A qualitative understanding of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos is provided. The greater night flux in nu_e is seen to be a consequence of the fact that the matter effect in the sun and that in the earth have the same sign. It is shown in the adiabatic approximation for the sun that for all values of the mixing angle theta_V between 0 and pi/2, the night flux of neutrinos is greater than the day flux. Only for small values of theta_V where the adiabatic approximation badly fails does the sign of the day-night asymmetry reverse.
We present a new treatment of the Earth matter effects on the neutrino oscillations that is valid for an arbitrary density profile. When applied to the the study of the day-night effect on the solar neutrino flux it renders us a simple analytical expression, which is more accurate than those derived by using the perturbation theory and can be extended to higher energies.
Mazzarella and Scafetta (2016) showed that the seismic activity recorded at the Bunker-East (BKE) Vesuvian station from 1999 to 2014 suggests a higher nocturnal seismic activity. However, this station is located at about 50 m from the main road to the volcanos crater and since 2009 its seismograms also record a significant diurnal cultural noise due mostly to tourist tours to Mt. Vesuvius. Herein, we investigate whether the different seismic frequency between day and night times could be an artifact of the peculiar cultural noise that affects this station mostly from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm from spring to fall. This time-distributed cultural noise should evidently reduce the possibility to detect low magnitude earthquakes during those hours but not high magnitude events. Using hourly distributions referring to different magnitude thresholds from M = 0.2 to M = 2.0, the Gutenberg-Richter magnitude-frequency diagram applied to the day and night-time sub-catalogs and Montecarlo statistical modeling, we demonstrate that the day-night asymmetry persists despite an evident disruption induced by cultural noise during day-hours. In particular, for the period 1999-2017, and for earthquakes with M > 2 we found a Gutenberg-Richter exponent b = 1.66 +/- 0.07 for the night-time events and b = 2.06 +/- 0.07 for day-time events. Moreover, we repeat the analysis also for an older BKE catalog covering the period from 1992 to 2000 when cultural noise was not present. The analysis confirms a higher seismic nocturnal activity that is also characterized by a smaller Gutenberg-Richter exponent b for M > 2 earthquakes relative to the day-time activity. Thus, the found night-day seismic asymmetric behavior is likely due to a real physical feature affecting Mt. Vesuvius.
A search for day-night variations in the solar neutrino flux resulting from neutrino oscillations has been carried out using the 504 day sample of solar neutrino data obtained at Super-Kamiokande. The absence of a significant day-night variation has set an absolute flux independent exclusion region in the two neutrino oscillation parameter space.
In this article we review the current state of the field of solar neutrinos, including flavour oscillations, non-standard effects, solar models, cross section measurements, and the broad experimental program thus motivated and enabled. We discuss the historical discoveries that contributed to current knowledge, and define critical open questions to be addressed in the next decade. We discuss the state of the art of standard solar models, including uncertainties and problems related to the solar composition, and review experimental and model solar neutrino fluxes, including future prospects. We review the state of the art of the nuclear reaction data relevant for solar fusion in the proton-proton chain and carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle. Finally, we review the current and future experimental program that can address outstanding questions in this field.
Recent preliminary PHENIX data are consistent with a negative and sizable longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A_LL^pi for pi^0 production at moderate transverse momentum p_perp simeq 1 - 4 GeV and central rapidity. By means of a systematic investigation of the relevant degrees of freedom we show that the perturbative QCD framework at leading power in p_perp produces at best a very small negative asymmetry in this kinematic range.