Yichen Li

Unambiguous determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy using reactor neutrinos

Determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy in a reactor neutrino experiment at the medium baseline is discussed. Observation of the interference effects between the Delta m(31)(2) and Delta m(32)(2) oscillations enables a relative measurement independent of the knowledge of the absolute mass-squared difference. With a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector of the 3%/root E (MeV) energy resolution, the Daya Bay II experiment at a baseline of similar to 50 km from reactors of total thermal power 36 GW can determine the mass hierarchy at a confidence level of Delta chi(2)(MH) similar to (10 divided by 12) (3 divided by 3.5 sigma) in six years after taking into account the real spatial distribution of reactor cores. We show that the unknown residual energy nonlinearity of the liquid scintillator detector has limited impact on the sensitivity due to the self-calibration of small oscillation peaks. Furthermore, an extra increase of Delta chi(2)(MH) similar or equal to 4(9) can be obtained, by including the precise measurement of the effective mass-squared difference Delta m(mu mu)(2) of expected relative error 1.5% (1%) from ongoing long-baseline muon neutrino disappearance experiments. The sensitivities from the interference and from absolute measurements can be cross-checked. When combining these two, the mass hierarchy can be determined at a confidence level of Delta chi(2)(MH) similar to (15 divided by 20) (4 sigma) in six years.

Pragmatic view of short-baseline neutrino oscillations

We present the results of global analyses of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data in 3 + 1, 3 + 2 and 3 + 1 + 1 neutrino mixing schemes. We show that the data do not allow us to abandon the simplest 3 + 1 scheme in favor of the more complex 3 + 2 and 3 + 1 + 1 schemes. We present the allowed region in the 3 + 1 parameter space, which is located at Delta m(41)(2) between 0.82 and 2.19 eV(2) at 3 sigma. The case of no oscillations is disfavored by about 6 sigma, which decreases dramatically to about 2 sigma if the Liquid Scintillating Neutrino Detector (LSND) data are not considered. Hence, new high-precision experiments are needed to check the LSND signal.

Update of Short-Baseline Electron Neutrino and Antineutrino Disappearance

We present a complete update of the analysis of electron neutrino and antineutrino disappearance experiments in terms of neutrino oscillations in the framework of 3+1 neutrino mixing, taking into account the Gallium anomaly, the reactor anomaly, solar neutrino data and nu_e-C scattering data. We discuss the implications of a recent 71Ga(3He,3H)71Ge measurement which give information on the neutrino cross section in Gallium experiments. We discuss the solar bound on active-sterile mixing and present our numerical results. We discuss the connection between the results of the fit of neutrino oscillation data and the heavy neutrino mass effects in beta-decay experiments (considering new Mainz data) and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments (considering the recent EXO results).

Light sterile neutrinos

The theory and phenomenology of light sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale is reviewed. The reactor, Gallium and LSND anomalies are briefly described and interpreted as indications of the existence of short-baseline oscillations which require the existence of light sterile neutrinos. The global fits of short-baseline oscillation data in 3+1 and 3+2 schemes are discussed, together with the implications for beta-decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay. The cosmological effects of light sterile neutrinos are briefly reviewed and the implications of existing cosmological data are discussed. The review concludes with a summary of future perspectives.

Updated global 3+1 analysis of short-baseline neutrino oscillations

A bstractWe present the results of an updated fit of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data in the framework of 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing. We first consider νe and ν¯e

The LCFIVertex package: vertexing, flavour tagging and vertex charge reconstruction with an ILC vertex detector

{\overline{\nu}}_e

Captures of hot and warm sterile antineutrino dark matter on EC-decaying 63Ho nuclei

disappearance in the light of the Gallium and reactor anomalies. We discuss the implications of the recent measurement of the reactor ν¯e