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Register a new userThe Discovery of Neutrino Masses
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Added by
Sybille Rodriguez Schneider
Publication date
2002
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and research's language is
English
Authors
N.Schmitz
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The recent observation of neutrino oscillations with atmospheric and solar neutrinos, implying that neutrinos are not massless, is a discovery of paramount importance for particle physics and particle astrophysics. This invited lecture discusses - hopefully in a way understandable also for the non-expert - the physics background and the results mainly from the two most relevant experiments, Super-Kamiokande and SNO. It also addresses the implications for possible neutrino mass spectra. We restrict the discussion to three neutrino flavours (nu_e, nu_mu, nu_tau), not mentioning a possible sterile neutrino.
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The various experiments on neutrino oscillation evidenced that neutrinos have indeed non-zero masses but cannot tell us the absolute neutrino mass scale. This scale of neutrino masses is very important for understanding the evolution and the structure formation of the universe as well as for nuclear and particle physics beyond the present Standard Model. Complementary to deducing constraints on the sum of all neutrino masses from cosmological observations two different methods to determine the neutrino mass scale in the laboratory are pursued: the search for neutrinoless double $beta$-decay and the direct neutrino mass search by investigating single $beta$-decays or electron captures. The former method is not only sensitive to neutrino masses but also probes the Majorana character of neutrinos and thus lepton number violation with high sensitivity. Currently quite a few experiments with different techniques are being constructed, commissioned or are even running, which aim for a sensitivity on the neutrino mass of {cal O}(100) meV. The principle methods and these experiments will be discussed in this short review.
The absolute scale of neutrino masses is very important for understanding the evolution and the structure formation of the universe as well as for nuclear and particle physics beyond the present Standard Model. Complementary to deducing statements on the neutrino mass from cosmological observations two different methods to determine the neutrino mass scale in the laboratory are pursued: the search for neutrinoless double beta decay and the direct neutrino mass search. For both methods currently experiments with a sensitivity of order 100 meV are being set up or commissioned.
The OPERA experiment was designed to search for $ u_{mu} rightarrow u_{tau}$ oscillations in appearance mode, i.e. by detecting the $tau$-leptons produced in charged current $ u_{tau}$ interactions. The experiment took data from 2008 to 2012 in the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso beam. The observation of $ u_{mu} rightarrow u_{tau}$ appearance, achieved with four candidate events in a sub-sample of the data, was previously reported. In this paper, a fifth $ u_{tau}$ candidate event, found in an enlarged data sample, is described. Together with a further reduction of the expected background, the candidate events detected so far allow assessing the discovery of $ u_{mu}rightarrow u_{tau}$ oscillations in appearance mode with a significance larger than 5 $sigma$.
We discuss first the flavor mixing of the quarks, using the texture zero mass matrices. Then we study a similar model for the mass matrices of the leptons. We are able to relate the mass eigenvalues of the charged leptons and of the neutrinos to the mixing angles and can predict the masses of the neutrinos. We find a normal hierarchy - the masses are 0.004 eV, 0.01 eV and 0.05 eV. The atmospheric mixing angle is given by the mass ratios of the charged leptons and the neutrinos. we find about 40 degrees, consistent with the experiments. The mixing element, connecting the first neutrino wit the electron, is predicted to be 0.05. This prediction can soon be checked by the Daya Bay experiment.
Core-collapse supernovae emit of order $10^{58}$ neutrinos and antineutrinos of all flavors over several seconds, with average energies of 10--25 MeV. In the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), a future Galactic supernova at a distance of 10 kpc would cause several hundred events. The $ u_mu$ and $ u_tau$ neutrinos and antineutrinos are of particular interest, as a test of the supernova mechanism. In addition, it is possible to measure or limit their masses by their delay (determined from neutral-current events) relative to the $bar{ u}_e$ neutrinos (determined from charged-current events). Numerical results are presented for such a future supernova as seen in SNO. Under reasonable assumptions, and in the presence of the expected counting statistics, a $ u_mu$ or $ u_tau$ mass down to about 30 eV can be simply and robustly determined. This seems to be the best technique for direct measurement of these masses.
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