Scalar Non-Standard Interactions in Neutrino Oscillation

Abstract

The scalar nonstandard interactions (NSI) can also introduce matter effect for neutrino oscillation in a medium. Especially the recent Borexino data prefers nonzero scalar NSI, $\hat{I}{\cdot }_{ee}=-0.16$. In contrast to the conventional vector NSI, the scalar type contributes as a correction to the neutrino mass matrix rather than the matter potential. Consequently, the scalar matter effect is energy independent while the vector one scales linearly with neutrino energy. This leads to significantly different phenomenological consequences in reactor, solar, atmospheric, and accelerator neutrino oscillations. A synergy of different types of experiments, especially those with matter density variation, is necessary to identify the scalar NSI and guarantee the measurement of CP violation at accelerator experiments.

7 pages, 5 figures, to match published version