arXiv subjects

Melin Huang

Publications and source records attributed to Melin Huang.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2013

Feasibility of Determining Diffuse Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Neutrino Flavor Ratio through ARA Neutrino Observatory

The flavor composition of ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos (UHECN) carries precious information about the physical properties of their sources, the nature of neutrino oscillations and possible exotic physics involved during the propagation. Since UHECN with different incoming directions would propagate through different amounts of matter in Earth and since different flavors of charged leptons produced in the neutrino-nucleon charged-current (CC) interaction would have different energy-loss behaviors in the medium, measurement of the angular distribution of incoming events by a neutrino observatory can in principle be employed to help determine the UHECN flavor ratio. In this paper we report on our investigation of the feasibility of such an attempt. Simulations were performed, where the detector configuration was based on the proposed Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) Observatory at the South Pole, to investigate the expected event-direction distribution for each flavor. Assuming $ν_μ$-$ν_τ$ symmetry and invoking the standard oscillation and the neutrino decay scenarios, the probability distribution functions (PDF) of the event directions are utilized to extract the flavor ratio of cosmogenic neutrinos on Earth. The simulation results are summarized in terms of the probability of flavor ratio extraction and resolution as functions of the number of observed events and the angular resolution of neutrino directions. We show that it is feasible to constrain the UHECN flavor ratio using the proposed ARA Observatory.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Global Neutrino Data Analysis and the Quest to Pin Down $\sinθ_{13}$ in Different Mixing Matrix Parametrizations

Hints for sizable $\sin^2 θ_{13}$ have been reported in earlier global neutrino oscillation data analyses as well as will be reported in this work, and quite recently by the Double Chooz experiment. However, as we enter the era of precision neutrino oscillation experiments, terms linear in $\sinθ_{13}$ will no longer be negligible, and its sign would affect the extraction of other oscillation parameters. The sign of $\sinθ_{13}$ also plays a crucial role in the determination of the CP-violating phase. In this work we show that by adopting an alternative parametrization for the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) mixing matrix, one already has a chance to infer the sign of each mixing angle in the conventional parametrization using existing global neutrino data. A weak preference for negative $\sin θ_{13}$ is found. In particular, the solar data suggest that $\sinθ_{13} > 0$ while all other data the opposite. This leads to the speculation on whether the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect is responsible. In this work we found that in the new mixing matrix parametrization, the 68% CL constraints on the three mixing angles are comparable to those estimated in the conventional parametrization adopted in the literature. Owing to the strong correlations among the three mixing angles in the new parametrization, the advantages of doing the global neutrino oscillation analysis using data from past, current, and near future neutrino oscillation experiments shall become manifest.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Dependence of Neutrino Mixing Angles and CP-violating Phase on Mixing Matrix Parametrizations

We consider various neutrino mixing matrix parametrizations and the dependence of the mixing angles and CP-violating phase on the different parametrizations. The transformations of neutrino mixing parameters between various parametrizations are presented. Although the $θ_{13}$ mixing angle is determined to be small in the conventional parametrization, we note that in several other parametrizations the values of $θ_{13}$ are quite large. Should the value of $θ_{13}$ turn out to be tiny in the conventional parametrization, this study suggests that other alternative mixing matrix representations would be more suitable for dertermining the value of the CP-violating phase.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Simulation of the Event Reconstruction of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Neutrinos with Askaryan Radio Array

Askaryan Radio Array (ARA), a large-scale radio Cherenkov observatory which scientists propose to develop in Antarctica, aims at discovering the origin and evolution of the cosmic accelerators that produce the highest energy cosmic rays by means of observing the ultra high energy (UHE) cosmogenic neutrinos. To optimize ARA's angular resolution of the incoming UHE neutrinos, which is essential for pointing pack to its source, the relation between the reconstruction capabilities of ARA and its design is studied. It is found that with the noise effect taken into account, in order to make this neutrino angular resolution as good as possible and detection efficiency as high as possible, the optimal choice for ARA geometry would be the station spacing of 1.6 km and the antenna spacing of 40 m.

astro-ph.HE↗