arXiv subjects

Martin Spinrath

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Spinrath.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Neutrino superradiance constraint on asteroid-mass PBH Dark Matter and beyond

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are an attractive candidate for Dark Matter (DM) and there has been extensive experimental efforts to look for them. The asteroid-mass window, $M_{\text{PBH}} \sim 10^{17} - 10^{23}$ g, is particularly interesting, since PBHs in this range may still constitute all of DM. In this work, we study a scenario in which rotating PBHs are surrounded by superradiantly produced boson clouds that emit an approximately steady and nearly monochromatic flux of neutrinos in the few MeV range. We compute both the Galactic and extragalactic neutrino fluxes from such PBH populations and compare them with existing low-energy antineutrino limits from Borexino, KamLAND, and Super-Kamiokande. For scalar bosons, we find that these neutrino searches can strongly constrain a significant part of the asteroid-mass window and extend to somewhat larger masses. For instance, for rapidly rotating PBHs with spin ã = 0.9 and gravitational fine-structure coupling $α_g=0.25$, the strongest bound on dark matter fraction reaches approximately $f_{\text{PBH}} \sim 10^{-7}$ around $M_{\text{PBH}} \sim 2 \times 10^{22}$ g for a Yukawa coupling $g_{νϕ} = 10^{-4}$. These constraints can be significantly stronger than existing microlensing limits in the same mass range. Our results provide a complementary neutrino probe of PBH DM, distinct from previous neutrino constraints based mainly on Hawking evaporation from lighter PBHs.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Detection prospects for the Cosmic Neutrino Background using matter interferometers

In this paper we discuss how the Cosmic Neutrino Background can affect the measured phase difference in a matter interferometer. This phase is proportional to a difference in potential energies along the two interferometer paths. The relevant potentials here are the well-known neutrino matter potential and a potential related to the Stodolsky effect. We show how they can be rewritten in terms of scalar potentials, pseudo magnetic fields and spin-spin interactions. Unfortunately, current technology is unlikely to detect this effect and we discuss prospects for the future. We also briefly comment on fermionic Dark Matter which can give rise to very similar effects which can easily be larger than the neutrino case.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Constraining neutrino charges at beam experiments

We propose a new method to constrain neutrino charges at neutrino beam experiments. Uncharged in the Standard Model, evidence for a neutrino electric charge would be a smoking gun for new physics, shedding light on the Dirac or Majorana nature of neutrinos, and giving insight into the origin of charge quantization. We find that using the most sensitive magnetometers available, existing beam experiments could constrain neutrino charges $|q_ν| \lesssim 10^{-13}$, in units of the electron charge, while future upgrades could strengthen these bounds significantly. We also discuss electromagnetic dipole moments and show that our proposal is highly sensitive to new long-range forces.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Bremsstrahlung from Neutrino Scattering via Magnetic Dipole Moments

In this paper we discuss bremsstrahlung induced by neutrino scattering. This process should exist since neutrinos are expected to couple to photons via magnetic dipole and transition moments. These moments are loop-induced and tiny in the Standard Model with neutrino masses but could be significantly enhanced in extended theories. As concrete example we study the scattering of the two largest neutrino fluxes on earth, solar neutrinos and Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB). It is tempting to consider this as a potential signature for CNB searches but it turns out that the signal is extremely small and unlikely to be observed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Discovery prospects for heavy dark matter in KAGRA

We discuss the discovery prospects for kg-scale dark matter with a Yukawa-like long-range interaction in Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA). We consider the interaction range to be in the order of kilometers, thus the dark matter may interact with multiple KAGRA mirrors simultaneously. The induced signal strain is in many cases dominated by frequencies below about 130 Hz. Due to the geometry of the detector there is some strong directional sensitivity. It turns out that KAGRA would be able to constrain such kind of dark matter within a few years of operation. With our set of assumptions we expect that KAGRA could detect a few events per year for 10 kg dark matter, with a Yukawa interaction with a range of 10 km and an effective coupling constant around $10^6$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Taking Neutrino Pictures via Electrons

In this paper we discuss the prospects to take a picture of an extended neutrino source, i.e., resolving its angular neutrino luminosity distribution. This is challenging since neutrino directions cannot be directly measured but only estimated from the directions of charged particles they interact with in the detector material. This leads to an intrinsic blurring effect. We first discuss the problem in general terms and then apply our insights to solar neutrinos scattering elastically with electrons. Despite the aforementioned blurring we show how with high statistics and precision the original neutrino distributions could be reconstructed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: A Roadmap for Matching Theory to Experiment

The observation of neutrino oscillations and hence non-zero neutrino masses provided a milestone in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model. But even though we now know that neutrinos are massive, the nature of neutrino masses, i.e., whether they are Dirac or Majorana, remains an open question. A smoking-gun signature of Majorana neutrinos is the observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay, a process that violates the lepton-number conservation of the Standard Model. This white paper focuses on the theoretical aspects of the neutrinoless double-beta decay program and lays out a roadmap for future developments. The roadmap is a multi-scale path starting from high-energy models of neutrinoless double-beta decay all the way to the low-energy nuclear many-body problem that needs to be solved to supplement measurements of the decay rate. The path goes through a systematic effective-field-theory description of the underlying processes at various scales and needs to be supplemented by lattice quantum chromodynamics input. The white paper also discusses the interplay between neutrinoless double-beta decay, experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and results from astrophysics and cosmology in probing simplified models of lepton-number violation at the TeV scale, and the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry via leptogenesis. This white paper is prepared for the topical groups TF11 (Theory of Neutrino Physics), TF05 (Lattice Gauge Theory), RF04 (Baryon and Lepton Number Violating Processes), NF03 (Beyond the Standard Model) and NF05 (Neutrino Properties) within the Theory Frontier, Rare Processes and Precision Frontier, and Neutrino Physics Frontier of the U.S. Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021).

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Testing neutrino flavor models

Finding a rationale behind the observed pattern of neutrino mixings has been at the focus of neutrino flavor model building. Many different approaches have been put forward including models based on symmetries. Among the most predictive models based on symmetries are models which predict not only the mixing parameters but also correlations between them. These mixing sum rules allow to probe flavor models in the future. In this white paper we collect the predictions for the mixing parameters from flavor models based on discrete symmetries broken to certain residual symmetries of the lepton mass matrices and from models with modular symmetries to contrast them with bounds from current and future oscillations experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Leptonic Sum Rules from Flavour Models with Modular Symmetries

Sum rules in the lepton sector provide an extremely valuable tool to classify flavour models in terms of relations between neutrino masses and mixing parameters testable in a plethora of experiments. In this manuscript we identify new leptonic sum rules arising in models with modular symmetries with residual symmetries. These models simultaneously present neutrino mass sum rules, involving masses and Majorana phases, and mixing sum rules, connecting the mixing angles and the Dirac CP-violating phase. The simultaneous appearance of both types of sum rules leads to some non-trivial interplay, for instance, the allowed absolute neutrino mass scale exhibits a dependence on the Dirac CP-violating phase. We derive analytical expressions for these novel sum rules and present their allowed parameter ranges as well as their predictions at upcoming neutrino experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Light Dark Matter Scattering in Gravitational Wave Detectors

We present prospects for discovering dark matter scattering in gravitational wave detectors. The focus of this work is on light, particle dark matter with masses below 1 GeV/c$^{2}$. We investigate how a potential signal compares to typical backgrounds like thermal and quantum noise, first in a simple toy model and then using KAGRA as a realistic example. That shows that for a discovery much lighter and cooler mirrors would be needed. We also give some brief comments on space-based experiments and future atomic interferometers.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Dark Matter Induced Brownian Motion

We discuss a novel approach for directional, light dark matter searches inspired by the high precision position measurements achieved in gravitational wave detectors. If dark matter interacts with ordinary matter, movable masses are subject to an effect similar to Brownian motion induced by the scattering with dark matter particles which exhibits certain characteristics and could be observed. We provide estimates for the sensitivity of a hypothetical experiment looking for that motion. Interestingly, if successful, our approach would allow to constrain the local distribution of dark matter momentum.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Confronting SUSY SO(10) with updated Lattice and Neutrino Data

We present an updated fit of supersymmetric SO(10) models to quark and lepton masses and mixing parameters. Including latest results from lattice QCD determinations of quark masses and neutrino oscillation data, we show that fits neglecting supersymmetric threshold corrections are strongly disfavoured in our setup. Only when we include these corrections we find good fit points. We present $χ^2$-profiles for the threshold parameters, which show that in our setup the thresholds related to the third generation of fermions exhibit two rather narrow minima.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Sneutrino Dark Matter via pseudoscalar X-funnel meets Inverse Seesaw

In this paper we study sneutrino dark matter in a recently proposed supersymmetric electroweak-scale inverse seesaw model, in which the majority of the sneutrino dark matter particle is a mixture of the right-handed sneutrino $\tilde{N}^c$ and the singlet field $\tilde{S}$. The scalar field $X$ responsible for the generation of neutrino masses can simultaneously play a crucial role for sneutrino annihilation in the early Universe via the pseudoscalar mediator $A_X$ into neutrinos. We focus here on the dominant annihilation channels and provide all the formulas together with analytic estimates in order to identify the relevant parameters. Furthermore, we show that the direct detection scattering cross section is many orders of magnitude below the current limits, and estimate the indirect detection annihilation rate, which is only a few orders of magnitude below the current limits.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

A model explaining neutrino masses and the DAMPE cosmic ray electron excess

We propose a flavored $U(1)_{eμ}$ neutrino mass and dark matter~(DM) model to explain the recent DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) data, which feature an excess on the cosmic ray electron plus positron flux around 1.4 TeV. Only the first two lepton generations of the Standard Model are charged under the new $U(1)_{eμ}$ gauge symmetry. A vector-like fermion $ψ$, which is our DM candidate, annihilates into $e^{\pm}$ and $μ^{\pm}$ via the new gauge boson $Z'$ exchange and accounts for the DAMPE excess. We have found that the data favors a $ψ$ mass around 1.5~TeV and a $Z'$ mass around 2.6~TeV, which can potentially be probed by the next generation lepton colliders and DM direct detection experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

A supersymmetric electroweak scale seesaw model

In this paper we propose a novel supersymmetric inverse seesaw model which has only one additional $Z_6$ symmetry. The field content is minimal to get a viable neutrino spectrum at tree-level. Interestingly, the inverse seesaw scale in our model is related to the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking. Due to that origin we are less biased about hierarchies and discuss three different types of the inverse seesaw mechanism with different phenomenologies. We can successfully reproduce neutrino masses and mixing and our model is consistent with current bounds on neutrinoless double beta decay, non-unitarity of the PMNS matrix and charged lepton flavor violation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Detection prospects for the Cosmic Neutrino Background using laser interferometers

The cosmic neutrino background is a key prediction of Big Bang cosmology which has not been observed yet. The movement of the earth through this neutrino bath creates a force on a pendulum, as if it was exposed to a cosmic wind. We revise here estimates for the resulting pendulum acceleration and compare it to the theoretical sensitivity of an experimental setup where the pendulum position is measured using current laser interferometer technology as employed in gravitational wave detectors. We discuss how a significant improvement of this setup can be envisaged in a micro gravity environment. The proposed setup could simultaneously function as a dark matter detector in the sub-MeV range, which currently eludes direct detection constraints.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Neutrino Mass Sum Rules and Symmetries of the Mass Matrix

Neutrino mass sum rules have recently gained again more attention as a powerful tool to discriminate and test various flavour models in the near future. A related question which was not yet discussed fully satisfactorily was the origin of these sum rules and if they are related to any residual or accidental symmetry. We will address this open issue here systematically and find previous statements confirmed. Namely, that the sum rules are not related to any enhanced symmetry of the Lagrangian after family symmetry breaking but that they are simply the result of a reduction of free parameters due to skillful model building.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Predictivity of Neutrino Mass Sum Rules

Correlations between light neutrino observables are arguably the strongest predictions of lepton avour models based on (discrete) symmetries, except for the very few cases which unambiguously predict the full set of leptonic mixing angles. A subclass of these correlations are neutrino mass sum rules, which connect the three (complex) light neutrino mass eigenvalues among each other. This connection constrains both the light neutrino mass scale and the Majorana phases, so that mass sum rules generically lead to a nonzero value of the lightest neutrino mass and to distinct predictions for the e ective mass probed in neutrinoless double beta decay. However, in nearly all cases known, the neutrino mass sum rules are not exact and receive corrections from various sources. We introduce a formalism to handle these corrections perturbatively in a model-independent manner, which overcomes issues present in earlier approaches. Our ansatz allows us to quantify the modi cation of the predictions derived from neutrino mass sum rules. We show that, in most cases, the predictions are fairly stable: while small quantitative changes can appear, they are generally rather mild. We therefore establish the predictivity of neutrino mass sum rules on a level far more general than previously known.

hep-ph↗