118565569
Atmospheric sterile neutrinos
A bstractWe study production of sterile neutrinos in the atmosphere and their detection at Super-Kamiokande. A sterile neutrino in the mass range $ 1\;{\text{MeV}} \lesssim {M_{\text{N}}} \lesssim {1}0{5}\;{\text{MeV}} $ is produced by muon or pion decay, and decays to an electron-positron pair and an active neutrino. Such a decay of the sterile neutrino leaves two electron-like Cherenkov rings in the detector. We estimate the sterile neutrino flux from the well-established active neutrino fluxes and study the number of the decay events in the detector. The upper bounds for the active-sterile mixings are obtained by comparing the 2e-like events from the sterile neutrino decays and the observed data by Super-Kamiokande. The upper bound for the muon type mixing Θμ is found to be $ {\left| {{\Theta_{\mu }}} \right|^2} \lesssim 5 \times {10^{{ - 5}}} $ for $ 20\;{\text{MeV}} \lesssim {M_N} \lesssim 80\;{\text{MeV}} $, which is significantly loosened compared to the previous estimation. We demonstrate that the opening angle and the total energy of the rings may serve as diagnostic tools to discover the sterile neutrinos in further data accumulation and future upgraded facilities. The directional asymmetry of the events is a sensitive measure of the diminishment of the sterile neutrino flux due to the decays on the way to the detector.
2665857
Asymmetry and Minimality of Quark Mass Matrices
We systematically investigate general forms of mass matrices for three-generation up and down quarks, including asymmetrical ones in generation space. Viable zero matrix elements are explored which are compatible with the current observation of masses and mixing angles, and also with the recent measurement of CP violation in the B-meson system. The simplest form with the maximal number of vanishing matrix elements is found to be almost consistent with the experimental data, but has an unsatisfactory point that one of the mixing angles is slightly large. At the next-to-minimal level, it is found with help of leptonic generation mixing that only six patterns of mass matrices well describe the experimental data. These sets of mass textures predict all the properties of quarks, including the CP violation, as well as the large (charged) lepton mixing, which may be appropriate for the atmospheric neutrino in the grand unification scheme.
15990400
Minimal Seesaw Textures with Two Heavy Neutrinos
We systematically analyze the Dirac and the Majorana mass matrices in seesaw models with two heavy right-handed neutrinos. We perform thorough classification of the vanishing matrix elements which are compatible with the results from the current neutrino oscillation experiments. We include the possibility of a nondiagonal Majorana mass matrix which leads to new solutions viable with data. In a basis where the Majorana mass matrix is diagonal, these solutions imply a Dirac matrix with specific relationships amongst its elements. We find that at the level of total four zeros together in m{sub D} and M{sub R} the mass matrices are almost consistent with the data but one mixing angle is predicted to be unsuitable. At the next level, i.e. with total three zeros, only seven patterns of mass matrices describe the experimental data well. The seven solutions have testable predictions for the future neutrino experiments. In particular, each solution has definite predictions about the observation of the 1-3 leptonic mixing angle and the effective mass measured in neutrinoless double beta decay. The solutions of the mass matrices contain novel texture forms and provide new insights into the lepton-generation structure. We also discuss possible connections between these textures and the tri-bimaximal more » mixing to search for symmetry principles behind the mass matrix structure. « less
55822671
On the interpretation of IceCube cascade events in terms of the Glashow resonance
The IceCube experiment (IC) has recently observed 2 cascade events with energies between 1 and 10 PeV. This energy combined with the fact that no muon-track events are observed may be interpreted as a cosmogenic $\bar \nu_e$ interacting in IC via the Glashow resonance (GR) $\bar \nu_e e \to W^-\to$ (hadrons or $\bar \nu_e e$). We point out a unique, background-free signature of the GR, a single isolated muon unaccompanied by any shower activity from the interaction $\bar \nu_e e \to W^-\to \bar \nu_\mu \mu^-$, and propose it as a test of this interpretation. We calculate the event numbers and find that a single such event is expected over about a three-year period in IC. We also show that, if event rates remain at their current levels then, even with the GR, standard cosmogenic fluxes cannot easily explain the observations. Moreover, if muon-tracks remain conspicuous by their absence, then new physics needs to be invoked. As example scenarios in conformity with the observations, we calculate event rates for neutrino decay and Lorentz-invariance violation.
7969385
Hybrid textures in minimal seesaw mass matrices
Abstract In the context of the minimal seesaw framework, we discuss the implications of Dirac and Majorana mass matrices in which two properties coexist, namely, equalities among matrix elements and texture zeros. Among the large number of general possibilities, only 12 patterns are found to be consistent with the global neutrino oscillation data at the level of the most minimal number of free parameters. The predictions of the allowed textures for mass hierarchy, θ 13 and effective mass governing neutrino-less double beta decay are discussed. We also explore the possibility of having non-zero CP violation for each allowed solution. We find that only one allowed solution can accommodate both low and high energy CP violation. We discuss the prediction of this solution for leptogenesis and explore the correlation, between leptogenesis and low energy CP violation.
119111931
Relating large Ue3 to the ratio of neutrino mass-squared differences
Abstract The non-zero and sizable value of U e 3 puts pressure on flavor symmetry models which predict an initially vanishing value. Hence, the tradition of relating fermion mixing matrix elements with fermion mass ratios might need to be resurrected. We note that the recently observed non-vanishing value of U e 3 can be related numerically to the ratio of solar and atmospheric mass-squared differences. The most straightforward realization of this can be achieved with a combination of texture zeros and a vanishing neutrino mass. We analyze the implications of some of these possibilities and construct explicit flavor symmetry models that predict these features.
119232581
Pomeron dynamics in the AdS space and structure functions of hadrons at small x
The Pomeron dynamics is investigated via deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at small x in the framework of holographic quantum chromodynamics. The small x DIS process is assumed to be described by the graviton exchange between external vector current and hadron in the AdS space. Our calculations for Fp2, Fπ2, as well as the longitudinal counterpart FpL are consistent with the experimental data. We discuss origins of a difference between F2 and FL in our approach.
119262648
Transition from soft- to hard-Pomeron in the structure functions of hadrons at small-$x$ from holography
We study the nucleon and pion structure functions at small Bjorken-$x$ region in the framework of holographic QCD with a special emphasis on the roles of AdS space wave functions. Using the BPST kernel for the Pomeron exchange and calculating its coupling to target hadrons in the AdS space, we obtain $F_2$ structure functions at the small-$x$. Results for the proton $F^p_2$ as well as the pion $F^\pi_2$ are consistent with experimental data of the deep inelastic scattering and the forward electroproduction of a neutron. Observed $Q^2$ dependence of the Pomeron intercept is well reproduced from soft non-perturbatibve $(Q^2 \sim 0)$ to hard perturbative $(Q^2 \gg 1 GeV^2)$ region. We find the interplay between soft and hard Pomerons is closely related with behavior of AdS wave functions of hadrons and the virtual photon.
119097645
Nucleon structure functions at small $x$ via the Pomeron exchange in AdS space with a soft infrared wall
We present analyses on nucleon structure functions at the small Bjorken-$x$ in the framework of holographic QCD. In this study, we improve the description of the target nucleon in the current setup of the holographic model by introducing a soft-wall AdS/QCD model, in which the AdS geometry is smoothly cut off at IR. Combining the improved Pomeron-nucleon coupling and the wave function of the 5D U(1) vector field with the BPST Pomeron exchange kernel, then we obtain the structure functions. Here we focus on the nonperturbative kinematical region, where $10^{-6} \leq x \leq 10^{-2}$ and $0.1 \leq Q^2 \leq 10$ [GeV$^2$], and show that our calculations for $F_2^p$ and $F_L^p$ are consistent with experimental data of the deep inelastic scattering at HERA. Furthermore, we find that the resulting longitudinal-to-transverse ratio of the structure functions, $F_L^p/F_T^p$, depends on both of $x$ and $Q^2$.