Abstract
This work explores the possibility of resorting to neutrino phenomenology to detect evidence of new physics, caused by the residual signals of the supposed quantum structure of spacetime. In particular, this work investigates the effects on neutrino oscillations and mass hierarchy detection, predicted by models that violate Lorentz invariance, preserving the spacetime isotropy and homogeneity. Neutrino physics is the ideal environment where conducting the search for new “exotic” physics, since the oscillation phenomenon is not included in the original formulation of the minimal Standard Model (SM) of particles. The confirmed observation of the neutrino oscillation phenomenon is, therefore, the first example of physics beyond the SM and can indicate the necessity to resort to new theoretical models. In this work, the hypothesis that the supposed Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) perturbations can influence the oscillation pattern is investigated. LIV theories are indeed constructed assuming modified kinematics, caused by the interaction of massive particles with the spacetime background. This means that the dispersion relations are modified, so it appears natural to search for effects caused by LIV in physical phenomena governed by masses, as in the case of neutrino oscillations. In addition, the neutrino oscillation phenomenon is interesting since there are three different mass eigenstates and in a LIV scenario, which preserves isotropy, at least two different species of particle must interact.
Highlights
Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) theories are constructed assuming modified kinematics, caused by the interaction of massive particles with the spacetime background. This means that the dispersion relations are modified, so it appears natural to search for effects caused by LIV in physical phenomena governed by masses, as in the case of neutrino oscillations
Neutrino physics is an ideal playground to search for deviations from Lorentz invariance, thanks to its various set of experiments, covering a wide spectrum of energies and baselines
Short and Long baseline neutrino experiments seem to be ideal structures to test the validity of Lorentz Invariance, due to their great sensitivity to the detection of phase differences in neutrino propagation
Summary
Recent observations made by experiments with natural (solar) neutrino sources [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], atmospheric [8], artificial neutrinos short baseline [9,10,11,12,13,14] and long-baseline reactor neutrinos [15,16,17,18,19]. It is well known that this new physics cannot be explained by the minimal particle physics Standard Model (SM), where only 3 left-handed massless neutrino flavors are included. This new physics effect is usually described by supposing the existence of tiny neutrino masses that can cause the oscillations. This produces a model (3νSM extension of the Standard Model of particle physics, that includes the 3 neutrino masses) where the oscillations are governed by a 3 × 3 matrix, determined by 6 parameters, 3 angles θ12 , θ23 and θ13 , a phase δ that takes into account CP violation in weak interaction and 2 mass squared differences, which depend on the neutrino mass hierarchy. Universe 2020, 6, 37 oscillations and mass hierarchy are investigated, and lastly, some experimental results and sensitivities are listed
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