Neutrino flavor ratios as diagnostic of solar WIMP annihilation

dc.creatorLehnert, Ralf
dc.creatorWeiler, Thomas J.
dc.date2007-08-08
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T11:41:44Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T11:41:44Z
dc.descriptionWe consider the neutrino (and antineutrino) flavors arriving at Earth for neutrinos produced in the annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the Sun's core. Solar-matter effects on the flavor propagation of the resulting $\agt$ GeV neutrinos are studied analytically within a density-matrix formalism. Matter effects, including mass-state level-crossings, influence the flavor fluxes considerably. The exposition herein is somewhat pedagogical, in that it starts with adiabatic evolution of single flavors from the Sun's center, with $θ_{13}$ set to zero, and progresses to fully realistic processing of the flavor ratios expected in WIMP decay, from the Sun's core to the Earth. In the fully realistic calculation, non-adiabatic level-crossing is included, as are possible nonzero values for $θ_{13}$ and the CP-violating phase $δ$. Due to resonance enhancement in matter, nonzero values of $θ_{13}$ even smaller than a degree can noticeably affect flavor propagation. Both normal and inverted neutrino-mass hierarchies are considered. Our main conclusion is that measuring flavor ratios (in addition to energy spectra) of $\agt$ GeV solar neutrinos can provide discrinination between WIMP models. In particular, we demonstrate the flavor differences at Earth for neutrinos from the two main classes of WIMP final states, namely $W^+ W^-$ and 95% $b \bar{b}$ + 5% $τ^+τ^-$. Conversely, if WIMP properties were to be learned from production in future accelerators, then the flavor ratios of $\agt$ GeV solar neutrinos might be useful for inferring $θ_{13}$ and the mass hierarchy.
dc.description30 pages, including 10 figures and 4 appendices
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0708.1035
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0708.1035
dc.identifierPhys.Rev.D77:125004,2008
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevD.77.125004
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/200642
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleNeutrino flavor ratios as diagnostic of solar WIMP annihilation
dc.typetext

Files

Collections