Search results for "neutrino oscillation"

Impact of neutrino properties on the estimation of inflationary parameters from current and future observations

2016

We study the impact of assumptions about neutrino properties on the estimation of inflationary parameters from cosmological data, with a specific focus on the allowed contours in the $n_s/r$ plane. We study the following neutrino properties: (i) the total neutrino mass $ M_\nu =\sum_i m_i$; (ii) the number of relativistic degrees of freedom $N_{eff}$; and (iii) the neutrino hierarchy: whereas previous literature assumed 3 degenerate neutrino masses or two massless neutrino species (that do not match neutrino oscillation data), we study the cases of normal and inverted hierarchy. Our basic result is that these three neutrino properties induce $< 1 \sigma$ shift of the probability contours in…

Solar Neutrino Spectroscopy

2017

More than forty years after the first detection of neutrinos from the Sun, the spectroscopy of solar neutrinos has proven to be an on-going success story. The long-standing puzzle about the observed solar neutrino deficit has been resolved by the discovery of neutrino flavor oscillations. Today's experiments have been able to solidify the standard MSW-LMA oscillation scenario by performing precise measurements over the whole energy range of the solar neutrino spectrum. This article reviews the enabling experimental technologies: On the one hand mutli-kiloton-scale water Cherenkov detectors performing measurements in the high-energy regime of the spectrum, on the other end ultrapure liquid-s…

Sterile Neutrinos with Secret Interactions -- Cosmological Discord?

2018

Several long-standing anomalies from short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments -- most recently corroborated by new data from MiniBooNE -- have led to the hypothesis that extra, 'sterile', neutrino species might exist. Models of this type face severe cosmological constraints, and several ideas have been proposed to avoid these constraints. Among the most widely discussed ones are models with so-called 'secret interactions' in the neutrino sector. In these models, sterile neutrinos are hypothesized to couple to a new interaction, which dynamically suppresses their production in the early Universe through finite-temperature effects. Recently, it has been argued that the original calcula…

Sterile neutrinos with secret interactions—lasting friendship with cosmology

2015

Sterile neutrinos with mass ~1 eV and order 10% mixing with active neutrinos have been proposed as a solution to anomalies in neutrino oscillation data, but are tightly constrained by cosmological limits. It was recently shown that these constraints are avoided if sterile neutrinos couple to a new MeV-scale gauge boson A'. However, even this scenario is restricted by structure formation constraints when A'-mediated collisional processes lead to efficient active-to-sterile neutrino conversion after neutrinos have decoupled. In view of this, we reevaluate in this paper the viability of sterile neutrinos with such "secret" interactions. We carefully dissect their evolution in the early Univers…

Future $\nu_\tau$ Oscillation Experiments and Present Data

1995

Our goal in this paper is to examine the discovery potential of laboratory experiments searching for the oscillation $\nu_\mu(\nu_e) \rightarrow \nu_\tau$, in the light of recent data on solar and atmospheric neutrino experiments, which we analyse together with the most restrictive results from laboratory experiments on neutrino oscillations. In order to explain simultaneously $all$ present results we use a four-neutrino framework, with an additional sterile neutrino. Our predictions are rather pessimistic for the upcoming experiments NOMAD and CHORUS, which, we find, are able to explore only a small area of the oscillation parameter space. On the other hand, the discovery potential of futu…

Sterile Neutrinos, Non-Standard Neutrino Oscillations and Tests of Lorentz Invariance

2020

Effects of degenerate sterile neutrinos on the supernova neutrino flux

2004

We consider the possibility that there exist sterile neutrinos which are closely degenerate in mass with the active neutrinos and mixed with them. We investigate the effects of this kind of active-sterile neutrino mixing on the composition of supernova neutrino flux at the Earth. If an adiabatic MSW-transition between active and sterile neutrinos takes place, it could dramatically diminish the electron neutrino flux.

Impact of New Physics on CP-Asymmetries at Long Baselines

2018

We study the impact of new physics on CP-asymmetries using different oscillation channels at long baseline experiments.

Probing light sterile neutrino signatures at reactor and Spallation Neutron Source neutrino experiments

2017

We investigate the impact of a fourth sterile neutrino at reactor and Spallation Neutron Source neutrino detectors. Specifically, we explore the discovery potential of the TEXONO and COHERENT experiments to subleading sterile neutrino effects through the measurement of the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering event rate. Our dedicated $\chi^2$-sensitivity analysis employs realistic nuclear structure calculations adequate for high purity sub-keV threshold Germanium detectors.

Experimental searches on sterile neutrinos

2015

While neutrino oscillations among the three active neutrino flavors are by now well established, several anomalies observed at relatively short baselines in oscillation experiments hint towards the existence of one or more additional sterile neutrino flavors. As a consequence, several experiments are in preparation that are dedicated to test the sterile neutrino hypothesis. The present contribution gives an overview of the on-going experimental efforts, highlighting the two projects that are foreseen to start in 2015: SOX deploying a radioactive neutrino source at short distance from the BOREXINO detector at LNGS, and STEREO searching for sterile neutrino oscillations at short distance from…