Scattering processes could distinguish Majorana from Dirac neutrinos

It is well known that Majorana neutrinos have a pure axial neutral current interaction while Dirac neutrinos have the standard vector-axial interaction. In spite of this crucial difference, usually Dirac neutrino processes differ from Majorana processes by a term proportional to the neutrino mass, resulting in almost unmeasurable observations of this difference. In the present work we show that once the neutrino polarization evolution is considered, there are clear differences between Dirac and Majorana scattering on electrons. The change of polarization can be achieved in astrophysical environments with strong magnetic fields. Furthermore, we show that in the case of unpolarized neutrino scattering onto polarized electrons, this difference can be relevant even for large values of the neutrino energy.

Can the dark matter halo be a collisionless ensemble of axion stars?

If dark matter is mainly composed of axions, the density distribution can be nonuniformly distributed, being clumpy instead. By solving the Einstein-Klein-Gordon system of a scalar field with the potential energy density of an axionlike particle, we obtain the maximum mass of the self-gravitating system made of axions, called axion stars. The collision of axion stars with neutron stars may release the energy of axions due to the conversion of axions into photons in the presence of the neutron stars magnetic field. We estimate the energy release and show that it should be much less than previous estimates.Future data from femtolensing should strongly constrain this scenario.

TeV Scale Leptogenesis in B-L Model with Alternative Cosmologies

In TeV scale B-L extension of the standard model with inverse seesaw, the Yukawa coupling of right-handed neutrinos can be of order one. This implies that the out of equilibrium condition for leptogenesis within standard cosmology is not satisfied. We provide two scenarios for overcoming this problem and generating the desired value of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. The first scenario is based on extra-dimensional braneworld effects that modify the Friedman equation. We show that in this case the value of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe constrains the five-dimensional Planck mass to be of order O(100) TeV. In the second scenario a non-thermal right-handed neutrino produced by the decay of inflaton is assumed. We emphasize that in this case, it is possible to generate the required baryon asymmetry of the Universe for TeV scale right-handed neutrinos.

Neutrino mass determination from a four-zero texture mass matrix

We analyze the different parametrizations of a general four-zero texture mass matrices for quarks and leptons, that are able to reproduce the CKM and PMNS mixing matrices. This study is done through a Chi-Square analysis. In quark sector, only four solutions are found to be compatible with CKM mixing matrix. In leptonic sector, using the last experimental results about the mixing angles in the neutrino sector, our Chi-Square analysis shows a preferred value for m_nu_3 to be around 0.05 eV independently of the parametrization of the four-zero texture mass matrices chosen for the charged leptons and neutrinos.

A Consistent Scenario for B to PS Decays

We consider B to PS decays where P stands for pseudoscalar and S for a heavy (~1500 MeV) scalar meson. We achieve agreement with available experimental data -- which includes a two orders of magnitude hierarchy -- assuming the scalars mesons are two quark states. The contribution of the dipolar penguin operator O_{11} is quantified.