118402093
Minimally Allowed beta beta 0 nu Rates From Approximate Flavor Symmetries
Neutrinoless double beta decay ({beta}{beta}0{nu}) is the only realistic probe of Majorana neutrinos. In the standard scenario, dominated by light neutrino exchange, the process amplitude is proportional to m{sub ee} , the e - e element of the Majorana mass matrix. This is expected to hold true for small {beta}{beta}{nu} rates ({Gamma}{sub {beta}{beta}0{nu}}), even in the presence of new physics. Naively, current data allows for vanishing m{sub ee} , but this should be protected by an appropriate flavor symmetry. All such symmetries lead to mass matrices inconsistent with oscillation phenomenology. Hence, Majorana neutrinos imply nonzero {Gamma}{sub {beta}{beta}0{nu}}. I perform a spurion analysis to break all possible abelian symmetries that guarantee {Gamma}{sub {beta}{beta}0{nu}} = 0 and search for minimally allowed m{sub ee} values. Specifically, I survey 259 broken structures to yield m{sub ee} values and current phenomenological constraints under a variety of scenarios. This analysis also extracts predictions for both neutrino oscillation parameters and kinematic quantities. Assuming reasonable tuning levels, I find that m{sub ee} > 4 x 10{sup -6} eV at 99% confidence. Bounds below this value would indicate the Dirac neutrino nature or the existence of new light (eV-MeV scale) degrees of freedom that can potentially be probed elsewhere.more » This limit can be raised by improvements in neutrino parameter measurements, particularly of the reactor mixing angle, depending on the best fit parameter values. Such improvements will also significantly constrain the available model space and aid in future constructions.« less
15898659
Semileptonic decays of light quarks beyond the Standard Model
We thank the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington and the 
Aspen Center for Physics for their hospitality during the completion of this work. We thank 
Antonio Pich and Jorge Portoles for useful comments. M.G.-A. thanks A. Filipuzzi for useful 
comments and discussions and the LANL T-2 Group for its hospitality and partial support. 
This work has been supported in part by the EU RTN network FLAVIAnet [Contract No. 
MRTN-CT-2006-035482], by MICINN, Spain [Grants FPU No. AP20050910, FPA2007- 
60323 and Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme CSD2007-00042 -CPAN-] (M. G.-A.). This 
work was performed under the auspices of the National Nuclear Security Administration 
of the U.S. Department of Energy at Los Alamos National Laboratory under Contract No. 
DE-AC52-06NA25396, and was supported in part by the LANL LDRD program.
118891248
Neutrino mass hierarchy, vacuum oscillations, and vanishing|Ue3|
Is the relatively isolated member of the neutrino mass spectrum heavier or lighter than the two closely-spaced members? This question--the character of the neutrino mass hierarchy--is of great theoretical interest. All previously identified experiments for addressing it via neutrino oscillations require that the currently unknown size of the U{sub e3} element of the leptonic mixing matrix (parameterized by the unknown {theta}{sub 13} mixing angle) be sufficiently large, and will utterly fail in the limit {theta}{sub 13}{yields}0. For this reason, we explore alternative oscillation approaches that would still succeed even if {theta}{sub 13} vanishes. We identify several alternatives that require neither a nonzero vertical bar U{sub e3} vertical bar nor the presence of significant matter effects (even if the latter are unavoidable in the case of long-baseline, Earth-based experiments). All include multiple percent-level neutrino oscillation measurements, usually involving muon-neutrino (or antineutrino) disappearance and very long baselines. We comment on the degree of promise that these alternative approaches show.
117798634
Non-oscillation probes of the neutrino mass hierarchy and vanishing |U(e3)|
One of the outstanding issues in neutrino physics is the experimental determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy: Is the order of the neutrino masses ``normal'' - m_1^2<m_2^2<m_3^2 - or is it inverted - m_3^2<m_1^2<m_2^2, with m_2^2-m_1^2 << m_2^2,m_1^2? While this issue can be resolved in next-generation long-baseline nu_{mu} to nu_e neutrino oscillation studies if |U_{e3}|^2 is large enough, a clear strategy on how to resolve it if |U_{e3}|^2 is sufficiently small is still lacking. We study the capability of non-oscillation probes of neutrino masses to determine the neutrino mass ordering. We concentrate on studies of m_{nu_e}, the kinematical neutrino mass to which precise studies of tritium beta-decay are sensitive, m_{ee}, the effective mass to which the rate for neutrinoless double-beta decay is sensitive if the neutrinos are Majorana fermions, and Sigma, the sum of the neutrino masses, to which cosmological probes of the energy budget of the Universe are sensitive. We find that combined measurements of m_{ee}, Sigma, and m_{nu_e} are capable of establishing the neutrino mass hierarchy if these measurements are precise enough and if one ``gets lucky.'' We quantify the previous sentence in detail by performing a numerical analysis of a large number of theoretical data sets, for different measured values of m_{nu_e}, m_{ee}, and Sigma, keeping in mind the ultimate sensitivity that can be reached by next (and next-to-next) generation experiments.
119115901
Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos in the New Standard Model
The addition of gauge-singlet fermions to the standard model Lagrangian renders the neutrinos massive and allows one to explain all that is experimentally known about neutrino masses and lepton mixing by varying the values of the Majorana mass parameters M for the gauge singlets and the neutrino Yukawa couplings {lambda}. Here we explore the region of parameter space where M values are much smaller than the neutrino Dirac masses {lambda}v. In this region, neutrinos are pseudo-Dirac fermions. We find that current solar data constrain M values to be less than at least 10{sup -9} eV, and discuss the sensitivity of future experiments to tiny gauge-singlet fermion masses. We also discuss a useful basis for analyzing pseudo-Dirac neutrino mixing effects. In particular, we identify a simple relationship between elements of M and the induced enlarged mixing matrix and new mass-squared differences. These allow one to directly relate bounds on the new mass-squared differences to bounds on the singlet fermion Majorana masses.
119278741
Some radiative corrections to neutrino scattering: Neutral currents
With the advent of high precision neutrino scattering experiments comes the need for improved radiative corrections. We present a phenomenological analysis of some contributions to the production of photons in neutrino neutral current scattering that are relevant to experiments subsuming the 1 % level of accuracy.
118501099
Daughters and Weinberg field theory
SummaryA recurrence relation is obtained for the Feynman amplitude for the scattering of four spinless particles due to the exchange of a particle with spinJ, described by a (J, 0) field of Weinberg. It is shown that lower-spin contributions still occur in the amplitude, even though there are no redundant components in the spinor field.RiassuntoSi ottiene una relazione di ricorrenza per l'ampiezza di Feynmann dello scattering di quattro particelle prive di spin dovuto allo scambio di una particella di spinJ, descritto da un campo (J, 0) di Weinberg. Si dimostra che nell'ampiezza si ha ancora il contributo dello spin minore, anche se nel campo spinoriale non si hanno componenti ridondanti.РезюмеПолучается рекурентное соотношение для фейнмановской амплитуды рассеяния четырех бесспиновых частиц, обусловленное обменом частицы со спиномJ, которая описывается (J, 0) полем Вейнберга. Показывается, что в амплитуде все же имеется вклад от более низкого спина, даже если не существуют ишбыточные компоненты в спинорном поле.
122863150
Comments on the paper «Equivalence theorems for massive spin-one particles»
122775679
An equivalence theorem for a massive spin one particle interacting with Dirac particles in quantum field theory
The (1,0)(+)(0,1) massive spin one field phi mu nu (x) is quantized following the method of Takahashi and Umezawa (1953). The interaction Hamiltonian in the interaction picture is then calculated for such a field interacting in a simple way with Dirac fields. In contrast with a remark of Kyriakopoulos (1969) the generalized Matthews' theorem is found to apply to the calculation of S matrix elements. The analogous theory in terms of the Proca field is given in outline, and the two theories are found to be inequivalent. A discussion of how the inequivalence arises is given; then it is demonstrated how equivalent theories may be constructed, and the equivalence is proved.
122658441
On the possibility of breakdown of Lorentz invariance in the Takahashi-Umezawa quantization method
The Stuckelberg formalism for a massive spin-one field interacting with external potentials is quantized following the method of Takahashi and Umezawa. It is shown how the characteristic determinant of the field equations, which, in an earlier paper, was shown to have the same form as the Lee-yang determinant, for such a theory, determines the possibility of breakdown of Lorentz invariance in the procedure of the Takahashi-Umezawa quantization method.
122271673
Discrete symmetries and supersymmetry
The charge conjugation and parity transformation properties of the supersymmetry algebra with SU(N), of Dondi (1975), are discussed. It is shown when and how this algebra may be modified to accommodate charge conjugation or parity invariance.