The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles. v Physics Potential of ICAL at INO vi PrefaceThe past two decades in neutrino physics have been very eventful, and have established this field as one of the flourishing areas of high energy physics. Starting from the confirmation of neutrino oscillations that resolved the decades-old problems of the solar and atmospheric neutrinos, we have now been able to show that neutrinos have nonzero masses, and different flavors of neutrinos mix among themselves. Our understanding of neutrino properties has increased by leaps and bounds. Many experiments have been constructed and envisaged to explore different facets of neutrinos, in particular their masses and mixing.The Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) experiment at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) [1] is one of the major detectors that is expected to see the light of the day soon. It will have unique features like the ability to distinguish muon neutrinos from antineutrinos at GeV energies, and measure the energies of hadrons in the same energy range. It is therefore well suited for the identification of neutrino mass hierarchy, the measurement of neutrino mixing parameters, and many probes of new physics. The site for the INO has been identified, and the construction is expected to start soon. In the meanwhile, the R&D for the ICAL detector, including the design of its modules, the magnet coils, the active detector elements and the associated electronics, has been underway over the past deca...

We investigate direct detection rates for Dark Matter candidates arise in a SU (2)

Ultralight primordial black holes (PBHs)(≲109g) completely evaporate via Hawking radiation (HR) and produce all the particles in a given theory regardless of their other interactions. If the right handed (RH) neutrinos are produced from PBH evaporation, successful baryogenesis via leptogenesis predicts mass scale of RH neutrinos as well as black holes. We show that, given the lepton number violation (generation of RH neutrino masses) in the theory is a consequence of a gauged U(1) breaking which is then followed by the formation of PBHs, a network of cosmic strings naturally gives rise to strong stochastic gravitational wave (GW) signal at the sensitivity level of pulsar timing arrays (PTA) and LIGO5. Besides, due to a transient period of black hole domination in the early universe, for which baryon asymmetry is independent of initial PBH density, a break in the GW spectra occurs around MHz frequency. Therefore, to observe the break along with the usual GW signal by the emission of gravitons via HR, GW detectors at higher frequencies are called for. The recent finding by the NANOGrav PTA of a stochastic common spectrum process (interpreted as GWs) across many pulsars is in tension with PBH baryogenesis for large cosmic string loops (α ≃ 0.1).

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