Non standard neutrino interactions: current status and future prospects

Abstract

Neutrino oscillations have become well-known phenomena; the measurements of neutrino mixing angles and mass squared differences are continuously improving. Future oscillation experiments will eventually determine the remaining unknown neutrino parameters, namely, the mass ordering, normal or inverted, and the CP-violating phase. On the other hand, the absolute mass scale of neutrinos could be probed by cosmological observations, single beta decay as well as by neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. Furthermore, the last one may shed light on the nature of neutrinos, Dirac or Majorana, by measuring the effective Majorana mass of neutrinos. However, the neutrino mass generation mechanism remains unknown. A well-motivated phenomenological approach to search for new physics, in the neutrino sector, is that of non-standard interactions. In this short review, the current constraints in this picture, as well as the perspectives from future experiments, are discussed.

Erratum: Generalized mass ordering degeneracy in neutrino oscillation experiments [Phys. Rev. D 94 , 055005 (2016)]

“…We follow the notation of [12], for a recent review see e.g. [6]. NSI are described by the Lagrangian…”

“…In the present work we show that those two items are intimately related. We consider the hypothesis that additional interactions affect the neutrino sector, beyond the SM weak interaction [2][3][4], see [5,6] for recent reviews. We will show that, for a certain choice of these non-standard interactions (NSI), the determination of the neutrino mass ordering-one of the main goals of upcoming oscillation experiments [7][8][9][10][11]-becomes impossible, due to an exact degeneracy in the evolution equation governing neutrino oscillations in matter.…”

Non-standard interactions with high-energy atmospheric neutrinos at IceCube

“…These, so-called, non-standard interactions (NSI) have been subject of extensive work in the past years (for recent reviews see, e.g., refs. [5,6]), both from a pure theoretical perspective (see, e.g., refs. [7][8][9]) and with more phenomenological approaches, constraining their relative size with different experimental setups (see, e.g., refs.…”

RareZdecays and neutrino flavor universality

“…[11,[25][26][27][28], both flavor-diagonal and flavor-changing NSI parameters are constrained by neutrino oscillation experiments. They can affect neutrino production, detection, and propagation through matter.…”