We study the non-relativistic limit of Dirac equation for mixed neutrinos. We demonstrate that such a procedure inevitably leads to a redefinition of the inertial mass. This happens because, in contrast to the case when mixing is absent, the antiparticle sector contribution cannot be neglected for neutrinos with definite flavor. We then show that, when a gravitational interaction is switched on, in the weak-field approximation the mass parameter which couples to gravity (gravitational mass) does not undergo the same reformulation as the inertial mass, thus leading to an apparent breakdown of the weak equivalence principle.
Neutrino flavour oscillations are analyzed in a model in which particles experience an effective Schwarzschild geometry modified by maximal acceleration corrections. These imply a quantum violation of the equivalence principle. The corresponding shifts in the phase of the neutrino mass eigenstates are calculated and discussed.
We point out that equivalence principle violations, while not dynamically equivalent, produce the same kinematical effects as Lorentz invariance violations for particle processes in a constant gravitational potential. This allows us to translate many experimental bounds on Lorentz invariance violations into bounds on equivalence principle violations. The most stringent bound suggests that a postive signal in an Eötvös experiment may be at least seven orders of magnitude beyond current technology.
Tree level unitarity violations of extra dimensional extensions of the Standard Model may become much stronger when the scalar sector is included in the bulk. This effect occurs when the couplings are not suppressed for larger Kaluza-Klein levels, and could have relevant consequences for the phenomenology of the next generation of colliders. We briefly review our formalism to obtain more stringent unitarity bounds when KK modes are present, as well as the generalization to extra dimensions of the Equivalence Theorem between Goldstone bosons and longitudinal gauge bosons
We present an explicit proof that a minimal model of rank-2 antisymmetric field with spontaneous Lorentz violation and a classically equivalent vector field model are also quantum equivalent, by calculating quantum effective actions of both theories. We comment on the issues encountered while checking quantum equivalence in curved spacetime.
In this talk, we explore the relation between smoothly varying couplings and Lorentz violation. Within the context of a supergravity model, we present an explicit mechanism that causes the effective fine-structure parameter and the effective electromagnetic $θ$ angle to acquire related spacetime dependences. We argue that this leads to potentially observable Lorentz violation and discuss some implications for the Standard-Model Extension.
We consider possible violations of the equivalence principle through the exchange of a light `dilaton-like' scalar field. Using recent work on the quark-mass dependence of nuclear binding, we find that the dilaton-quark-mass coupling induces significant equivalence-principle-violating effects varying like the inverse cubic root of the atomic number - A^{-1/3}. We provide a general parameterization of the scalar couplings, but argue that two parameters are likely to dominate the equivalence-principle phenomenology. We indicate the implications of this framework for comparing the sensitivities o…
We have examined Lorentz invariance and equivalence principle violations in the neutrino sector as manifested in neutrinoless double beta decay. We conclude that this rare decay cannot provide a useful view of these exotic processes.
In this paper we consider the violation of supersymmetric equvalence among the R parity violating couplings $lamabda_{ijk}$ caused by widely split chiral supermultiplets. We find that if $λ^{\prime}_{2jk}=g$ and $λ^{\prime}_{1jk}=e$ then the violation of SUSY equivalence is of the order of $5-6%$ in heavy SQCD models. On the other hand if $λ^{\prime}_{3jk}=g$ and $λ_{ijk}=e$ then the violation of SUSY equivalence can be as large as 9.4% in 2-1 models.
We discuss the derivation of the trace anomaly using a non-local effective action at one loop. This provides a simple and instructive form and emphasizes infrared physics. We then use this example to explore several of the properties of non-local actions, including displaying the action for the full non-local energy-momentum tensor. As an application, we show that the long-distance corrections at one loop lead to quantum violations of some classical consequences of the equivalence principle, for example producing a frequency dependence of the gravitational bending of light.
We derive stringent constraints on neutrino speed, weak equivalence principle violation, Lorentz invariance violation, and dual lensing from the first high-energy astrophysical neutrino source: TXS 0506+056. Observation of neutrino (IceCube-170922A) and photons in a similar time frame and from the same direction is used to derive these limits. We describe ways in which these constraints can be further improved by orders of magnitude.
We study the equivalence principle and its violations by quantum effects in scalar-tensor theories that admit a conformal frame in which matter only couples to the spacetime metric. These theories possess Ward identities that guarantee the validity of the weak equivalence principle to all orders in the matter coupling constants. These Ward identities originate from a broken Weyl symmetry under which the scalar field transforms by a shift, and from the symmetry required to couple a massless spin two particle to matter (diffeomorphism invariance). But the same identities also predict violations …
Massless neutrinos will mix if their couplings to gravity are flavor dependent, i.e., violate the principle of equivalence. Because the gravitational interaction grows with neutrino energy, the solar neutrino problem and the recent atmospheric neutrino data may be simultaneously explained by violations at the level of 1E-14 to 1E-17 or smaller. This possibility is severely constrained by present accelerator neutrino experiments and will be preeminently tested in proposed long baseline accelerator neutrino experiments.
Perturbative unitarity conditions have been playing an important role by estimating the energy scale of new physics, including the Higgs mass as one of the most important examples. In this letter, we show that there is a possibility to see the hint of a new physics (top quark partner) indirectly by observing an "apparent" unitarity violation in $M_{bw}$ distribution well above top quark mass in a process of a heavy resonance decaying into a pair of top quarks.
We have updated the analysis for the solution to the solar neutrino problem by the long-wavelength neutrino oscillations induced by a tiny breakdown of the weak equivalence principle of general relativity, and obtained a very good fit to all the solar neutrino data.
We have found that long-wavelength neutrino oscillations induced by a tiny breakdown of the weak equivalence principle of general relativity can provide a viable solution to the solar neutrino problem.
The leptonic mixing parameters of high precision and the next-generation neutrino telescopes make it possible to test new physics in the flavor transition of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos(HAN). We introduce a nonsymmetric matrix to modify the predictions of the standard flavor transition matrix. It is constructed with the mixing matrix in vacuum and that at the source of the HAN. The mismatch of the mixing matrices results in the new expectation of the flavor ratio of the HAN at Earth. It also leads to a secondary effect called the apparent P violation (APV). The quantitative analyse…
New limits for the Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) are obtained considering the mass-flavor mixing hypothesis. This analysis includes observations of solar and reactor neutrinos and has obtained a limit for the VEP parameter $|Δγ|$ contributing to the $ν_e$ and $\barν_e$ disappearance channels of the order $|Δγ|<10^{-14}$, when it is assumed that neutrinos are mainly affected by the gravitational potential $φ\approx 10^{-5}$ due to the Great Attractor.
The violation of the equivalence principle (VEP) causing neutrino oscillations is of current interest. We study here the possibility of not only flavor oscillation but spin flavor oscillation of ultra high energy ($ \sim$ 1 PeV) neutrinos emanating from AGN due to VEP and due to the presence of a large magnetic field ($ \sim$ 1 Tesla) in AGN. In particular we look at the resonance spin flavor conversion driven by the AGN potential. Interesting bounds on the transition magnetic moment of neutrinos may therefore be obtained.
We show that the Abell Cluster A586 exhibits evidence of the interaction between dark matter and dark energy and argue that this interaction implies a violation of the Equivalence Principle. This violation is found in the context of two different models of dark energy-dark matter interaction. We also argue, based on the spherical symmetry of the Abell Cluster A586 that skewness is not the most general quantity to test the Equivalence Principle.
Experimental discovery of the dilaton would provide strong evidence for string theory. A light dilaton could show up in current tests of the inverse square law for gravity at sub-millimeter distances. In the large extra dimension scenario, Kaluza-Klein excitations of the dilaton can also contribute to the cooling of supernovae. In order to quantify these effects we compute the couplings of a low energy dilaton to matter. These predominantly arise from the fundamental dilaton coupling to the gluon field strength, which receives a sizable enhancement from QCD scaling. We show that detection of t…
We consider the pulsar velocity problem and relate it to some unconventional neutrino oscillation mechanisms based on a violation of the equivalence principle by neutrinos. We show that the observed pulsar velocities may be explained by violations at the level from 10^{-9} to 10^{-10} in the case of a non-universal tensor neutrino-gravity coupling, whereas there is no solution in the case of a non-universal scalar neutrino-gravity coupling. Neutrinos may remain massless and the requisite magnetic field strength is similar to that in the conventional mass oscillation mechanism.
We consider searching for light sterile fermions and new forces by using long baseline oscillations of neutrinos and antineutrinos. A new light sterile state and/or a new force can lead to apparent CPT violation in muon neutrino and antineutrino oscillations. As an example, we present an economical model of neutrino masses containing a sterile neutrino. The potential from the Standard Model neutral current gives rise to a difference between the disappearance probabilities of neutrinos and antineutrinos, when mixing with a light sterile neutrino is considered. The addition of a B-L interaction …
In a recently proposed scenario, where the dilaton decouples while cosmologically attracted towards infinite bare string coupling, its residual interactions can be related to the amplitude of density fluctuations generated during inflation, and are large enough to be detectable through a modest improvement on present tests of free-fall universality. Provided it has significant couplings to either dark matter or dark energy, a runaway dilaton can also induce time-variations of the natural "constants" within the reach of near-future experiments.
In this Brief Report, a non-standard solution to the solar neutrino problem is revisited. This solution assumes that neutrino flavors could have different couplings to gravity, hence, the equivalence principle is violated in this mechanism. The gravity induced mixing has the potential of accounting for the current solar neutrino data from several experiments even for massless neutrinos. We fit this solution to the total rate of neutrino events in the SuperKamiokande detector together with the total rate from other detectors and also with the most recent results of the SuperKamiokande results f…
Violation of equivalence principle predicts that neutrinos of different flavor couple differently with gravity. Such a scenario can give rise to gravity induced flavor oscillations in addition to the usual mass flavor neutrino oscillations during the neutrino propagation. Even if the equivalence principle is indeed violated, their measure will be extremely small. We explore the possibility to probe the violation of equivalence principle (VEP) for the case of long baseline (LBL) neutrinos in a 4-flavor neutrino framework (3 active + 1 sterile) where both mass and gravity induced oscillations ar…
From the data release of OPERA - CNGS experiment, and publicly announced on 23 September 2011, we cast a phenomenological model based on a Majorana neutrino state carrying a fictitious imaginary mass term, already discussed by Majorana in 1932. This mass term can be induced by the interaction with the matter of the Earth's crust during the 735 Km travel. Within the experimental errors, we prove that the model fits with OPERA, MINOS and supernova SN1987a data. Possible violations to Lorentz invariance due to quantum gravity effects have been considered.
If weak equivalence principle is violated then different types of neutrinos would couple differently with gravity and that may produce a gravity induced oscillation for the neutrinos of different flavour. We explore here the possibility that very small violation of the principle of weak equivalence (VEP) can be probed by ultra high energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources. The very long baseline length and the ultra high energies of such neutrinos could be helpful to probe very small VEP. We consider a 4-flavour neutrino scenario (3 active + 1 sterile) with both mass-flavour and gra…
The theory of scalar gravity proposed by Nordström, and refined by Einstein and Fokker, provides a striking analogy to general relativity. In its modern form, scalar gravity appears as the low-energy effective field theory of the spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry within a CFT, and is AdS/CFT dual to the original Randall-Sundrum I model, but without a UV brane. Scalar gravity faithfully exhibits several qualitative features of the cosmological constant problem of standard gravity coupled to quantum matter, and the Weinberg no-go theorem can be extended to this case as well. Remarkably,…
A number of different effects of the violation of the Equivalence Principle (VEP), taken as sub-leading mechanism of neutrino flavor oscillation, are examined within the framework of the DUNE experiment. We study the possibility of obtaining a misleading neutrino oscillation parameter region caused by our unawareness of VEP. Additionally, we evaluate the impact on the measurement of CP violation and the distinction of neutrino mass hierarchy at DUNE. Besides, limits on VEP for a wide variety of textures of the matrix that connects neutrino gravity eigenstates to flavor eigenstates are imposed.…
The symmetry of the theory of relativity under diffeomorphisms strongly depends on the equivalence principle. Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) can be tested by looking for deviations from the standard framework of neutrino oscillations. In recent works, it has been shown that strong constraints on the VEP parameter space can be placed by means of the atmospheric neutrinos observed by the IceCube neutrino telescope. In this paper, we focus on the KM3NeT neutrino telescope and perform a forecast analysis to assess its capacity to probe VEP. Most importantly, we examine the crucial role p…
A natural realization of CPT violation in neutrino oscillation can arise due to the coupling to a light scalar or vector dark matter (DM). The dark non-standard interaction (NSI) is associated with the $γ_0$ matrix in neutrino's effective propagator and hence corrects the neutrino Hamiltonian as dark matter potential, in the same way as the ordinary matter effect. The effect is, however, inversely proportional to the neutrino energy and hence appears as a correction to the neutrino mass squared. Due to a sign difference in the corrections for neutrino and anti-neutrino modes, the neutrino osci…
Supersymmetry implies that the trilinear couplings between gauge bosons and gauginos are equal to all orders in perturbation theory. However if SUSY is broken and some of the superpartners have large SUSY breaking masses then they can induce non-decoupling deviations in this relation through radiative corrections. In this article we show that the deviation in the ratio of triple gauge to gaugino couplings from unity can be around 2.3% (3.3%) in heavy QCD models (2-1 models). Precision measurements of triple gaugino couplings at furture high energy colliders can therefore probe such violations …
The joint realm of quantum mechanics and the general-relativistic description of gravitation is becoming increasingly accessible to terrestrial experiments and observations. In this essay we study the emerging indications of the violation of equivalence principle (VEP). While the solar neutrino anomaly may find its natural explanation in a VEP, the statistically significant discrepancy observed in the gravitationally induced phases of neutron interferometry seems to be the first indication of a VEP. However, such a view would seem immediately challenged by the atomic interferometry results. Th…
The oscillation of neutrino flavors, due to its interferometry nature, is extremely sensitive to the phase differences developing during the propagation of neutrinos. In this paper we investigate the effect of the Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) on the flavor oscillation probabilities of atmospheric and cosmic neutrinos observed at neutrino telescopes such as IceCube. Assuming a general parameterization of VEP, dubbed extended parameter space, we show that the synergy between the collected data of high energy atmospheric and cosmic neutrinos severely constrains the VEP parameters. Als…
We examine the possible tests of violation of the gravitational equivalence principle (VEP) at a muon storage ring via neutrino oscillation experiments. If the gravitational interactions of the neutrinos are not diagonal in the flavour basis and the gravitational interaction eigenstates have different couplings to the gravitational field, this leads to the neutrino oscillation. If one starts with $μ^+$ beam then appearance of $τ^\pm$, $e ^+$ and $μ^-$ in the final state are the signals for neutrino oscillation. We have estimated the number of $μ^-$ events in this scenario in $ν_μ-N$ deep inela…
The Lorentz invariance and Einstein equivalence principle violating effects in the narrow 7.8 eV transition in 229Th nucleus may be 100 000 times larger than in atoms. This transition may be investigated using high precision laser spectroscopy methods, has a very small width, and suppressed systematic effects. Similar values of the effects are expected in 73 eV 235U nuclear transition which is coming within the reach of the laser spectroscopy. Mossbauer transitions give another possibility.
Neutrino oscillations induced by a flavor-dependent violation of the Einstein Equivalence Principle (VEP) have been recently considered as a suitable explanation of the solar electron-neutrino deficiency. Unlike the MSW oscillation mechanism, the VEP mechanism is dependent on a coupling to the local background gravitational potential $Φ$. We investigate the differences which arise by considering three-flavor VEP neutrinos oscillating against fixed background potentials, and against the radially-dependent solar potential. This can help determine the sensitivity of the gravitationally-induced os…
We report a joint test of local Lorentz invariance and the Einstein equivalence principle for electrons, using long-term measurements of the transition frequency between two nearly degenerate states of atomic dysprosium. We present many-body calculations which demonstrate that the energy splitting of these states is particularly sensitive to violations of both special and general relativity. We limit Lorentz violation for electrons at the level of $10^{-17}$, matching or improving the best laboratory and astrophysical limits by up to a factor of 10, and improve bounds on gravitational redshift…
We point out that if the baryon number violating neutron-antineutron oscillation is discovered, it would impose strong limits on the departure from Einstein's equivalence principle at a level of one part in $10^{19}$. If this departure owes its origin to the existence of long-range forces coupled to baryon number $B$ (or $B-L$), it would imply very stringent constraints on the strength of gauge bosons coupling to baryon number current. For instance, if the force mediating baryon number has strength $α_B$ and its range is larger than a megaparsec, we find the limit to be $α_B \leq 2\times 10^{-…
A long-range fifth force coupled to dark matter can induce a coupling to ordinary matter if the dark matter interacts with Standard Model fields. We consider constraints on such a scenario from both astrophysical observations and laboratory experiments. We also examine the case where the dark matter is a weakly interacting massive particle, and derive relations between the coupling to dark matter and the coupling to ordinary matter for different models. Currently, this scenario is most tightly constrained by galactic dynamics, but improvements in Eotvos experiments can probe unconstrained regi…
Motivated by a recent and several earlier measurement results of the neutrino velocity, we attempt to resolve the apparent discrepancies between them from the viewpoint of mass-energy relation in special relativity. It is argued that a complicated tachyonic neutrino model or a mass-dependent Lorentz violation theory can do this job.
We consider the effect of a long range, flavor changing tensor interaction of possible gravitational origin. Neutrino mixing experiments provide the most sensitive probe to date for such forces---testing the equivalence principle at levels below $10^{-20}$. Here we justify and generalize a formalism for describing such effects. The constraints from neutrino mixing experiments on gravitationally induced mixing are calculated. Our detailed analysis of the atmospheric neutrino data confirms a remarkable result: the atmospheric neutrino data implies the same size force as does the solar neutrino d…
We explore a version of the cosmological dilaton-fixing and decoupling mechanism in which the dilaton-dependence of the low-energy effective action is extremized for infinitely large values of the bare string coupling $g_s^2 = e^ϕ$. We study the efficiency with which the dilaton $ϕ$ runs away towards its ``fixed point'' at infinity during a primordial inflationary stage, and thereby approximately decouples from matter. The residual dilaton couplings are found to be related to the amplitude of the density fluctuations generated during inflation. For the simplest inflationary potential, $V (χ) =…
Among the information provided by high energy neutrinos, a promising possibility is to analyze the effects of a Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) on neutrino oscillations. We analyze the IceCube data on atmospheric neutrino fluxes under the assumption of a VEP and obtain updated constraints on the parameter space with the benchmark choice that neutrinos with different masses couple with different strengths to the gravitational field. In this case we find that the VEP parameters times the local gravitational potential at Earth can be constrained at the level of $10^{-27}$. We show that t…
Local Lorentz Invariance violating (LLIV) and Einstein equivalence principle violating (EEPV) effects in atomic experiments are discussed. The EEPV effects are strongly enhanced in the narrow 7.8 eV transition in 229Th nucleus. Nuclear LLIV momentum tensors describing anisotropy in the maximal attainable speed for massive particles (analog of Michelson-Morley experiment for light) are expressed in terms of the experimental values of nuclear quadrupole moments. Calculations for nuclei of experimental interest 133Cs, 85Rb, 87Rb, 201Hg, 131Xe and 21Ne have been performed. The results for 21Ne are…
I will discuss three related unconventional ways to generate neutrino oscillations (1)Equivalence principle violation by the string dilaton field (i2)Violation of Lorentz Invariance and (3) Equivalence principle violation through a non-universal tensor neutrino-gravity coupling. These unorthodox neutrino oscillation mechanisms are shown to be viable at the level of our present experimental knowledge and demonstrate that neutrino oscillations can probe very profound questions.
Tensor-scalar theory is a wide class of alternative theory of gravitation that can be motivated by higher dimensional theories, by models of dark matter or dark ernergy. In the general case, the scalar field will couple non-universally to matter producing a violation of the equivalence principle. In this communication, we review a microscopic model of scalar/matter coupling and its observable consequences in terms of universality of free fall, of frequencies comparison and of redshifts tests. We then focus on two models: (i) a model of ultralight scalar dark matter and (ii) a model of scalariz…
The SNO result on charged current deuteron disintegration, the SuperKamiokande 1258-day data on electron scattering, and other solar neutrino results are used to revisit the model of neutrino oscillations driven by a violation of the equivalence principle. We use a chisq minimization technique to examine oscillation between the nu(e) and another active neutrino, both massless, and find that within the Standard Solar Model the fit to the SNO and SuperKamiokande spectra are moderately good while a very good fit is obtained when the absolute normalizations of the 8B and hep neutrino fluxes are al…
Among the information provided by high energy neutrinos, a promising possibility is to analyze the effects of a Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) on neutrino oscillations. We analyze the recently released IceCube data on atmospheric neutrino fluxes under the assumption of a VEP and obtain updated constraints on the parameter space with the benchmark choice that neutrinos with different masses couple with different strengths to the gravitational field. In this case we find that the VEP parameters times the local gravitational potential at Earth can be constrained at the level of $10^{-27…
We consider the hypothesis that neutrino oscillation data can be explained if the gravitational couplings of (massless or degenerate mass) neutrinos are flavour non--diagonal, in violation of the equivalence principle. We analyze the various neutrino oscillation laboratory experimental data including the recent LSND observations to constrain the relevant parameter space. We find that there is no allowed region of parameter space which can explain the existing data, implying that the LSND result cannot be explained by oscillations of degenerate-mass neutrinos due to equivalence principle violat…
We discuss the possibility of testing the principle of equivalence with solar neutrinos. If there exists a violation of the equivalence principle quarks and leptons with different flavors may not universally couple with gravity. The method we discuss employs a quantum mechanical phenomenon of neutrino oscillation to probe into the non-universality of the gravitational couplings of neutrinos. We develop an appropriate formalism to deal with neutrino propagation under the weak gravitational fields of the sun in the presence of the flavor mixing. We point out that solar neutrino observation by th…
We show that in the Higgs model leading to a slightly massive photon there are one-loop diagrams which induce equivalence principle violations. This and other considerations implicate rather stringent constraints in the parameter space of the model.
The recent high-statistics high-energy atmospheric neutrino data collected by IceCube open a new window to probe new physics scenarios that are suppressed in lower energy neutrino experiments. In this paper we analyze the IceCube atmospheric neutrino data to constrain the Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) in the framework of three neutrinos with non-universal gravitational couplings. In this scenario the effect of VEP on neutrino oscillation probabilities can be parametrized by two parameters $Δγ_{21}\equiv γ_2-γ_1$ and $Δγ_{31}\equiv γ_3-γ_1$, where $γ_i$'s denote the coupling of neutr…
A violation of Local Lorentz Invariance (VLI) and hence the special theory of relativity or a violation of equivalence principle (VEP) in the Kaon system can, in principle, induce oscillations between $K^0$ and $\bar{K}^0$. We construct a general formulation in which simultaneous pairwise diagonalization of mass, momemtum, weak or gravitational eigenstates is not assumed. %and the maximum attainable %velocities of the velocity eigenstates are different. We discuss this problem in a general way and point out that, as expected, the VEP and VLI contributions are indistinguishable. We then insist …
