The Physics of Neutrinos

About this book

The physics of neutrinos – uncharged elementary particles that are key to helping us better understand the nature of our universe – is one of the most exciting frontiers of modern science. This book provides a comprehensive overview of neutrino physics today and explores promising new avenues of inquiry that could lead to future breakthroughs.

The Physics of Neutrinos begins with a concise history of the field and a tutorial on the fundamental properties of neutrinos, and goes on to discuss how the three neutrino types interchange identities as they propagate from their sources to detectors. The book shows how studies of neutrinos produced by such phenomena as cosmic rays in the atmosphere and nuclear reactions in the solar interior provide striking evidence that neutrinos have mass, and it traces our astounding progress in deciphering the baffling experimental findings involving neutrinos. The discovery of neutrino mass offers the first indication of a new kind of physics that goes beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles, and this book considers the unanticipated patterns in the masses and mixings of neutrinos in the framework of proposed new theoretical models.

The Physics of Neutrinos maps out the ambitious future facilities and experiments that will advance our knowledge of neutrinos, and explains why the way forward in solving the outstanding questions in neutrino science will require the collective efforts of particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.

Contents

Preface xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Neutrino Basics 11
     2.1 Dirac and Majorana Neutrinos 11
     2.2 Neutrino Counting 12
     2.3 Neutrinos from Weak Decays 14
     2.4 Neutrino Cross Sections 16
     2.5 Neutrino Detectors 24
     2.6 Neutrino Beams 28

3 Neutrino Mixing and Oscillations 33
     3.1 Vacuum Oscillations 33
     3.2 Matter Effects on Oscillations 36
     3.3 Solar Neutrino Oscillations 38
     3.4 Long-baseline Oscillations through the Earth 41
     3.5 Matter Effects for Sterile Neutrinos 42
     3.6 Decoherence 43

4 Solar Neutrinos 45
     4.1 Origin of Solar Neutrinos 45
     4.2 Solar Neutrino Experiments 46
     4.3 KamLAND 49
     4.4 Solar/Reactor Neutrino Parameters 49
     4.5 Flux-independent Tests 53
     4.6 Future Experiments 56
     4.7 Geoneutrinos 57

5 Atmospheric Neutrinos 59
     5.1 Atmospheric Neutrino Experiments 59
     5.2 Matter Effects for Atmospheric Neutrinos 63
     5.3 Long-baseline Neutrino Experiments 64

6 Global Three-neutrino Fits 68

7 Absolute Neutrino Mass 71
     7.1 Beta Decay 71
     7.2 Cosmological Limits 72
     7.3 Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay 73

8 Long-baseline Neutrino Oscillations 76
     8.1 Conventional Neutrino Beams 77
     8.2 Reactor Experiments 80
     8.3 Superbeams 85
     8.4 Neutrino Factories 87
     8.5 Beta Beams 91
     8.6 Comparing Long-baseline Experiments 92
     8.7 T and CPT Symmetries 97

9 Model Building 99
     9.1 The Seesaw Mechanism 99
     9.2 Patterns of Neutrino Masses and Mixings 102
     9.3 GUT Models 105
     9.4 Non-GUT-specific Models 107
     9.5 Leptogenesis 114

10 Supernova Neutrinos 116
     10.1 General Description of a Supernova 116
     10.2 Neutrino Fluxes from the SN Core 118
     10.3 Flavor Swapping from Collective Effects 119
     10.4 MSW Conversions in a Supernova 120
     10.5 Detection of Supernova Neutrinos 122
     10.6 Supernova Relic Neutrinos 124

11 High-energy Astrophysical Neutrinos 126
     11.1 Cosmogenic Neutrinos 126
     11.2 IceCube 128
     11.3 Waxman-Bahcall Flux 132
     11.4 Ultra High-energy Neutrino Cross Sections 133
     11.5 Z-burst Mechanism 134
     11.6 Astrophysical Neutrino Flavor Content 135
     11.7 Neutrinos from Dark Matter Annihilation 138

12 Beyond Three Neutrinos 147
     12.1 LSND Experiment 147
     12.2 MiniBooNE Experiment 152
     12.3 Mass-varying Neutrinos 158
     12.4 Neutrino Decay 161
     12.5 Neutrino Decoherence 163
     12.6 Lorentz Invariance Violation 164
     12.7 Non-standard Neutrino Interactions 166
     12.8 Heavy Majorana Neutrinos at Colliders 169
     12.9 Neutrino Magnetic Moment 170
     12.10 Fourth Generation Neutrino 171

13 Summary and Outlook 172

References 177
Index 221

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Biography

Vernon Barger is professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the coauthor of Collider Physics. Danny Marfatia is associate professor of physics at the University of Kansas. Kerry Whisnant is professor of physics at Iowa State University.