COHERENT Enlightenment of the Neutrino Dark Side

Journal Article · Mon Dec 11 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Phys.Rev.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.115007· OSTI ID:1469015

Coloma, Pilar  ^[1]; Gonzalez-Garcia, M. C. ^[2]; Maltoni, Michele  ^[3]; Schwetz, Thomas  ^[4]

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1. Fermilab
2. YITP, Stony Brook
3. Madrid, IFT
4. KIT, Karlsruhe, IKP

In the presence of nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI), oscillation data are affected by a degeneracy which allows the solar mixing angle to be in the second octant (also known as the dark side) and implies a sign flip of the atmospheric mass-squared difference. This leads to an ambiguity in the determination of the ordering of neutrino masses, one of the main goals of the current and future experimental neutrino program. We show that the recent observation of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering by the COHERENT experiment, in combination with global oscillation data, excludes the NSI degeneracy at the 3.1σ (3.6σ) C.L. for NSI with up (down) quarks.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1469015
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-17-308-T; YITP-SB-17-28; IFT-UAM-CSIC-17-073; arXiv:1708.02899; 1615211
• Journal Information: Phys.Rev., Vol. D96, Issue 11
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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