Self-interaction in the active neutrinos is studied in the literature to alleviate the $H_0$ tension. Similar self-interaction can also explain the observed dips in the flux of the neutrinos coming from the distant astro-physical sources in IceCube detectors. In contrast to the flavour universal neutrino interaction considered for solving the $H_0$ tension, which is ruled out from particle physics experiments, we consider flavour specific neutrino interactions. We show that the values of self-interaction coupling constant and mediator mass required for explaining the IceCube dips are inconsistent with the strong neutrino self-interactions preferred by the combination of BAO, HST and Planck data. However, the required amount of self-interaction between tau neutrinos ($ν_τ$) in inverted hierarchy for explaining IceCube dips is consistent with the moderate self-interaction region of cosmological bounds at 1-$σ$ level. For the case of other interactions and hierarchies, the IceCube preferred amount of self-interaction is consistent with moderate self-interaction region of cosmological bounds at 2-$σ$ level only.
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…
We present an in-depth analysis of the flavour and spectral composition of the 36 high-energy neutrino events observed after three years of observation by the IceCube neutrino telescope. While known astrophysical sources of HE neutrinos are expected to produce a nearly $(1:1:1)$ flavour ratio (electron : muon : tau) of neutrinos at earth, we show that the best fits based on the events detected above $E_ν\ge 28$ TeV do not necessarily support this hypothesis. Crucially, the energy range that is considered when analysing the HE neutrino data can have a profound impact on the conclusions. We high…
High energy astrophysical neutrinos interacting with ultralight dark matter (DM) can undergo flavour oscillations that induce an energy dependence in the flavour ratios. Such a dependence on the neutrino energy will reflect in the track to shower ratio in neutrino telescopes like IceCube or KM3NeT. This opens up a possibility to study DM density profiles of astrophysical objects like AGN, GRB etc., which are the suspected sources of such neutrinos.
We study possible effects of non-local gravity corrections on the recent discovery by the IceCube collaboration reporting high-energy neutrino flux detected at energies of order PeV. Considering the 4-dimensional operator $\sim y_{αχ}\bar{L_{α}}\, H\, χ$, it is possible to explain both the IceCube neutrino rate and the abundance of Dark Matter, provided that non-local corrections are present in the cosmological background. Furthermore, the mechanism could constitute a natural way to address the $H_0$ tension issue.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects high energy astrophysical neutrinos in two event topologies: tracks and cascades. Since the flavor composition of each event topology differs, tracks and cascades can be used to test the neutrino properties and the mechanisms behind the neutrino production in astrophysical sources. Assuming a conventional model for the neutrino production, the IceCube data sets related to the two channels are in $>3σ$ tension with each other. Invisible neutrino decay with lifetime $τ/m=10^2$ s/eV solves this tension. Noticeably, it leads to an improvement over the stand…
The mixing parameters of sterile neutrino(s) preferred by the MiniBooNE and LNSD experiments are in strong tension with the exclusion limit from the IceCube experiment. Recently it has been claimed that by considering the non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) in addition to the sterile neutrino, the IceCube's limit can be relaxed and the tension can be reconciled; a baroque scenario as it has been called. We will show that this claim is just an artifact originating from the energy cuts of the chosen datasets. Contrary to the claim, by turning on the NSI and fixing the NSI parameters to the …
IceCube has observed a flux of cosmic neutrinos, with a "bump" in the energy range $10 \lesssim E/{\rm TeV} \lesssim 100$ that creates a $3σ$ tension with gamma-ray data from the Fermi satellite. This has been interpreted as evidence for a population of hidden cosmic-ray accelerators. We propose an alternative explanation of this conundrum on the basis of cold dark matter which decays into sterile neutrinos that after oscillations produce the bump in the cosmic neutrino spectrum.
Flavour physics is currently well described by the Standard Model except for some measurements which could be signalling new physics. We briefly summarize the status of tensions in rare exclusive semi-leptonic $B$ decays and in $R_{K/D^{(\ast)}}$ ratios. We also address the issue of the long standing tension in the $|V_{cb}|$ and $|V_{ub}|$ exclusive/inclusive determinations.
We propose a possible particle physics explanation of the non-observation of muon neutrino events at IceCube coincident with GRB gamma ray at the rates predicted by the standard Bahcall-Waxman model, in terms of neutrino oscillations. Our model is based on assuming that (a) all neutrinos are pseudo-Dirac particles and (b) there exists a mirror world interacting gravitationally with the observed world. This scenario has three sterile neutrinos associated with each flavour of ordinary neutrinos. Very tiny mass splitting between these neutrinos is assumed to arise from lepton number violating dim…
We study the QCD phases and their transitions in 2+1 flavour NJL model, with focus on the interface effects such as the interface tension, the interface entropy and critical bubble size in the coexistence region of the first order phase transitions. Our results show that, under the thin-wall approximation, interface contribution to total entropy density changes its discontinuity scale in the first order phase transition. However, the entropy density of dynamical chiral symmetry (DCS) phase is always greater than that of the dynamical chiral symmetry broken (DCSB) phase in both heating and hadr…
Motivated by tensions between experimental measurements and SM predictions in $b\to s \ell^+\ell^-$ transitions, we present the first study of non-minimal flavour-violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) scenarios contributing to the relevant Wilson coefficients to address the observed anomalies using SuperIso and MARTY. We calculate the full one-loop analytical contributions of the general MSSM to Wilson coefficients relevant for flavour anomalies, together with the anomalous muon magnetic dipole moment $(g-2)_μ$. We show that, after imposing theoretical constraints on the flavo…
We consider a four flavour scenario for the neutrinos where an extra sterile neutrino is introduced with the three families of active neutrinos and study the deviation from three flavour scenario in the ultra high energy (UHE) regime. We calculate the possible muon and shower yields at a 1 Km$^2$ detector such as ICECUBE for these neutrinos from distant UHE sources namely Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) etc. Similar estimations for muon and shower yields are also obtained for three flavour case. Comparing the two results we find considerable differences of the yields for these two cases. This can be u…
We consider a scenario where ultra high energy neutrinos undergo unparticle decay during its passage from its cosmological source to Earth. The idea of unparticle had been first proposed by Georgi by considering the possible existence of an unknown scale invariant sector at high energies and the unparticles in this sector manifest itself below a dimensional transmutation scale $Λ_{\cal U}$. We then explore the possible signature of such decaying neutrinos to unparticles at a square kilometer detector such as IceCube.
Recent global fits to short-baseline neutrino oscillation data have been performed finding preference for a sterile neutrino solution (3+1) over null. In the most recent iteration, it was pointed out that an unstable sterile neutrino (3+1+decay) may be a better description of the data. This is due to the fact that this model significantly reduces the tension between appearance and disappearance datasets. In this work, we add a one-year IceCube dataset to the global fit obtaining new results for the standard 3+1 and 3+1+decay sterile neutrino scenarios. We find that the 3+1+decay model provides…
The recent results by the Fermilab Lattice and MILC collaborations on the hadronic matrix elements entering $B_{d,s}-\bar B_{d,s}$ mixing show a significant tension of the measured values of the mass differences $ΔM_{d,s}$ with their SM predictions. We review the implications of these results in the context of Constrained Minimal Flavour Violation models. In these models, the CKM elements $γ$ and $|V_{ub}|/|V_{cb}|$ can be determined from $B_{d,s}-\bar B_{d,s}$ mixing observables, yielding a prediction for $γ$ below its tree-level value. Determining subsequently $|V_{cb}|$ from the measured va…
Cosmological parameters deduced from the Planck measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background are at some tension with direct astronomical measurements of various parameters at low redshifts. Very recently, it has been conjectured that this discrepancy can be reconciled if a certain fraction of dark matter is unstable and decays between recombination and the present epoch. Herein we show that if the superheavy relics have a branching into neutrinos B (X \to ν\bar ν) \sim 3 \times 10^{-9}, then this scenario can also accommodate the recently discovered extraterrestrial flux of…
We examine possibilities for the radiative generation of the Yukawa couplings and flavour structure in supersymmetric models in the supersymmetric phase. Not withstanding the non-renormalisation of the Wilsonian superpotential, this can occur through the 2-loop vertex renormalisation of the physical 1PI couplings. We describe this effect and construct models in which this occurs. For models attempting to reproduce the full flavour structure of the Standard Model, we analyse the tension between such models and constraints from low-energy flavour observables. We note that the tension is weakest …
The time dependent neutrino oscillation signals due to the passage of a shock wave through the supernovae are analyzed for the case of three active neutrinos and also for the case that there are two additional sterile neutrinos. It is shown that, even without flavour identification and energy measurement, detailed information about the masses and mixing angles of the neutrinos may be obtained with a detector with excellent time resolution such as IceCube. Such a signal would also give important information about the nature of the shock wave within the supernovae.
Recent measurements of $b$-hadron decays show a pattern of consistent tensions with the respective Standard Model (SM) predictions. These tensions appear both in the sector of rare flavour-changing neutral currents and in tree-level semileptonic $b$-hadron decays. Flavour-changing neutral-current decays are loop-suppressed in the SM and are thus very susceptible to contributions from new heavy particles and/or new interactions beyond the SM. In rare semileptonic decays tensions are observed in measurements of branching fractions and angular observables, as well as in lepton flavour universalit…
Any interpretation of the astrophysical neutrinos discovered by IceCube must accommodate a variety of multimessenger constraints. We address implications of these neutrinos being produced in transient sources, principally if buried within supernovae so that gamma rays are absorbed by the star. This would alleviate tension with the isotropic Fermi GeV background that >10 TeV neutrinos rival in detected energy flux. We find that IceCube data constrain transient properties, implying buried GeV-TeV electromagnetic emission near or exceeding canonical SN explosion energies of ~10^51 erg, indicative…
The recent tension between local and early measurements of the Hubble constant can be explained in a particle physics context. A mechanism is presented where this tension is alleviated due to the presence of a Majoron, arising from the spontaneous breaking of Lepton Number. The lightness of the active neutrinos is consistently explained. Moreover, this mechanism is shown to be embeddable in the Minimal (Lepton) Flavour Violating context, providing a correct description of fermion masses and mixings, and protecting the flavour sector from large deviations from the Standard Model predictions. A …
Despite the spectacular discovery of an astrophysical neutrino flux by IceCube in 2013, its origin remains a mystery. Whatever its sources, we expect the neutrino flux to be accompanied by a comparable gamma-ray flux. These photons should be degraded in energy by electromagnetic cascades and contribute to the diffuse GeV-TeV flux precisely measured by the Fermi-LAT. Population studies have also permitted to identify the main classes of contributors to this flux, which at the same time have not been associated with major neutrino sources in cross-correlation studies. These considerations allow …
Neutrino decay modifies neutrino propagation in a unique way; not only is there flavor changing as there is in neutrino oscillations, there is also energy transport from initial to final neutrinos. The most sensitive direct probe of neutrino decay is currently IceCube which can measure the energy and flavor of neutrinos traveling over extragalactic distances. For the first time we calculate the flavor transition probability for the cases of visible and invisible neutrino decay, including the effects of the expansion of the universe, and consider the implications for IceCube. As an example, we …
Recent IceCube search results for sterile neutrino increased tension between the combined appearance and disappearance experiments. On the other hand, MiniBooNE latest data confirms at $4.9σ$ CL the short-baseline oscillation anomaly. We analyze published IceCube data based on two different active-sterile mixing schemes using one additional sterile neutrino flavor. We present exclusion regions in the parameter ranges $0.01 \le \sin^2 θ_{24} \le 0.1$ and $0.1~{\rm eV}^2 \le Δm^2_{42} \le 10~{\rm eV}^2$ for the mass-mixing and flavor-mixing schemes. Under the more conservative mass-mixing scheme…
The IceCube neutrino observatory has detected two cascade events with energies near 1 PeV. Without invoking new physics, we analyze the source of these neutrinos. We show that atmospheric conventional neutrinos and cosmogenic neutrinos (those produced in the propagation of ultra-high- energy cosmic rays) are strongly disfavored. For atmospheric prompt neutrinos or a diffuse background of neutrinos produced in astrophysical objects, the situation is less clear. We show that there are tensions with observed data, but that the details depend on the least-known aspects of the IceCube analysis. Ver…
The recent IceCube publication claims the observation of cosmic neutrinos with energies down to $\sim 10$ TeV, reinforcing the growing evidence that the neutrino flux in the 10-100 TeV range is unexpectedly large. Any conceivable source of these neutrinos must also produce a $γ$-ray flux which degrades in energy en route to the Earth and contributes to the extragalactic $γ$-ray background measured by the Fermi satellite. In a quantitative multimessenger analysis, featuring minimalistic assumptions, we find a $\geq 3σ$ tension in the data, reaching $\sim 5σ$ for cosmic neutrinos extended down t…
The recent observation of the blazar TXS 0506+056 suggests the presence of a hard power-law component in the extraterrestrial TeV-PeV neutrino flux, in agreement with the IceCube analysis on the 8-year through-going muon neutrinos from the Northern Sky. This is slightly in tension with the soft power-law neutrino flux deduced by the IceCube 6-year High Energy Starting Events data. A possible solution to such a puzzle is assuming a two-component neutrino flux. In this paper, we focus on the case where, in addition to an astrophysical power-law, the second component is a pure neutrino line produ…
The apparent tensions emerging from the comparison of experimental data of the anomalous magnetic moments of the muon and electron to the Standard Model predictions ($Δa_{μ,e}$) could be interpreted as a potential signal of New Physics. Models encompassing a light vector boson have been known to offer a satisfactory explanation to $Δa_μ$, albeit subject to stringent experimental constraints. Here we explore a minimal extension of the Standard Model via a leptophilic vector boson $Z^\prime$, under the hypothesis of strictly flavour-violating couplings of the latter to leptons. The most constrai…
In ten years of observations, the IceCube neutrino observatory has revealed a neutrino sky in tension with previous expectations for neutrino point source emissions. Astrophysical objects associated with hadronic processes might act as production sites for neutrinos, observed as point sources at Earth. Instead, a nearly isotropic flux of astrophysical neutrinos is observed up to PeV energies, prompting a reassessment of the assumed transport and production physics. This work applies a new physical explanation for neutrino production from populations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and starburs…
We present an extensive analysis of Delta F=2 observables and of B -> X_s gamma in the framework of a specific Maximally Gauged Flavour (MGF) model of Grinstein et al. including all relevant contributions, in particular tree-level heavy gauge boson exchanges that are considered in the present paper for the first time. The model allows in principle for significant deviations from the Standard Model predictions for epsilon_K, Delta M_{B_{d,s}}, mixing induced CP-asymmetries S_{psi K_S} and S_{psi phi} and B -> X_s gamma decay. The tension between epsilon_K and S_{psi K_S} present in the SM can b…
We have studied the consequences of breaking the CPT symmetry in the neutrino sector, using the expected high-energy neutrino flux from distant cosmological sources such as active galaxies. For this purpose we have assumed three different hypotheses for the neutrino production model, characterised by the flavour fluxes at production ϕ_e^0:ϕ_μ^0:ϕ_τ^0 = 1:2:0, 0:1:0, and 1:0:0, and studied the theoretical and experimental expectations for the muon-neutrino flux at Earth, ϕ_μ, and for the flavour ratios at Earth, R = ϕ_μ/ϕ_e and S = ϕ_τ/ϕ_μ. CPT violation (CPTV) has been implemented by adding an…
We present the results of a global analysis of the neutrino oscillation data available as of fall 2018 in the framework of three massive mixed neutrinos with the goal at determining the ranges of allowed values for the six relevant parameters. We describe the complementarity and quantify the tensions among the results of the different data samples contributing to the determination of each parameter. We also show how those vary when combining our global likelihood with the chi^2 map provided by Super-Kamiokande for their atmospheric neutrino data analysis in the same framework. The best fit of …
Two of the key unresolved issues facing Standard Model physics are (i) the appearance of a small but non-zero neutrino mass, and, (ii) the missing mass problem in the Universe. The focus of this paper is a previously proposed low energy effective theory that couples a dark scalar to Standard Model neutrinos. This provides a stable dark matter candidate as well as radiatively generating a neutrino mass. Within this framework we will then construct an entirely new bound from the IceCube-170922A event which takes into account (i) the possible neutrino mass hierarchies, (ii) the effect of cosmolog…
Precision measures of electroweak and flavour observables, at both low and high energies, are highly complementary to direct searches for New Physics at high-energy colliders. Despite the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider, and of the overwhelming successes of the Standard Model, several observational and theoretical problems remain to be addressed. In addition to neutrino oscillation phenomena, the Standard Model fails to explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, and does not offer a viable dark matter candidate. In recent years, numerous deviations between the Stan…
A range of flavour physics observables show tensions with their corresponding Standard Model expectations: measurements of leptonic flavour-changing neutral current processes and ratios of semi-leptonic branching fractions involving different generations of leptons show deviations of the order of four standard deviations. If confirmed, either would be an intriguing sign of new physics. In this manuscript, we analyse the current experimental situation of such processes and for the first time estimate the combined impact of the future datasets of the Belle II and LHCb experiments on the present …
Despite the rapid progression in our understanding of neutrinos over the last half century, much is left unknown about their properties. This leaves neutrinos as the most promising portal for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics, and neutrinos have already provided fruitful surprises. A number of neutrino experiments in the last three decades have observed anomalous oscillation signals consistent with a mass-squared splitting of $Δm^2 \sim 1\ \textrm{eV}^2$, motivating the existence and search for sterile neutrinos. On the other hand, other experiments have failed to see such a signal. In this …
The IceCube experiment has recently released 3 years of data of the first ever detected high-energy (>30 TeV) neutrinos, which are consistent with an extraterrestrial origin. In this talk, we compute the compatibility of the observed track-to-shower ratio with possible combinations of neutrino flavors with relative proportion (alpha_e:alpha_mu:alpha_tau). Although this observation is naively favored for the canonical (1:1:1) at Earth, once we consider the IceCube expectations for the atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds, this flavor combination presents some tension with data. We find tha…
The detection of the high-energy neutrino event, IceCube-170922A, demonstrated that multimessenger particle astrophysics triggered by neutrino alerts is feasible. We consider time delay signatures caused by secret neutrino interactions with the cosmic neutrino background and dark matter and suggest that these can be used as a novel probe of neutrino interactions beyond the Standard Model (BSM). The tests with BSM-induced neutrino echoes are distinct from existing constraints from the spectral modification and will be enabled by multimessenger observations of bright neutrino transients with fut…
The determinations of $|V_{\rm ub}|$ from the exclusive branching ratios of $B\to τν$ and $B \to πl ν$ tend to show a tension at the level of $3σ$ \cite{Beringer:1900zz}. On the theoretical side they depend on the lattice computation of the hadronic matrix elements $f_{\rm B}$ and the $B\to π$ form factor $f_+(q^2)$. To understand the tension, improved precision and a careful analysis of the systematics involved are necessary. Working towards this goal, we present preliminary lattice results of the ALPHA collaboration for the $B\to π$ form factor $f_+(q^2)$ with $N_{\rm f}=2$ flavours of $O(a)…
We present results of global fits of all relevant experimental data on rare $b \to s$ decays. We observe significant tensions between the Standard Model predictions and the data. After critically reviewing the possible sources of theoretical uncertainties, we find that within the Standard Model, the tensions could be explained if there are unaccounted hadronic effects much larger than our estimates. Assuming hadronic uncertainties are estimated in a sufficiently conservative way, we discuss the implications of the experimental results on new physics, both model independently as well as in the …
Dark matter particles can be gravitationally trapped by celestial bodies, motivating searches for localized annihilation or decay. If neutrinos are among the decay products, then IceCube and other neutrino observatories could detect them. We investigate this scenario for dark matter particles above $m_χ \gtrsim$ PeV producing tau neutrino signals, using updated modeling of dark matter capture and thermalization. At these energies, tau neutrino regeneration is an important effect during propagation through Earth, allowing detection at distances far longer than one interaction length. We show ho…
The recent measurements of the neutrino reactor angle require a re-examination of flavour models based on discrete groups. Indeed, when these models deal with the Tri-Bimaximal, the Bimaximal and the Golden Ratio mixing patterns, some tensions arise in order to accommodate the reactor angle. In particular, strong constraints come from lepton flavour violating processes, like mu -> e gamma. We present the analysis and the main results.
Starburst galaxies, which are known as "reservoirs" of high-energy cosmic-rays, can represent an important high-energy neutrino "factory" contributing to the diffuse neutrino flux observed by IceCube. In this paper, we revisit the constraints affecting the neutrino and gamma-ray hadronuclear emissions from this class of astrophysical objects. In particular, we go beyond the standard prototype-based approach leading to a simple power-law neutrino flux, and investigate a more realistic model based on a data-driven blending of spectral indexes, thereby capturing the observed changes in the proper…
Motivated by an explanation of the $R_{K^{(*)}}$ anomalies, we propose a Standard Model extension via two scalar SU(2)$_L$ triplet leptoquarks and three generations of triplet Majorana fermions. The gauge group is reinforced by a $Z_2$ symmetry, ensuring the stability of the lightest $Z_2$-odd particle, which is a potentially viable dark matter candidate. Neutrino mass generation occurs radiatively (at the three-loop level), and leads to important constraints on the leptoquark couplings to leptons. We consider very generic textures for the flavour structure of the $h_1$ leptoquark Yukawa coupl…
