Stefan Antusch

Theory of neutrinos: a white paper

This paper is a review of the present status of neutrino mass physics, which grew out of an APS sponsored study of neutrinos in 2004. After a discussion of the present knowledge of neutrino masses and mixing and some popular ways to probe the new physics implied by recent data, it summarizes what can be learned about neutrino interactions as well as the nature of new physics beyond the Standard Model from the various proposed neutrino experiments. The intriguing possibility that neutrino mass physics may be at the heart of our understanding of a long standing puzzle of cosmology, i.e. the origin of matter?antimatter asymmetry is also discussed.

Physics at a future Neutrino Factory and super-beam facility

The conclusions of the Physics Working Group of the International Scoping Study of a future Neutrino Factory and super-beam facility (the ISS) are presented. The ISS was carried out by the international community between NuFact05, (the 7th International Workshop on Neutrino Factories and Super-beams, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Rome, 21–26 June 2005) and NuFact06 (Ivine, CA, 24–30 August 2006). The physics case for an extensive experimental programme to understand the properties of the neutrino is presented and the role of high-precision measurements of neutrino oscillations within this programme is discussed in detail. The performance of second-generation super-beam experiments, beta-beam facilities and the Neutrino Factory are evaluated and a quantitative comparison of the discovery potential of the three classes of facility is presented. High-precision studies of the properties of the muon are complementary to the study of neutrino oscillations. The Neutrino Factory has the potential to provide extremely intense muon beams and the physics potential of such beams is discussed in the final section of the report.The conclusions of the Physics Working Group of the International Scoping Study of a future Neutrino Factory and super-beam facility (the ISS) are presented. The ISS was carried out by the international community between NuFact05, (the 7th International Workshop on Neutrino Factories and Superbeams, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Rome, June 21-26, 2005) and NuFact06 (Irvine, California, 2430 August 2006). The physics case for an extensive experimental programme to understand the properties of the neutrino is presented and the role of high-precision measurements of neutrino oscillations within this programme is discussed in detail. The performance of second generation super-beam experiments, beta-beam facilities, and the Neutrino Factory are evaluated and a quantitative comparison of the discovery potential of the three classes of facility is presented. High-precision studies of the properties of the muon are complementary to the study of neutrino oscillations. The Neutrino Factory has the potential to provide extremely intense muon beams and the physics potential of such beams is discussed in the final section of the report. The ISS Physics Working Group Editors: S.F. King1, K. Long2, Y. Nagashima3, B.L. Roberts4, and O. Yasuda5.

Unitarity of the Leptonic Mixing Matrix

We determine the elements of the leptonic mixing matrix, without assuming unitarity, combining data from neutrino oscillation experiments and weak decays. To that end, we first develop a formalism for studying neutrino oscillations in vacuum and matter when the leptonic mixing matrix is not unitary. To be conservative, only three light neutrino species are considered, whose propagation is generically affected by non-unitary effects. Precision improvements within future facilities are discussed as well.

Running neutrino mass parameters in see-saw scenarios

We systematically analyze quantum corrections in see-saw scenarios, including effects from above as well as below the see-saw scales. We derive approximate renormalization group equations for neutrino masses, lepton mixings and CP phases, yielding an analytic understanding and a simple estimate of the size of the effects. Even for hierarchical masses, they often exceed the precision of future experiments. Furthermore, we provide a software package allowing for a convenient numerical renormalization group analysis, with heavy singlets being integrated out successively at their mass thresholds. We also discuss applications to model building and related topics.

Charged lepton corrections to neutrino mixing angles and CP phases revisited

Abstract We re-analyze charged lepton corrections to neutrino mixing angles and CP phases, carefully including CP phases from the charged lepton sector. We present simple analytical formulae for including the charged lepton corrections and derive compact new results for small neutrino and charged lepton mixings θ 13 ν and θ 13 e . We find a generic relation θ 12 + 1 2 θ 12 e cos ( δ − π ) ≈ θ 12 ν , which relates the prediction from the neutrino sector θ 12 ν to the charged lepton mixing θ 12 e and to the MNS neutrino oscillation phase δ. We apply our formula to the examples of bimaximal or tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing. One implication is that the so-called quark–lepton complementarity relation θ 12 + θ C = 45 ° can only hold for δ = π and it gets modified in the presence of leptonic CP violation. On the other hand, the lepton mixing θ 13 generated from the charged lepton correction θ 12 e is independent of CP phases and given by θ 13 = 1 2 θ 12 e . Combining these results leads to a model-independent sum rule: θ 12 + θ 13 cos ( δ − π ) ≈ θ 12 ν where θ 12 ν = ( 35.26 ° ) 45 ° in the case of (tri-)bimaximal neutrino mixing, for example.

Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions with Matter from Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Abstract We investigate how non-standard neutrino interactions (NSIs) with matter can be generated by new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) and analyse the constraints on the NSIs in these SM extensions. We focus on tree-level realisations of lepton number conserving dimension 6 and 8 operators which do not induce new interactions of four charged fermions (since these are already quite constrained) and discard the possibility of cancellations between diagrams with different messenger particles to circumvent experimental constraints. The cases studied include classes of dimension 8 operators which are often referred to as examples for ways to generate large NSIs with matter. We find that, in the considered scenarios, the NSIs with matter are considerably more constrained than often assumed in phenomenological studies, at least O ( 10 −2 ) . The constraints on the flavour-conserving NSIs turn out to be even stronger than the ones for operators which also produce interactions of four charged fermions at the same level. Furthermore, we find that in all studied cases the generation of NSIs with matter also gives rise to NSIs at the source and/or detector of a possible future Neutrino Factory.

Neutrino mass operator renormalization revisited

We re-derive the renormalization group equation for the effective coupling of the dimension five operator which corresponds to a Majorana mass matrix for the Standard Model neutrinos. We find a result which differs somewhat from earlier calculations, leading to modifications in the evolution of leptonic mixing angles and CP phases. We also present a general method for calculating β-functions from counterterms in MS-like renormalization schemes, which works for tensorial quantities.

Non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix: present bounds and future sensitivities

A bstractThe non-unitarity of the effective leptonic mixing matrix at low energies is a generic signal of extensions of the Standard Model (SM) with extra fermionic singlet particles, i.e. “sterile” or “right-handed” neutrinos, to account for the observed neutrino masses. The low energy effects of such extensions can be described in a model-independent way by the Minimal Unitarity Violation (MUV) scheme, an effective field theory extension of the SM. We perform a global fit of the MUV scheme parameters to the present experimental data, which yields the up-to-date constraints on leptonic non-unitarity. Furthermore, we investigate the sensitivities and discovery prospects of future experiments. In particular, FCC-ee/TLEP would be a powerful probe of flavour-conserving non-unitarity for singlet masses up to ∼60 TeV. Regarding flavour-violating non-unitarity, future experiments on muon-to-electron conversion in nuclei could even probe extensions with singlet masses up to ∼0.3 PeV.

Neutrino mass operator renormalization in two Higgs doublet models and the MSSM

In a recent re-analysis of the Standard Model (SM) (β)-function for the effective neutrino mass operator, we found that the previous results were not entirely correct. Therefore, we consider the analogous dimension five operators in a class of two Higgs doublet models (2HDMs) and the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). Deriving the renormalization group equations for these effective operators, we confirm the existing result in the case of the MSSM. Some of our 2HDM results are new, while others differ from earlier calculations. This leads to modifications in the renormalization group evolution of leptonic mixing angles and CP phases in the 2HDMs.

Trimaximal mixing with predicted theta_13 from a new type of constrained sequential dominance

Following the recent T2K indication of a sizeable reactor angle, we present a class of models which fix θ13 while preserving trimaximal solar mixing. The models are based on a new type of constrained sequential dominance involving new vacuum alignments, along the (1,2,0) T or (1,0,2) T directions in flavour space. We show that such alignments are easily achieved using orthogonality, and may replace the role of the subdominant flavon alignment (1,1,1) T in