosmic ray. We find that the image of a point-like monochromatic source may be one, two or four points depending on the relative position of source, observer and center of the lens. For a perfect alignment and a lens in the orthogonal plane the image becomes a ring. We also show that the presence of a lens could introduce low-scale fluctuations and matter-antimatter asymmetries in the fluxes from distant sources. The concept of cosmic magnetic lens that we introduce here may be useful in the interpretation of possible patterns observed in the cosmic ray flux at different energies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Atmospheric lepton fluxes at very high energy

The observation of astrophysical neutrinos requires a detailed understanding of the atmospheric neutrino background. Since neutrinos are produced in meson decays together with a charged lepton, important constraints on this background can be obtained from the measurement of the atmospheric muon flux. Muons, however, can also be produced as mu+ mu- pairs by purely electromagnetic processes. We use the Z-moment method to study and compare the contributions to the atmospheric muon and neutrino fluxes from different sources (pi/K decay, charmed and unflavored hadron decay, and photon conversion into a muon pair). We pay special attention to the contribution from unflavored mesons (eta, eta', rho0, omega and phi). These mesons are abundant in air showers, their lifetimes are much shorter than those of charged pions or kaons, and they have decay branching ratios of order 10^-4 into final states containing a muon pair. We show that they may be the dominant source of muons at E_mu >10^3 TeV.

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