Effects Of Non-standard Interactions Research Articles

Non-standard neutrino interactions mediated by a light scalar at DUNE

We investigate the effect on neutrino oscillations generated by beyond-the-standard-model interactions between neutrinos and matter. Specifically, we focus on scalar-mediated non-standard interactions (NSI) whose impact fundamentally differs from that of vector-mediated NSI. Scalar NSI contribute as corrections to the neutrino mass matrix rather than the matter potential and thereby predict distinct phenomenology from the vector-mediated ones. Similar to vector-type NSI, the presence of scalar-mediated neutrino NSI can influence measurements of oscillation parameters in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, with a notable impact on CP measurement in the case of DUNE. Our study focuses on the effect of scalar NSI on neutrino oscillations, using DUNE as an example. We introduce a model-independent parameterization procedure that enables the examination of the impact of all non-zero scalar NSI parameters simultaneously. Subsequently, we convert DUNE’s sensitivity to the NSI parameters into projected sensitivity concerning the parameters of a light scalar model. We compare these results with existing non-oscillation probes. Our findings reveal that the region of the light scalar parameter space sensitive to DUNE is predominantly excluded by non-oscillation probes, especially when considering all nonzero parameters simultaneously for DUNE.

Imprints of scalar NSI on the CP-violation sensitivity using synergy among DUNE, T2HK and T2HKK

The Non-Standard Interactions (NSIs) are subdominant effects, often appearing in various extensions of SM, which may impact the neutrino oscillations through matter. It is important and interesting to explore the impact of NSIs in the ongoing and upcoming precise neutrino oscillations experiments. In this work, we have studied the imprints of a scalar-mediated NSI in three upcoming long-baseline (LBL) experiments (DUNE, T2HK and T2HKK). The effects of scalar NSI appears as a medium-dependent correction to the neutrino mass term. Its contribution scales linearly with matter density, making LBL experiments a suitable candidate to probe its effects. We show that the scalar NSI may significantly impact the oscillation probabilities, event rates at the detectors and the χ2-sensitivities of δCP measurements. We present the results of a combined analysis involving the LBL experiments (DUNE+T2HK or DUNE+T2HKK) which offer a better capability of constraining the scalar NSI parameters as well as an improved sensitivity towards CP-violation.

Exploring the effects of scalar non standard interactions on the CP violation sensitivity at DUNE

The Neutrino oscillations have provided an excellent opportunity to study new-physics beyond the Standard Model, popularly known as BSM. The unknown couplings involving neutrinos, termed non-standard interactions (NSI), may appear as ‘new-physics’ in different neutrino experiments. The neutrino NSI offers significant effects on neutrino oscillations and CP-sensitivity, which may be probed in various neutrino experiments. The idea of neutrinos coupling with a scalar has evolved recently and looks promising. The effects of scalar NSI may appear as a perturbation to the neutrino mass matrix in the neutrino Hamiltonian. It modifies the neutrino mass matrix and may provide a direct possibility of probing neutrino mass models. As the scalar NSI affects the neutrino mass matrix in the Hamiltonian, its effect is energy independent. Moreover, the matter effects due to scalar NSI scales linearly with the matter density.In this work, we have performed a model-independent study of the effects of scalar NSI at long baseline neutrino experiments, taking DUNE as a case study. We have performed such a thorough study for DUNE for the first time. Various neutrino parameters may get affected due to the inclusion of scalar NSI as it modifies the effective mass matrix of neutrinos. We have explored the impact of scalar NSI in neutrino oscillations and its impact on the measurements of various mixing parameters. We have probed the effects of scalar NSI on different oscillation channels relevant to the experiment. We have also explored the impact of various possible elements in the scalar NSI term on the CP-violation sensitivity at DUNE.

Can NSI affect non-local correlations in neutrino oscillations?

Non-local correlations in entangled systems are usually captured by measures such as Bell’s inequality violation. It was recently shown that in neutrino systems, a measure of non-local advantage of quantum coherence (NAQC) can be considered as a stronger measure of non-local correlations as compared to the Bell’s inequality violation. In this work, we analyze the effects of non standard interaction (NSI) on these measures in the context of two flavour neutrino oscillations for DUNE, MINOS, T2K, KamLAND, JUNO and Daya Bay experimental set-ups. We find that even in the presence of NSI, Bell’s inequality violation occurs in the entire energy range whereas the NAQC violation is observed only in some specific energy range justifying the more elementary feature of NAQC. Further, we find that NSI can enhance the violation of NAQC and Bell’s inequality parameter in the higher energy range of a given experimental set-up; these enhancements being maximal for the KamLAND experiment. However, the possible enhancement in the violation of the Bell’s inequality parameter over the standard model prediction can be up to 11% whereas for NAQC it is 7%. Thus although NAQC is a comparatively stronger witness of nonclassicality, it shows lesser sensitivity to NSI effects in comparison to the Bell’s inequality parameter.

Effective-field theory analysis of the τ−→K−(η(′),K0)ντ decays

We analyze the decays ${\ensuremath{\tau}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{K}^{\ensuremath{-}}({\ensuremath{\eta}}^{(\ensuremath{'})},{K}^{0}){\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}$ within an effective-field theory that includes the most general interactions between Standard Model fields up to dimension six, assuming left-handed neutrinos. In particular, we examine different interesting phenomenological observables, i.e., decay spectra and branching ratio, Dalitz plot distributions, and the forward-backward asymmetry, to explore the sensitivity of the corresponding decays to the effects of nonstandard interactions. A controlled theoretical input on the Standard Model hadronic form factors, based on chiral symmetry, dispersion relations, data, and asymptotic QCD properties, has allowed us to set bounds on the new physics scalar and tensor effective couplings using the measured branching ratios. These are found to be in line with the findings of our series of previous analyses of two-meson tau decays and less precise than the constraints obtained from semileptonic kaon decays. In order to set stringent limits on these couplings, we will use all available experimental data of all possible dimeson tau decays. This is our next step plan, that we hope to be of interest for future experimental analyses of these decays.

Can nonstandard interactions jeopardize the hierarchy sensitivity of DUNE?

We study the effect of non-standard interactions (NSIs) on the propagation of neutrinos through the Earth matter and how it affects the hierarchy sensitivity of the DUNE experiment. We emphasize on the special case when the diagonal NSI parameter $\epsilon_{ee} = -1$, nullifying the standard matter effect. We show that, if in addition, CP violation is maximal then this gives rise to an exact intrinsic hierarchy degeneracy in the appearance channel, irrespective of the baseline and energy. Introduction of off-diagonal NSI parameter, $\epsilon_{e \tau}$, shifts the position of this degeneracy to a different $\epsilon_{ee}$. Moreover the unknown magnitude and phases of the off-diagonal NSI parameters can give rise to additional degeneracies. Overall, given the current model independent limits on NSI parameters, the hierarchy sensitivity of DUNE can get seriously impacted. However, a more precise knowledge on the NSI parameters, specially $\epsilon_{ee}$, can give rise to an improved sensitivity. Alternatively, if NSI exists in nature, and still DUNE shows hierarchy sensitivity, certain ranges of the NSI parameters can be excluded. Additionally, we briefly discussed the implications of $\epsilon_{ee} = -1$ (in the Earth) on MSW effect in the Sun.

Determination of mass hierarchy with νμ → ντ appearance and the effect of nonstandard interactions

Crucial developments in neutrino physics would be the determination of the mass hierarchy (MH) and measurement of the CP phase in the leptonic sector. The patterns of the transition probabilities [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are sensitive to these oscillation parameters. An asymmetry parameter can be defined as the difference of these two probabilities normalized to their sum. The profile of the asymmetry parameter gives a clear signal of the mass ordering as it is found to be positive for inverted hierarchy and negative for normal hierarchy. The asymmetry parameter is also sensitive to the CP phase. We consider the effects of nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI) on the determination of the mass hierarchy. Since we assume the largest new physics effects involve the [Formula: see text] sector only, we ignore NSI in production and study the NSI effects in detection as well as along propagation. We find that the NSI effects can significantly modify the prediction of the asymmetry parameter though the MH can still be resolved.

Sizable NSI from the SU(2)L scalar doublet-singlet mixing and the implications in DUNE

We propose a novel and simple mechanism where sizable effects of non-standard interactions (NSI) in neutrino propagation are induced from the mixing between an electrophilic second Higgs doublet and a charged singlet. The mixing arises from a dimensionful coupling of the scalar doublet and singlet to the standard model Higgs boson. In light of the small mass, the light mass eigenstate from the doublet-singlet mixing can generate much larger NSI than those induced by the heavy eigenstate. We show that a sizable NSI εeτ (∼0.3) can be attained without being excluded by a variety of experimental constraints. Furthermore, we demonstrate that NSI can mimic effects of the Dirac CP phase in the neutrino mixing matrix but they can potentially be disentangled by future long-baseline neutrino experiments, such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).

Non-standard interactions and the CP phase measurements in neutrino oscillations at low energies

We study the effects of non-standard interactions (NSI) and the genuine CP phase $\delta_D$ in neutrino oscillations at low, $E_\nu \lesssim 1\,\mbox{GeV}$, and very low, $E_\nu \lesssim 0.1\,\mbox{GeV}$, energies. For experimental setup with baseline and neutrino energy tuned to the first 1-3 oscillation maximum, we develop a simple analytic formalism to show the effects of NSI. The vacuum mimicking and its violation as well as the use of the separation basis play a central role in our formalism. The NSI corrections that affect the CP phase measurement mainly come from the violation of vacuum mimicking as well as from the corrections to the 1-3 mixing angle and mass-squared difference. We find that the total NSI correction to the $\nu_\mu - \nu_e$ probability $P_{\mu e}$ can reach $20\% - 30\%$ ($1 \sigma$) at T2(H)K. Correspondingly, the correction to the CP phase can be as large as $50^\circ$ and hence significantly deteriorates the CP sensitivity at T2(H)K. The proposed TNT2K experiment, a combination of T2(H)K and the short baseline experiment $\mu$Kam that uses the Super-K/Hyper-K detector at Kamioka to measure the oscillation of the antineutrinos from muon decay at rest ($\mu$DAR), can substantially reduce the degeneracy between NSI and the genuine CP phase $\delta_D$ to provide high CP sensitivity. The NSI correction to $P_{\mu e}$ is only $2\%$ ($1 \sigma$) for $\mu$DAR neutrinos.

Testing nonstandard neutrino matter interactions in atmospheric neutrino propagation

We study the effects of non-standard interactions on the oscillation pattern of atmospheric neutrinos. We use neutrino oscillograms as our main tool to infer the role of non-standard interactions (NSI) parameters at the probability level in the energy range, $E \in [1,20]$ GeV and zenith angle range, $\cos \theta \in [-1,0]$. We compute the event rates for atmospheric neutrino events in presence of NSI parameters in the energy range $E \in [1,10]$ GeV for two different detector configurations - a magnetized iron calorimeter and an unmagnetized liquid Argon time projection chamber which have different sensitivities to NSI parameters due to their complementary characteristics. As an application, we discuss how NSI parameter, $\epsilon_{\mu\tau}$ impacts the determination of the correct octant of $\theta_{23}$.

The discovery reach of CP violation in neutrino oscillation with non-standard interaction effects

We have studied the CP violation discovery reach in a neutrino oscillation experiment with superbeam, neutrino factory and monoenergetic neutrino beam from the electron capture process. For NSI satisfying model-dependent bound for shorter baselines (like CERN-Fréjus set-up) there is insignificant effect of NSI on the the discovery reach of CP violation due to δ. Particularly, for the superbeam and neutrino factory we have also considered relatively longer baselines for which there could be significant NSI effects on CP violation discovery reach for higher allowed values of NSI. For the monoenergetic beam only shorter baselines are considered to study CP violation with different nuclei as neutrino sources. Interestingly for non-standard interactions— and of neutrinos with matter during propagation in longer baselines in the superbeam, there is the possibility of better discovery reach of CP violation than that with only Standard Model interactions of neutrinos with matter. For complex NSI we have shown the CP violation discovery reach in the plane of Dirac phase δ and NSI phase . The CP violation due to some values of δ remain unobservable with present and near future experimental facilities in the superbeam and neutrino factory. However, in the presence of some ranges of off-diagonal NSI phase values there are some possibilities of discovering total CP violation for any value even at confidence level for neutrino factory. Our analysis indicates that for some values of NSI phases total CP violation may not be at all observable for any values of δ. Combination of shorter and longer baselines could indicate in some cases the presence of NSI. However, in general for NSIs the CP violation discovery reach is better in neutrino factory set-ups. Using a neutrino beam from the electron capture process for nuclei Sn and 152Yb, we have shown the discovery reach of CP violation in a neutrino oscillation experiment. Particularly for Sn nuclei CP violation could be found for about 51% of the possible δ values for a baseline of 130 km with boost factor . Although the nuclei 152Yb is technically more feasible for the production of a mono-energetic beam, it is found to be unsuitable in obtaining good discovery reach of CP violation.

Short baseline reactorν¯−escattering experiments and nonstandard neutrino interactions at source and detector

We investigate non-standard interaction effects in antineutrino-electron scattering experiments with baselines short enough to ignore standard oscillation phenomena. The setup is free of ambiguities from the interference between new physics and oscillation effects and is sensitive to both semileptonic new physics at the source and purely leptonic new physics in the weak interaction scattering at the detector. We draw on the TEXONO experiment as the model system, extending its analysis of non-standard interaction effects at the detector to include the generally allowed non-standard interaction phase at the detector and both non-universal and flavor changing new physics at the reactor source. We confirm that the current data allows for new physics constraints at the detector of the same order as those currently published, but we find that constraints on the source new physics are at least an order of magnitude weaker. The new physics phase effects are at the 5% level, noticeable in the 90% C.L. contour plots but not significantly affecting the conclusions. Based on projected increase in sensitivity with an upgraded TEXONO experiment, we estimate the improvement of sensitivity to both source and detector non-standard interactions. We find that the bounds on source parameters improve by an order of magnitude, but do not reach parameter space beyond current limits. On the other hand, the detector new physics sensitivity would push current limits by factors 5 to 10 smaller.

Nonstandard interaction effects on astrophysical neutrino fluxes

We investigate new physics effects in the production and detection of high energy neutrinos at neutrino telescopes. Analysing the flavor ratios \phi_\mu/\phi_\tau and \phi_\mu/(\phi_\tau+\phi_e), we find that the Standard Model predictions for them can be sensibly altered by new physics effects.

Non-standard interaction effects at reactor neutrino experiments

We study non-standard interactions (NSIs) at reactor neutrino experiments, and in particular, the mimicking effects on θ13. We present generic formulas for oscillation probabilities including NSIs from sources and detectors. Instructive mappings between the fundamental leptonic mixing parameters and the effective leptonic mixing parameters are established. In addition, NSI corrections to the mixing angles θ13 and θ12 are discussed in detailed. Finally, we show that, even for a vanishing θ13, an oscillation phenomenon may still be observed in future short baseline reactor neutrino experiments, such as Double Chooz and Daya Bay, due to the existences of NSIs.

Approximative two-flavor framework for neutrino oscillations with nonstandard interactions

In this paper, we develop approximative two-flavor neutrino oscillation formulas including subleading nonstandard interaction effects. Especially, the limit when the small mass-squared difference approaches zero is investigated. The approximate formulas are also tested against numerical simulations in order to determine their accuracy and they will probably be most useful in the GeV energy region, which is the energy region where most upcoming neutrino oscillation experiments will be operating. Naturally, it is important to have analytical formulas in order to interpret the physics behind the degeneracies between standard and nonstandard parameters.

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF NEUTRINO PROPERTIES

I give an overview of some basic properties of massive neutrinos. The first part of this talk is devoted to three fundamental questions about three known neutrinos and to their flavor issues — the mass spectrum, mixing pattern and CP violation. The second part of this talk is to highlight a few hot topics at the frontiers of neutrino physics and neutrino astrophysics, including the naturalness and testability of TeV seesaw mechanisms at the LHC, effects of nonstandard interactions on neutrino oscillations, flavor distributions of ultrahigh-energy cosmic neutrinos at neutrino telescopes, collective flavor oscillations of supernova neutrinos, flavor effects in thermal leptogenesis, the GSI anomaly and Mössbauer neutrino oscillations, and so on. I finally make some concluding remarks for the road ahead.

LONG BASELINE NEUTRINO EXPERIMENTS WITH TWO-DETECTOR SETUP

I discuss why and how powerful is the two-detector setting in neutrino oscillation experiments. I cover three concrete examples: (1) reactor θ13 experiments, (2) T2KK, Tokai-to-Kamioka-Korea two-detector complex for measuring CP violation, determining the neutrino mass hierarchy, and resolving the eight-fold parameter degeneracy, (3) two-detector setting in a neutrino factory at baselines 3000 km and 7000 km for detecting effects of non-standard interactions (NSI) of neutrinos.

Effects of non-standard interactions in the MINOS experiment

We investigate the effects of non-standard interactions on the determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters Δm312, θ23, and θ13 in the MINOS experiment. We show that adding non-standard interactions to the analysis lead to an extension of the allowed parameter space to larger values of Δm312 and smaller θ23, and basically removes all predictability for θ13. In addition, we discuss the sensitivities to the non-standard interaction parameters of the MINOS experiment alone. In particular, we examine the degeneracy between θ13 and the non-standard interaction parameter εeτ. We find that this degeneracy is responsible for the removal of the θ13 predictability and that the possible bound on |εeτ| is competitive with direct bounds only if a more stringent external bound on θ13 is applied.

Two modes of searching for new neutrino interactions at MINOS

The SuperKamiokande atmospheric neutrino measurements leave substantial room for nonstandard interactions (NSI) of neutrinos with matter in the nu_e- nu_tau sector. Large values of the NSI couplings are accommodated if the vacuum oscillation parameters are changed from their standard values. Short and medium baseline neutrino beams can break this degeneracy by measuring the true vacuum oscillation parameters with the muon neutrino disappearance mode, for which the matter effects are negligible or subdominant. These experiments can also search for the nu_e-nu_tau flavor changing effects directly, by looking for nu_mu->nu_e conversion caused by the intervening matter. We discuss both of these methods for the case of MINOS. We find that, while the present MINOS data on nu_mu disappearance induce only minor changes on the constraints on the NSI parameters, the situation will improve markedly with the planned increase of the statistics by an order of magnitude. In that case, the precision will be enough to distinguish certain presently allowed NSI scenarios from the no-NSI case. NSI per quark of about 10% the size of the standard weak interaction could give a nu_mu - nu_e conversion probability of the order ~ 10^{-2}, measurable by MINOS in the same high statistics scenario. In this nu_mu - nu_e channel, the small effects of NSI could be comparable or larger than the vacuum contribution of the small angle theta_{13}. The expected theta_{13} bound at MINOS should be more properly interpreted as a bound in the theta_{13}-NSI parameter space.

Test of tau neutrino interactions with atmospheric neutrinos and K2K data

The presence of a tau component in the flux of atmospheric neutrinos inside the Earth, due to flavor oscillations, makes these neutrinos a valuable probe of interactions of the tau neutrino with matter. We study -- analytically and numerically -- the effects of nonstandard interactions in the nu_e-nu_tau sector on atmospheric neutrino oscillations, and calculate the bounds on the exotic couplings that follow from combining the atmospheric neutrino and K2K data. We find very good agreement between numerical results and analytical predictions derived from the underlying oscillation physics. While improving on existing accelerator bounds, our bounds still allow couplings of the size comparable to the standard weak interaction. The inclusion of new interactions expands the allowed region of the vacuum oscillation parameters towards smaller mixing angles, 0.2 ~< sin^2 theta_{23} ~< 0.7, and slightly larger mass squared splitting, 1.5 * 10^{-3} eV^2 ~< |\Delta m^2_{23}| ~< 4.0 * 10^{-3} eV^2, compared to the standard case. The impact of the K2K data on all these results is significant; further important tests of the nu_e-nu_tau exotic couplings will come from neutrino beams experiments such as MINOS and long baseline projects.