Dark Neutrino Portal to Explain MiniBooNE Excess

Physical Review D, 2009

The Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE) searches for ν µ → ν e oscillations using the O(1 GeV) neutrino beam produced by the Booster synchrotron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). The Booster delivers protons with 8 GeV kinetic energy (8.89 GeV/c momentum) to a beryllium target, producing neutrinos from the decay of secondary particles in the beam line. We describe the Monte Carlo simulation methods used to estimate the flux of neutrinos from the beamline incident on the MiniBooNE detector for both polarities of the focusing horn. The simulation uses the Geant4 framework for propagating particles, accounting for electromagnetic processes and hadronic interactions in the beamline materials, as well as the decay of particles.

Physical Review Letters, 2009

The MiniBooNE Collaboration reports a search for ν µ andν µ disappearance in the ∆m 2 region of a few eV 2 . These measurements are important for constraining models with extra types of neutrinos, extra dimensions and CPT violation. Fits to the shape of the ν µ andν µ energy spectra reveal no evidence for disappearance at 90% confidence level (CL) in either mode. This is the first test ofν µ disappearance between ∆m 2 = 0.1 − 10 eV 2 .

We evaluate quasielastic double-differential antineutrino cross sections obtained in a phenomenological model based on the superscaling behavior of electron scattering data and estimate the contribution of the vector mesonexchange currents in the 2p-2h sector. We show that the impact of mesonexchange currents for charge-changing antineutrino reactions is much larger than in the neutrino case. On the other hand, superscaling-based approach predictions to neutrino-induced charged-current charged pion production in the ∆resonance region are explored under MiniBooNE experimental conditions. The results obtained are compared with the corresponding MiniBooNE experimental data.

Journal of Modern Physics, 2012

We present ultra low energy results taken with the novel Spherical Proportional Counter. The energy threshold has been pushed down to about 25 eV and single electrons are clearly collected and detected. To reach such performance low energy calibration systems have been successfully developed:-A pulsed UV lamp extracting photoelectrons from the inner surface of the detector-Various radioactive sources allowing low energy peaks through fluorescence processes. The bench mark result is the observation of a well resolved peak at 270 eV due to carbon fluorescence which is unique performance for such large-massive detector. It opens a new window in dark matter and low energy neutrino search and may allow detection of neutrinos from a nuclear reactor or from supernova via neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering

Physical review letters, 2009

The MiniBooNE Collaboration observes unexplained electronlike events in the reconstructed neutrino energy range from 200 to 475 MeV. With 6.46×10 20 protons on target, 544 electronlike events are observed in this energy range, compared to an expectation of 415.2±43.4 ...

Proceedings of Neutrino Oscillation Workshop — PoS(NOW2016), 2017

Discovery of high-energy neutrino events by the IceCube Collaboration opened a new era of experimental neutrino astrophysics. The analysis of starting and uncontained cascade and track events based on multiple years of IceCube data [2] leaves no doubt that the excess of the neutrino events above 100 TeV or so cannot be explained by atmospheric neutrinos. Isotropic distribution of these events, showing no significant evidence of spatial or temporal correlations with known sources, points to extragalactic origin of high energy neutrinos. However, the production mechanism of this cosmic component is not clear yet. It might have astrophysical origin being produced by cosmic rays with a typical power law spectrum, or cosmological origin related to dark matter decay which would produce the neutrino spectrum in a form of one ore more bumps. Here we present a model of decaying dark matter represented by heavy mirror neutrinos, with masses of few PeV, from a parallel gauge sector with very large electroweak scale, in which ordinary high energy neutrinos are produced via the majoron portal. In this case the neutrino spectrum would consist of two bumps, one with maximal energy of about 0.5 PeV, and another with maximal energy of about 5 PeV. In addition, the majoron decay produces the neutrino mass eigenstates ν 1,2,3 with fractions proportional to the neutrino mass squared, F 1 : F 2 : F 3 = m 2 1 : m 2 2 : m 2 3 , with specific implications for the flavor composition of the IceCube neutrinos. Thus, precise determination of the energy spectrum and flavor content of the IceCube neutrinos in the future can discriminate between their cosmological and astrophysical origins.

The Astrophysical Journal, 1994

We i n v estigate the production of dark matter with non-standard momentum distributions arising from the decay of a relativistic massive neutrino into a lighter fermion and boson H!F+B. We develop the Boltzmann equations for this process, paying particular attention to spin polarisation eects. Such decays can, under certain circumstances, lead to a process of runaway stimulated decays or`neutrino-lasing' resulting, for suitable boson mass, in the production of mixed-dark-matter. We discuss a numb e r o f v ariations on the model; we show h o w the yield of cold particles can be increased by a simple modication to our original proposal. We discuss the singlet-majoron model as a possible framework for these decays.

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2008

MiniBooNE's first results on a search for an electron neutrino excess in a muon neutrino beam are presented, together with an analysis of the data within a two neutrino νµ → νe appearance-only oscillation context. MiniBooNE finds excellent agreement between data and Standard Model predictions in the oscillation analysis energy region. If neutrino and antineutrino oscillations are the same, MiniBooNE excludes at ∼98% confidence level the two neutrino νµ → νe appearance-only oscillation interpretation of the LSND anomaly. MiniBooNE also finds a discrepancy at energies below the oscillation analysis range, which is currently not understood and under investigation.

2008

We calculate the exclusion region in the parameter space of ν μ → ν e oscillations of the LSND type using a combined fit to the reconstructed energy distributions of neutrino candidate samples from the MiniBooNE data obtained with two different particle identification methods. The two ν e candidate samples are included together with a high statistics sample of ν μ events in the definition of a χ 2 statistic which includes the correlations between the energy intervals of all three samples and handles the event overlap between the ν e samples. The ν μ sample is introduced to constrain the effect of systematic uncertainties. This analysis increases the exclusion limit in the region Δm 2 1eV 2 when compared with the result previously published by the collaboration, which used a different technique.

2020

MicroBooNE is an 85 ton active mass liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) neutrino detector exposed to the Booster Neutrino Beamline (BNB) at Fermilab. One of our physics goals is the precision measurement of neutrino interactions on argon in the 1 GeV energy regime. The study of neutrino interactions producing a $K^{+}$ in the final state can improve the background estimates for future proton decay experiments looking for the $p \rightarrow K^{+}\nu$ channel on argon such as DUNE. In this work we present the selection of events with a $K^{+}$ produced along with a $\mu^{-}$ in a charged-current neutrino interaction in the MicroBooNE detector. This poster will focus on how we use the available tools for particle identification to achieve a high-purity sample.