KamLAND has measured the flux of nu;(e)'s from distant nuclear reactors. We find fewer nu;(e) events than expected from standard assumptions about nu;(e) propagation at the 99.95% C.L. In a 162 ton.yr exposure the ratio of the observed inverse beta-decay events to the expected number without nu;(e) disappearance is 0.611+/-0.085(stat)+/-0.041(syst) for nu;(e) energies >3.4 MeV. In the context of two-flavor neutrino oscillations with CPT invariance, all solutions to the solar neutrino problem except for the "large mixing angle" region are excluded.

First Results from KamLAND: Evidence for Reactor Anti-Neutrino Disappearance

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, $\tau \to 3\mu $ and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals—scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.

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A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case.

We review the present status of global analyses of neutrino oscillations, taking into account the most recent neutrino data including the latest KamLAND and K2K updates presented at Neutrino2004, as well as state-of-the-art solar and atmospheric neutrino flux calculations. We give the two-neutrino solar + KamLAND results, as well as two-neutrino atmospheric + K2K oscillation regions, discussing in each case the robustness of the oscillation interpretation against departures from the Standard Solar Model and the possible existence of non-standard neutrino physics. Furthermore, we give the best fit values and allowed ranges of the three-flavour oscillation parameters from the current worlds' global neutrino data sample and discuss in detail the status of the small parameters $\alpha \equiv \Dms/\Dma$ as well as $\sin^2\theta_{13}$, which characterize the strength of CP violating effects in neutrino oscillations. We also update the degree of rejection of four-neutrino interpretations of the LSND anomaly in view of the most recent developments.

Status of global fits to neutrino oscillations

Physics of leptoquarks in precision experiments and at particle colliders

A plausible explanation for the lightness of neutrino masses is that neutrinos are massless at tree level, with their mass (typically Majorana) being generated radiatively at one or more loops. The new couplings, together with the suppression coming from the loop factors, imply that the new degrees of freedom cannot be too heavy (they are typically at the TeV scale). Therefore, in these models there are no large mass hierarchies and they can be tested using different searches, making their detailed phenomenological study very appealing. In particular, the new particles can be searched for at colliders and generically induce signals in lepton-flavor and lepton-number violating processes (in the case of Majorana neutrinos), which are not independent from reproducing correctly the neutrino masses and mixings. The main focus of the review is on Majorana neutrinos. We order the allowed theory space from three different perspectives: (i) using an effective operator approach to lepton number violation, (ii) by the number of loops at which the Weinberg operator is generated, (iii) within a given loop order, by the possible irreducible topologies. We also discuss in more detail some popular radiative models which involve qualitatively different features, revisiting their most important phenomenological implications. Finally, we list some promising avenues to pursue.

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From the Trees to the Forest: A Review of Radiative Neutrino Mass Models

We study nuclear muon-electron (mu-e) conversion in the general framework of effective Lagrangian approach without referring to any specific realization of the physics beyond the standard model (SM) responsible for lepton flavor violation (LFV). All the possible types of short range interactions (non-photonic mechanisms), i.e. (pseudo-)scalar, (axial-)vector and tensor, are included in our formalism. We show that the mu-e conversion in the strange nucleon sea via the scalar interactions is comparable with that in the valence quarks. This provides an insight into the strange quark couplings beyond the SM. From the available experimental data on mu-e conversion and expected sensitivities of planned experiments we derived upper bounds on the generic LFV - parameters of mu-e conversion sensitive to the relevant u-,d- and s-quark couplings.

Muon-electron conversion in strange quark sea

We review current standard and non-standard neutrino physics probes that are based on nuclear measurements. We pay special attention on the discussion of prospects to extract new physics at prominent rare event measurements looking for neutrino-nucleus scattering, as the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering that may involve lepton flavour violation (LFV) in neutral currents (NC). For the latter processes several appreciably sensitive experiments, like the COHERENT, MINER, CONUS, TEXONO, RED100 and others, using promising target nuclei are in operation or have been planed to operate in the near future. We also discuss comprehensively phenomenological and theoretical studies, in particular those referred to the nuclear physics aspects and provide useful predictions for the relevant experiments. Furthermore, motivated by the recent discovery of CE$\nu$NS at the COHERENT experiment, we summarize the impact of non-standard interactions and novel vector $Z^\prime$ or scalar $\phi$ mediators to the CE$\nu$NS event rates and provides estimates for the corresponding current and future sensitivities.

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Recent probes of standard and non-standard neutrino physics with nuclei

Sensitivities to neutrino electromagnetic properties at the TEXONO experiment

Microscopic calculation of the LSP detection rates for the 71Ga, 73Ge and 127I dark-matter detectors

The flavor violating $\mu^--e^-$ conversion in nuclei is studied within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We focus on the R-parity violating contributions at tree level including the trilinear and the bilinear terms in the superpotential as well as in the soft supersymmetry breaking sector. The nucleon and nuclear structure have consistently been taken into account in the expression of the $\mu^--e^-$ conversion branching ratio constructed in this framework. We have found that the contribution of the strange quark sea of the nucleon is comparable with that of the valence quarks. From the available experimental data on $\mu^--e^-$ conversion in $^{48}$Ti and $^{208}$Pb and the expected sensitivity of the MECO experiment for $^{27}$Al we have extracted new stringent limits on the R-parity violating parameters.

T. S. Kosmas

Papers

Muon-electron conversion in strange quark sea

Recent probes of standard and non-standard neutrino physics with nuclei

Sensitivities to neutrino electromagnetic properties at the TEXONO experiment

Microscopic calculation of the LSP detection rates for the 71Ga, 73Ge and 127I dark-matter detectors

Exotic muon-electron conversion in nuclei and R-parity violating supersymmetry