Oscillations of solar and atmospheric neutrinos

Motivated by recent results from SuperKamiokande, we study both solar and atmospheric neutrino fluxes in the context of oscillations of the three known neutrinos. We aim at a global view which identifies the various possibilities, rather than attempting the most accurate determination of the parameters of each scenario. For solar neutrinos we emphasise the importance of performing a general analysis, independent of any particular solar model and we consider the possibility that any one of the techniques - chlorine, gallium or water Cerenkov - has a large unknown systematic error, so that its results should be discarded. The atmospheric neutrino anomaly is studied by paying special attention to the ratios of upward and downward going ve and vμ fluxes. Both anomalies can be described in a minimal scheme where the respective oscillation frequencies are widely separated or in non-minimal schemes with two comparable oscillation frequencies. We discuss explicit forms of neutrino mass matrices in which both atmospheric and solar neutrino fluxes are explained. In the minimal scheme we identify only two 'zeroth order' textures that can result from unbroken symmetries. Finally we discuss experimental strategies for the determination of the various oscillation parameters.

Duke Scholars

Author David R. Smith Electrical and Computer Engineering