arXiv subjects

Meshkat Rajaee

Publications and source records attributed to Meshkat Rajaee.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The $\nu$EYE Neutrino Telescope: Conceptual Design Report

The $\bf\nu EYE$ neutrino project leverages the existing large pit at Yemilab located in South Korea, to reveal the existence of sterile neutrino, the up-turn of the neutrinos from the Sun, and the first minimum of the neutrino oscillation over distances on the order of tens of kilometers for the first time. This initiative is expected to facilitate a wide range of significant scientific and technological advancements within both South Korean and international communities engaged in neutrino science and technology. The $\bf\nu EYE$ aims to investigate the largely unexplored sector of almost-massless lepton in the elementary particle physics in detail. The emphasis will be placed on the study of real time nuclear processes and reactions involving possible sterile neutrinos on timescales down to nanoseconds in ultra-high intense or radioactive neutrino beams for the first time in the world; the $\bf\nu EYE$ looks at to-be universal oscillation (``up-turn'' in the electron neutrino survival probability) of neutrinos predicted by the three neutrino oscillation paradigm. This will confirm or deny our current understanding on the particle interactions of the lepton sector; and measurement of the first oscillation minimum between the first and second neutrinos in mass.

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arXiv2025

New Physics Opportunities at Neutrino Facilities: BSM Physics at Accelerator, Atmospheric, and Reactor Neutrino Experiments

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson, the long-standing task at hand in particle physics is the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model, which accounts for only about 5\% of the Universe. In light of this situation, the neutrino sector has drawn significant attention due to neutrino oscillations, which require physics beyond the Standard Model and have prompted a wide array of active and planned experimental programs. Notably, neutrino facilities offer substantial potential to search for new physics beyond neutrino oscillations, owing to their precision measurement capabilities, diverse experimental configurations, and various neutrino sources. This white paper summarizes the landscape of new physics that can be probed at current and future neutrino experiments, categorized into laboratory-produced and cosmogenic signals. We discuss recent experimental results interpreted through the lens of new physics, as well as detailed plans and projected sensitivities of next-generation facilities. This summary is based on presentations from the 4th Workshop on New Physics Opportunities in Neutrino Facilities (NPN 2024), held at IBS in Daejeon, Korea, on June 3-5, 2024. Particular emphasis is placed on accelerator-based neutrino experiments and a range of neutrino programs in East Asia. We also outline key tasks necessary to realize the promising new physics opportunities ahead.

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arXiv2024

Revisiting Reactor Anti-Neutrino 5 MeV Bump with $^{13}$C Neutral-Current Interaction

For the first time, we comprehensively examine the potential of a neutral-current interaction of reactor neutrino with $^{13}$C emitting a 3.685 MeV photon to identify the origin of the 5 MeV bump in reactor antineutrino spectra observed through the inverse beta decay (IBD) process. This anomaly may be due to new physics, reactor antineutrino flux inaccuracies, or IBD systematics. The 3.685 MeV photon released during the de-excitation of $^{13}$C$^\ast$ to its ground state is observable in liquid scintillator detectors. Remarkably, we confirm the powerfulness of our proposal by completely ruling out a new physics scenario explaining the bump from the existing NEOS data. We also explore the potential of current and forthcoming experiments, including solar neutrino studies at JUNO, pion and muon decay-at-rest experiments at OscSNS, and isotope decay-at-rest studies at Yemilab, to measure the cross-section precisely enough to distinguish the expected bump and the theoretical flux models via our channel. Additionally, we propose a novel method to track the time evolution of reactor isotopes by analyzing the $^{13}$C signal, which yields critical insights into the contributions of $^{235}$U and $^{239}$Pu to the bump, acting as a robust tool.

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arXiv2023

Uncovering Secret Neutrino Interactions at Tau Neutrino Experiments

We investigate the potential of future tau neutrino experiments for identifying the $\nu_\tau$ appearance in probing secret neutrino interactions. The reference experiments include the DUNE far detector utilizing the atmospheric data, which is for the first time in probing the secret interactions, the Forward Liquid Argon Experiment (FLArE100) detector at the Forward Physics Facility (FPF), and emulsion detector experiments such as SND@LHC, AdvSND, FASER$\nu$2, and SND@SHiP. For concreteness, we consider a reference scenario in which the hidden interactions among the neutrinos are mediated by a single light gauge boson $Z'$ with a mass at most below the sub-GeV scale and an interaction strength $g_{\alpha \beta}$ between the active neutrinos. We confirm that these experiments have the capability to significantly enhance the current sensitivities on $g_{\alpha \beta }$ for $m_{Z'} \lesssim 500$ MeV due to the production of high energy neutrinos and excellent ability to detect tau neutrinos. Our analysis highlights the crucial role of downward-going DUNE atmospheric data in the search for secret neutrino interactions because of the rejection of backgrounds dominated in the upward-going events. Specifically, 10 years of DUNE atmospheric data can provide the best sensitivities on $g_{\alpha \beta}$ which is about two orders of magnitude improvement. In addition, the beam-based experiments such as FLArE100 and FASER$\nu$2 can improve the current constraint on $g_{e\tau}$ and $g_{\mu\tau}$ by more than an order of magnitude after the full running of the high luminosity LHC with the integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$. For $g_{e\mu}$ and $g_{ee}$ the SHiP experiment can play the most important role in the high energy region of $E> few~100$ MeV.

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arXiv2023

Physics Potential of a Few Kiloton Scale Neutrino Detector at a Deep Underground Lab in Korea

The demand for underground labs for neutrino and rare event search experiments has been increasing over the last few decades. Yemilab, constructed in October 2022, is the first deep ($\sim$1~km) underground lab dedicated to science in Korea, where a large cylindrical cavern (D: 20~m, H: 20~m) was excavated in addition to the main caverns and halls. The large cavern could be utilized for a low background neutrino experiment by a liquid scintillator-based detector (LSC) where a 2.26 kiloton LS target would be filled. It's timely to have such a large but ultra-pure LS detector after the shutdown of the Borexino experiment so that solar neutrinos can be measured much more precisely. Interesting BSM physics searches can be also pursued with this detector when it's combined with an electron linac, a proton cyclotron (IsoDAR source), or a radioactive source. This article discusses the concept of a candidate detector and the physics potential of a large liquid scintillator detector.

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arXiv2023

Exploring Solar Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with LSC at Yemilab and JUNO

We investigate the sensitivities of the liquid scintillator counter (LSC) at Yemilab and JUNO to solar neutrino oscillation parameters, focusing on $\theta_{12}$ and $\Delta m^2_{21}$. We compare the potential of JUNO with LSC at Yemilab utilizing both reactor and solar data in determining those parameters. We find that the solar neutrino data of LSC at Yemilab is highly sensitive to $\theta_{12}$ enabling its determination with exceptional precision. Our study also reveals that if $\Delta m^2_{21}$ is larger, with a value close to the best fit value of KamLAND, JUNO reactor data will have about two times better precision than the reactor LSC at Yemilab. On the other hand, if $\Delta m^2_{21}$ is smaller and closer to the best fit value of solar neutrino experiments, the precision of the reactor LSC at Yemilab will be better than JUNO.

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arXiv2022

Non-Standard Interaction of atmospheric neutrino in future experiments

We show the prospects of probing neutral-current non-standard interaction (NSI) in the propagation of atmospheric neutrinos in future large-volume neutrino experiments including DUNE, HK, KNO, and ORCA. For DUNE, we utilize its ability of identifying the tau neutrino event and combine the $\nu_\tau$ appearance with the $\nu_\mu$ disappearance. Based on our simulated results, the ten years of data taking of the atmospheric neutrinos can enormously improve the bounds on the NSI parameters $\varepsilon_{\mu \tau}, | \varepsilon_{\mu \mu} - \varepsilon_{\tau \tau} |$, $\varepsilon_{e \mu }$, $\varepsilon_{e \tau}$ and $| \varepsilon_{\mu \mu} - \varepsilon_{e e} |$ by a couple of orders of magnitudes. In addition, we show the expected correlations between the CP-violation phase $\delta_{CP}$ and the NSI parameters $\varepsilon_{e\mu}, \varepsilon_{e\tau}$, and $|\varepsilon_{ee} - \varepsilon_{\mu \mu}|$ and confirm the potentials of DUNE, HK, KNO (combined with HK) in excluding the "No CP violation" hypothesis at 1$\sigma$, 2$\sigma$, and 3$\sigma$, respectively.

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arXiv2022

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Puzzling Excesses in Dark Matter Searches and How to Resolve Them

Intriguing signals with excesses over expected backgrounds have been observed in many astrophysical and terrestrial settings, which could potentially have a dark matter origin. Astrophysical excesses include the Galactic Center GeV gamma-ray excess detected by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, the AMS antiproton and positron excesses, and the 511 and 3.5 keV X-ray lines. Direct detection excesses include the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal, the XENON1T excess, and low-threshold excesses in solid state detectors. We discuss avenues to resolve these excesses, with actions the field can take over the next several years.

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arXiv2020

Sensitivities of future reactor and long-baseline neutrino experiments to NSI

We investigate the potential of the next generation long-baseline neutrino experiments DUNE and T2HK as well as the upcoming reactor experiment JUNO to constrain Non-Standard Interaction (NSI) parameters. JUNO is going to provide the most precise measurements of solar neutrino oscillation parameters as well as determining the neutrino mass ordering. We study how the results of JUNO combined with those of long-baseline neutrino experiments such as DUNE and T2HK can help to determine oscillation parameters and to constrain NSI parameters. We present excluded regions in NSI parameter space, $\epsilon_{\alpha \beta}$ assuming Standard Model (SM) as the null hypothesis. We further explore the correlations between the NSI parameters and CP-violation phase.

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arXiv2020

Pico-charged particles explaining 511 keV line and XENON1T signal

There is a robust signal for a 511 keV photon line from the galactic center which may originate from dark matter particles with masses of a few MeV. To avoid the bounds from delayed recombination and from the absence of the line from dwarf galaxies, in 2017, we have proposed a model in which dark matter first decays into a pair of intermediate pico-charged particles $C\bar{C}$ with a lifetime much larger than the age of the universe. The galactic magnetic field accumulates the relativistic $C\bar{C}$ that eventually annihilate, producing the $e^-e^+$ pair that give rise to the 511 keV line. The relativistic pico-charged $C$ particles can scatter on the electrons inside the direct dark matter search detectors imparting a recoil energy of $E_r \sim$~keV. We show that this model can account for the electron recoil excess recently reported by the XENON1T experiment. Moreover, we show that the XENON1T electron recoil data sets the most stringent bound on the lifetime of the dark matter within this model.

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arXiv2020

Sensitivities of future solar neutrino observatories to NSI

We study the matter effect caused by non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) in the future solar neutrino experiments, DUNE, HK and MICA. The upcoming reactor experiment, JUNO is expected to provide the most precise measurements of solar neutrino oscillation parameters and is going to open up the era of sub-percent precision in the leptonic mixing sector of the Standard Model (SM). Considering JUNO can measure $\Delta m ^2 _{21}$ and $\theta_{12}$ by sub-percent precision and assuming SM as the null hypothesis, we study the possibility to constrain NSI parameters by the future solar neutrino experiments such as DUNE, HK and MICA. For this purpose, we study the effect of NSI on solar neutrino propagation in the Sun and Earth and explore the dependence of the day-night asymmetry on the NSI parameters. We also study the effect of NSI at the water Cerenkov detector on the simulated data for these experiments.

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arXiv2020

Sensitivities to secret neutrino interaction at FASER$\nu$

We study the impact of the coupling of neutrinos with a new light neutral gauge boson, $Z^\prime$, with a mass of less than 500 {\rm MeV} in FASER$\nu$ experiment. Scenarios in which a light gauge boson is coupled to neutrinos are motivated within numerous contexts which are designed to explain various anomalies in particle physics and cosmology. This interaction leads to a new decay mode for charged mesons to a light lepton plus neutrino and $Z^{\prime}$, ($\pi^+(K^+)\to e^+ \nu Z^\prime$) followed by the subsequent decay of $Z^\prime$ into the pair of neutrino and anti-neutrino, ($Z^\prime \to \nu\bar{\nu}$). FASER$\nu$, the Forward Search Experiment at the LHC, has the potential to detect collider neutrinos for the first time. In particular, the FASER$\nu$ emulsion detector will provide the opportunity to detect $\tau$-neutrinos and to measure their energies. Using this ability of FASER$\nu$ emulsion detector, we investigate the potential of FASER$\nu$ experiment and the proposed upgraded version of this experiment, FASER2$\nu$, to constrain the coupling of a neutrino with the light gauge boson.

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arXiv2019

Dark Matter Decaying into Millicharged Particles as a Solution to AMS 02 Positron Excess

The positron excess observed by PAMELA and then confirmed by AMS 02 has intrigued the particle physics community since 2008. Various dark matter decay and annihilation models have been built to explain the excess. However, the bounds from isotropic gamma ray disfavor the canonical dark matter decay scenario. We propose a solution to this excess based on the decay of dark matter particles into intermediate millicharged particles which can be trapped by the galactic magnetic field. The subsequent decay of the millicharged particles to electron positron in our vicinity can explain the excess. Since these particles diffuse out of halo before decay, their contribution to the isotropic gamma ray background is expected to be much smaller than that in canonic dark matter decay scenarios. We show that the model is testable by direct dark matter search experiments.

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arXiv2018

Secret interactions of neutrinos with light gauge boson at the DUNE near detector

Secret interactions of neutrinos with light new gauge bosons, $Z^\prime$, can lead to a rich phenomenology in supernova explosion as well as in the early Universe. This interaction can also lead to new decay modes for charged mesons, $\pi^+ (K^+) \to e^+ \nu Z'$, and subsequently to $Z'\to \nu \bar{\nu}$. After demonstrating that such an interaction can be accommodated within viable electroweak symmetric models, we study how the near detector (ND) of DUNE can probe this scenario. We also discuss how the DUNE ND can make it possible to reconstruct the flavor structure of the $Z^\prime$ coupling to neutrinos.

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arXiv2017

Pico-charged intermediate particles rescue dark matter interpretation of 511 keV signal

Various alleged indirect dark matter search signals, such as the 511 keV line from galaxy center or the PAMELA/AMS02 signal, are often challenged by the absence of corresponding signal from dwarf galaxies and/or from the absence of an impact on CMB through delayed recombination. We propose a novel scenario that can avoid these bounds based on the decay of dark matter, X, to a pair of intermediate particles C and \bar{C} with a lifetime much greater than the age of universe. The annihilation of these intermediate particles eventually leads to a dark matter signal. The bounds from CMB can be easily avoided by the fact that at the time of recombination, not enough C particles had been accumulated. In order to keep C particles from leaving the galaxy, we assume the particles have a small electric charge so in the galactic disk, the magnetic field keeps the C particles in the vicinity of their production. However, they can escape the dwarf galaxies and the dark matter halo where the magnetic field is weak, leading to null signal from these regions. The small charge can have interesting consequences including a signal in direct dark matter searches.

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