English

Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos, a Challenge for Neutrino Telescopes

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2009-11-10 v2 Astrophysics

Abstract

Neutrinos may be pseudo-Dirac states, such that each generation is actually composed of two maximally-mixed Majorana neutrinos separated by a tiny mass difference. The usual active neutrino oscillation phenomenology would be unaltered if the pseudo-Dirac splittings are δm2\alt1012\delta m^2 \alt 10^{-12} eV2^2; in addition, neutrinoless double beta decay would be highly suppressed. However, it may be possible to distinguish pseudo-Dirac from Dirac neutrinos using high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. By measuring flavor ratios as a function of L/EL/E, mass-squared differences down to δm21018\delta m^2 \sim 10^{-18} eV2^2 can be reached. We comment on the possibility of probing cosmological parameters with neutrinos.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0307151,
  title  = {Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos, a Challenge for Neutrino Telescopes},
  author = {John F. Beacom and Nicole F. Bell and Dan Hooper and John G. Learned and Sandip Pakvasa and Thomas J. Weiler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0307151},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages, 2 figures; minor changes, to appear in PRL