Revisiting pseudo-Dirac neutrino scenario after recent solar neutrino data

Abstract

It is still unknown whether the mass terms for neutrinos are of Majorana type or of Dirac type. An interesting possibility, known as pseudo-Dirac scheme combines these two with a dominant Dirac mass term and a subdominant Majorana one. As a result, the mass eigenstates come in pairs with a maximal mixing and a small splitting determined by the Majorana mass. This will affect the neutrino oscillation pattern for long baselines. We revisit this scenario employing recent solar neutrino data, including the seasonal variation of the ${}^7$Be flux recently reported by BOREXINO. We constrain the splitting using these data and find that both the time integrated solar neutrino data and the seasonal variation independently point towards a new pseudo-Dirac solution with nonzero splitting for ${\nu }_2$ of $\Delta m_2^2\simeq 1.5\times 10^{-11}$ eV${}^2$. We propose alternative methods to test this new solution. In particular, we point out the importance of measuring the solar neutrino flux at the intermediate energies $1.5\mathrm{MeV}<E_{\nu }<3.5\mathrm{MeV}$ (below the Super-Kamiokande detection threshold) as well as a more precise measurement of the $pep$ flux. The code is available on \href{https://github.com/SaeedAnsarifard/SolarNeutrinos-pseudoDirac.git}{Github}

Comments for v2: GNO and Gallex data added; results unchanged

References in corpus (4)

• A new Generation of Standard Solar Models
• Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos in the New Standard Model
• SN1987A still shining: A Quest for Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos
• Independent determination of the Earth's orbital parameters with solar neutrinos in Borexino

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Probing Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos with Astrophysical Sources at IceCube
• Relic neutrino decay solution to the excess radio background
• Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos and Relic Neutrino Matter Effect on the High-energy Neutrino Flavor Composition
• Constraining the pseudo-Dirac nature of neutrinos using astrophysical neutrino flavor data
• Neutrino properties from muonium-antimuonium mixing
• Cosmogenic neutrinos as probes of new physics
• Boomerang mechanism explaining the excess radio background
• Cosmic neutrino background detection in the minimally extended Standard Model