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Universe
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Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources
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Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources

A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997). This special issue belongs to the section "High Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 14425

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pablo Fernández de Salas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physics, Stockholm University, 11419 Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: neutrino physics; astroparticles; galactic dynamics; neutrino cosmology
Prof. Dr. Olga Mena

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Física Corpuscolar (IFIC), University of Valencia and CSIC, Parque Cientifico, c/Catedrático José Beltrán 2, E-46980 Paterna, Spain
Interests: cosmology; dark matter; dark energy; neutrino cosmology; modified gravity; astroparticle physics; neutrino oscillations; 21-cm cosmology; cosmic inflation; particle physics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Neutrinos are one of the most intriguing constituents of the standard model (SM) of particle physics. In fact, their flavor oscillations are one of the best-known phenomena that ensure the need for physics beyond the SM. Moreover, given that neutrinos are known to have special characteristics—like tiny masses compared to the rest of known fundamental particles—they are likely to share additional connections with new physics. A plethora of different exotic scenarios can be tested with neutrinos, ranging from searches for extra sterile species, annihilating dark matter, Lorentz violation phenomena, or non-standard interactions in the lepton sector.

Neutrinos are unique cosmic messengers. Unlike charged particles, they are undeflected by magnetic fields, and, unlike photons, they interact very weakly. Therefore, it is possible to perform pointing studies and also to explore the physics of astrophysical neutrino sources. Ultra-high-energy neutrinos present a unique opportunity to study the interaction of elementary particles at extreme energies, comparable to and even beyond those of current and planned colliders. Very distant neutrino sources, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or active galactic nuclei (AGNs), provide baselines of thousands of megaparsecs for novel neutrino oscillations and neutrino decay tests, inaccessible from atmospheric, solar, or accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments. 

Another nice feature of astrophysical neutrinos is that they are extremely multi-disciplinary tools and can be combined with, for instance, gravitational-wave searches. Neutrino astronomy allows us to examine other phenomena in addition to fundamental neutrino properties: solar CNO neutrinos could tell us about the metal content of the Sun’s core, and supernovae neutrinos could teach us about the underlying stellar explosion mechanism. Neutrinos from dark matter annihilations or decays could unravel the microphysics of the dark sector, and relic neutrinos could also provide the key for mapping the universe’s terra incognita. Under-ice, underwater, and radio observatories for large neutrinos are being built. Planned cosmological surveys and, dedicated, highly sensitive and ambitious detectors will search for relic neutrinos. Neutrino astronomy is a very active field that is developing very rapidly. 

This Special Issue will provide a pool of scientific publications that cover the most appealing aspects of astrophysical neutrinos, from the point of view of both the study of well-known phenomena and the search for new physics. The issue will show the multifaceted nature of neutrinos and their particular role in the multimessenger search for dark matter and new physics. A non-exclusive list of topics of interest is provided below. Reviews and original submissions on those or connected topics are very welcome. We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Pablo Fernández de Salas
Prof. Dr. Olga Mena
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Universe is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • High and ultra-high energy neutrinos
  • Neutrinos from dark matter annihilations and decays
  • Supernovae and neutrino emission
  • Relic neutrinos
  • Solar neutrinos
  • Multimessenger searches
  • Neutrino telescopes
  • Galactic and extragalactic neutrino sources
  • Exotic physics with neutrino astronomy
  • Sterile neutrino searches

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 907 KiB  
Article
Prospects for the Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with the Experiments SK-Gd and JUNO
by Yu-Feng Li, Mark Vagins and Michael Wurm
Universe 2022, 8(3), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8030181 - 14 Mar 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2018
Abstract
The advent of gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK-Gd) and of the soon-to-start JUNO liquid scintillator detector marks a substantial improvement in global sensitivity for the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). The present article reviews the detector properties most relevant for the DSNB searches in both [...] Read more.
The advent of gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK-Gd) and of the soon-to-start JUNO liquid scintillator detector marks a substantial improvement in global sensitivity for the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). The present article reviews the detector properties most relevant for the DSNB searches in both experiments and estimates the expected signal and background levels. Based on these inputs, we evaluate the sensitivity of both experiments individually and combined. Using a simplified statistical approach, we find that both SK-Gd and JUNO have the potential to reach >3σ evidence of the DSNB signal within 10 years of measurement. Combination of their results is likely to enable a 5σ discovery of the DSNB signal within the next decade. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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Review

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23 pages, 1176 KiB  
Review
Neutrino Flavor Conversions in High-Density Astrophysical and Cosmological Environments
by Francesco Capozzi and Ninetta Saviano
Universe 2022, 8(2), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8020094 - 2 Feb 2022
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 2230
Abstract
Despite being a well understood phenomenon in the context of current terrestrial experiments, neutrino flavor conversions in dense astrophysical environments probably represent one of the most challenging open problems in neutrino physics. Apart from being theoretically interesting, such a problem has several phenomenological [...] Read more.
Despite being a well understood phenomenon in the context of current terrestrial experiments, neutrino flavor conversions in dense astrophysical environments probably represent one of the most challenging open problems in neutrino physics. Apart from being theoretically interesting, such a problem has several phenomenological implications in cosmology and in astrophysics, including the primordial nucleosynthesis of light elements abundance and other cosmological observables, nucleosynthesis of heavy nuclei, and the explosion of massive stars. In this review, we briefly summarize the state of the art on this topic, focusing on three environments: early Universe, core-collapse supernovae, and compact binary mergers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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9 pages, 1604 KiB  
Review
Lorentz Symmetry and High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy
by Carlos A. Argüelles and Teppei Katori
Universe 2021, 7(12), 490; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7120490 - 12 Dec 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2648
Abstract
The search of the violation of Lorentz symmetry, or Lorentz violation (LV), is an active research field. The effects of LV are expected to be very small, and special systems are often used to search it. High-energy astrophysical neutrinos offer a unique system [...] Read more.
The search of the violation of Lorentz symmetry, or Lorentz violation (LV), is an active research field. The effects of LV are expected to be very small, and special systems are often used to search it. High-energy astrophysical neutrinos offer a unique system to search signatures of LV, due to the three factors: high neutrino energy, long propagation distance, and the presence of quantum mechanical interference. In this brief review, we introduce tests of LV and summarize existing searches of LV, using atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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10 pages, 2365 KiB  
Review
Sterile Neutrinos with Neutrino Telescopes
by Carlos A. Argüelles and Jordi Salvado
Universe 2021, 7(11), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7110426 - 9 Nov 2021
Viewed by 1204
Abstract
Searches for light sterile neutrinos are motivated by the unexpected observation of an electron neutrino appearance in short-baseline experiments, such as the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) and the Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE). In light of these unexpected results, a campaign using [...] Read more.
Searches for light sterile neutrinos are motivated by the unexpected observation of an electron neutrino appearance in short-baseline experiments, such as the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) and the Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE). In light of these unexpected results, a campaign using natural and anthropogenic sources to find the light (mass-squared-difference around 1 eV2) sterile neutrinos is underway. Among the natural sources, atmospheric neutrinos provide a unique gateway to search for sterile neutrinos due to the broad range of baseline-to-energy ratios, L/E, and the presence of significant matter effects. Since the atmospheric neutrino flux rapidly falls with energy, studying its highest energy component requires gigaton-scale neutrino detectors. These detectors—often known as neutrino telescopes since they are designed to observe tiny astrophysical neutrino fluxes—have been used to perform searches for light sterile neutrinos, and researchers have found no significant signal to date. This brief review summarizes the current status of searches for light sterile neutrinos with neutrino telescopes deployed in solid and liquid water. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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10 pages, 850 KiB  
Review
Review on Indirect Dark Matter Searches with Neutrino Telescopes
by Juan de Dios Zornoza
Universe 2021, 7(11), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7110415 - 30 Oct 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1412
Abstract
The search for dark matter is one of the hottest topics in Physics today. The fact that about 80% of the matter of the Universe is of unknown nature has triggered an intense experimental activity to detect this kind of matter and a [...] Read more.
The search for dark matter is one of the hottest topics in Physics today. The fact that about 80% of the matter of the Universe is of unknown nature has triggered an intense experimental activity to detect this kind of matter and a no less intense effort on the theory side to explain it. Given the fact that we do not know the properties of dark matter well, searches from different fronts are mandatory. Neutrino telescopes are part of this experimental quest and offer specific advantages. Among the targets to look for dark matter, the Sun and the Galactic Center are the most promising ones. Considering models of dark matter densities in the Sun, neutrino telescopes have put the best limits on spin-dependent cross section of proton-WIMP scattering. Moreover, they are competitive in the constraints on the thermally averaged annihilation cross-section for high WIMP masses when looking at the Galactic Centre. Other results are also reviewed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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11 pages, 598 KiB  
Review
Multimessenger Astronomy with Neutrinos
by Francisco Salesa Greus and Agustín Sánchez Losa
Universe 2021, 7(11), 397; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7110397 - 21 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2142
Abstract
Multimessenger astronomy is arguably the branch of the astroparticle physics field that has seen the most significant developments in recent years. In this manuscript, we will review the state-of-the-art, the recent observations, and the prospects and challenges for the near future. We will [...] Read more.
Multimessenger astronomy is arguably the branch of the astroparticle physics field that has seen the most significant developments in recent years. In this manuscript, we will review the state-of-the-art, the recent observations, and the prospects and challenges for the near future. We will give special emphasis to the observation carried out with neutrino telescopes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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12 pages, 746 KiB  
Review
Status of Anomalies and Sterile Neutrino Searches at Nuclear Reactors
by Stefan Schoppmann
Universe 2021, 7(10), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe7100360 - 27 Sep 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1768
Abstract
Two anomalies at nuclear reactors, one related to the absolute antineutrino flux, one related to the antineutrino spectral shape, have drawn special attention to the field of reactor neutrino physics during the past decade. Numerous experimental efforts have been launched to investigate the [...] Read more.
Two anomalies at nuclear reactors, one related to the absolute antineutrino flux, one related to the antineutrino spectral shape, have drawn special attention to the field of reactor neutrino physics during the past decade. Numerous experimental efforts have been launched to investigate the reliability of flux models and to explore whether sterile neutrino oscillations are at the base of the experimental findings. This review aims to provide an overview on the status of experimental searches at reactors for sterile neutrino oscillations and measurements of the antineutrino spectral shape in mid-2021. The individual experimental approaches and results are reviewed. Moreover, global and joint oscillation and spectral shape analyses are discussed. Many experiments allow setting of constraints on sterile oscillation parameters, but cannot yet cover the entire relevant parameter space. Others find evidence in favour of certain parameter space regions. In contrast, findings on the spectral shape appear to give an overall consistent picture across experiments and allow narrowing down of contributions of certain isotopes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources)
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