Towards the resolution of the solar neutrino problem

Abstract

A number of experiments have accumulated over the years a large amount of solar neutrino data. The data indicate that the observed solar neutrino flux is significantly smaller than expected and, furthermore, that the electron neutrino survival probability is energy dependent. This ''solar neutrino problem'' is best solved by assuming that the electron neutrino oscillates into another neutrino species. Even though one can classify the solar neutrino deficit as strong evidence for neutrino oscillations, it is not yet considered a definitive proof. Traditional objections are that the evidence for solar neutrino oscillations relies on a combination of hard, different experiments, and that the Standard Solar Model (SSM) might not be accurate enough to precisely predict the fluxes of different solar neutrino components. Even though it seems unlikely that modifications to the SSM alone can explain the current solar neutrino data, one still cannot completely discount the possibility that a combination of unknown systematic errors in some of the experiments and certain modifications to the SSM could conspire to yield the observed data. To conclusively demonstrate that there is indeed new physics in solar neutrinos, new experiments are aiming at detecting ''smoking gun'' signatures of neutrino oscillations, such as an anomalous seasonal variation in the observed neutrino flux or a day-night variation due to the regeneration of electron neutrinos in the Earth. In this dissertation we study the sensitivity reach of two upcoming neutrino experiments, Borexino and KamLAND, to both of these effects. Results of neutrino oscillation experiments for the case of two-flavor oscillations have always been presented on the (sin2 2θ, Δm2) parameter space. We point out, however, that this parameterization misses the half of the parameter space π/4 < θ < π/2, which is physically inequivalent to the region 0 < θ < π/4 in the presence of matter effects. The MSW solutions to the solar neutrino problem can extend to the (θ > π/4) side. Furthermore, even the ''vacuum oscillation'' solutions are affected by solar matter effects and hence are different in the two sides.