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1. OSIRIS-REx constraints on local dark matter and cosmic neutrino profiles

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2024/02/029  

   Tsai, Yu-Dai; Eby, Joshua; Arakawa, Jason; Farnocchia, Davide; Safronova, Marianna S (February 2024, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics)

   Abstract We derive purely gravitational constraints on dark matter and cosmic neutrino profiles in the solar system using asteroid (101955) Bennu. We focus on Bennu because of its extensive tracking data and high-fidelity trajectory modeling resulting from the OSIRIS-REx mission. We find that the local density of dark matter is bound byρ_DM ≲ 3.3 × 10^-15 kg/m³ ≃ 6 × 10⁶ ρ̅_DM, in the vicinity of ∼ 1.1 au (where ρ̅_DM ≃ 0.3 GeV/cm³). We show that high-precision tracking data of solar system objects can constrain cosmic neutrino overdensities relative to the Standard Model prediction n̅_ν, at the level ofη ≡ n_ν/n̅_ν ≲ 1.7 × 10¹¹(0.1 eV/m_ν) (Saturn), comparable to the existing bounds from KATRIN and other previous laboratory experiments (withm_νthe neutrino mass). These local bounds have interesting implications for existing and future direct-detection experiments. Our constraints apply to all dark matter candidates but are particularly meaningful for scenarios including solar halos, stellar basins, and axion miniclusters, which predict overdensities in the solar system. Furthermore, introducing a DM-SM long-range fifth force with a strength α̃_Dtimes stronger than gravity, Bennu can set a constraint onρ_DM ≲ ρ̅_DM(6 × 10⁶/α̃_D). These constraints can be improved in the future as the accuracy of tracking data improves, observational arcs increase, and more missions visit asteroids. 

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2. A direct detection view of the neutrino NSI landscape

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2023)071  

   Amaral, Dorian; Cerdeño, David; Cheek, Andrew; Foldenauer, Patrick (July 2023, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> In this article, we study the potential of direct detection experiments to explore the parameter space of general non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) via solar neutrino scattering. Due to their sensitivity to neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleus scattering, direct detection provides a complementary view of the NSI landscape to that of spallation sources and neutrino oscillation experiments. In particular, the large admixture of tau neutrinos in the solar flux makes direct detection experiments well-suited to probe the full flavour space of NSI. To study this, we develop a re-parametrisation of the NSI framework that explicitly includes a variable electron contribution and allows for a clear visualisation of the complementarity of the different experimental sources. Using this new parametrisation, we explore how previous bounds from spallation source and neutrino oscillation experiments are impacted. For the first time, we compute limits on NSI from the first results of the XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN experiments, and we obtain projections for future xenon-based experiments. These computations have been performed with our newly developed software package, SNuDD. Our results demonstrate the importance of using a more general NSI parametrisation and indicate that next generation direct detection experiments will become powerful probes of neutrino NSI. 

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3. A global analysis strategy to resolve neutrino NSI degeneracies with scattering and oscillation data

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2020)106  

   Dutta, Bhaskar; Lang, Rafael F.; Liao, Shu; Sinha, Samiran; Strigari, Louis; Thompson, Adrian (September 2020, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract Neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) with the first generation of standard model fermions can span a parameter space of large dimension and exhibit degeneracies that cannot be broken by a single class of experiment. Oscillation experiments, together with neutrino scattering experiments, can merge their observations into a highly informational dataset to combat this problem. We consider combining neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleus scattering data from the Borexino and COHERENT experiments, including a projection for the upcoming coherent neutrino scattering measurement at the CENNS-10 liquid argon detector. We extend the reach of these data sets over the NSI parameter space with projections for neutrino scattering at a future multi-ton scale dark matter detector and future oscillation measurements from atmospheric neutrinos at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). In order to perform this global anal- ysis, we adopt a novel approach using the copula method, utilized to combine posterior information from different experiments with a large, generalized set of NSI parameters. We find that the contributions from DUNE and a dark matter detector to the Borexino and COHERENT fits can improve constraints on the electron and quark NSI parameters by up to a factor of 2 to 3, even when relatively many NSI parameters are left free to vary in the analysis. 

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4. Global constraints on non-standard neutrino interactions with quarks and electrons

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2023)032  

   Coloma, Pilar; Gonzalez-Garcia, M C; Maltoni, Michele; Pinheiro, João Paulo; Urrea, Salvador (August 2023, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> We derive new constraints on effective four-fermion neutrino non-standard interactions with both quarks and electrons. This is done through the global analysis of neutrino oscillation data and measurements of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) obtained with different nuclei. In doing so, we include not only the effects of new physics on neutrino propagation but also on the detection cross section in neutrino experiments which are sensitive to the new physics. We consider both vector and axial-vector neutral-current neutrino interactions and, for each case, we include simultaneously all allowed effective operators in flavour space. To this end, we use the most general parametrization for their Wilson coefficients under the assumption that their neutrino flavour structure is independent of the charged fermion participating in the interaction. The status of the LMA-D solution is assessed for the first time in the case of new interactions taking place simultaneously with up quarks, down quarks, and electrons. One of the main results of our work are the presently allowed regions for the effective combinations of non-standard neutrino couplings, relevant for long-baseline and atmospheric neutrino oscillation experiments. 

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5. Measurement of the axial vector form factor from antineutrino–proton scattering

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05478-3  

   Cai, T.; Moore, M. L.; Olivier, A.; Akhter, S.; Dar, Z. Ahmad; Ansari, V.; Ascencio, M. V.; Bashyal, A.; Bercellie, A.; Betancourt, M.; et al (February 2023, Nature)

   Abstract Scattering of high energy particles from nucleons probes their structure, as was done in the experiments that established the non-zero size of the proton using electron beams 1 . The use of charged leptons as scattering probes enables measuring the distribution of electric charges, which is encoded in the vector form factors of the nucleon 2 . Scattering weakly interacting neutrinos gives the opportunity to measure both vector and axial vector form factors of the nucleon, providing an additional, complementary probe of their structure. The nucleon transition axial form factor, F A , can be measured from neutrino scattering from free nucleons, ν μ n  →  μ − p and $${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }p\to {\mu }^{+}n$$ ν ¯ μ p → μ + n , as a function of the negative four-momentum transfer squared ( Q 2 ). Up to now, F A ( Q 2 ) has been extracted from the bound nucleons in neutrino–deuterium scattering 3–9 , which requires uncertain nuclear corrections 10 . Here we report the first high-statistics measurement, to our knowledge, of the $${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\,p\to {\mu }^{+}n$$ ν ¯ μ p → μ + n cross-section from the hydrogen atom, using the plastic scintillator target of the MINERvA 11 experiment, extracting F A from free proton targets and measuring the nucleon axial charge radius, r A , to be 0.73 ± 0.17 fm. The antineutrino–hydrogen scattering presented here can access the axial form factor without the need for nuclear theory corrections, and enables direct comparisons with the increasingly precise lattice quantum chromodynamics computations 12–15 . Finally, the tools developed for this analysis and the result presented are substantial advancements in our capabilities to understand the nucleon structure in the weak sector, and also help the current and future neutrino oscillation experiments 16–20 to better constrain neutrino interaction models. 

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