Particle theory

Abstract:

The Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays provides a laboratory for studying fundamental interactions at energies well beyond those available at colliders. In addition to hadrons or photons, Auger is sensitive to ultra-high energy neutrinos in the cosmic radiation and models for new physics can be explored by observing neutrino interactions at center-of-mass energies beyond the TeV scale. By comparing the rate for quasi-horizontal, deeply penetrating air showers triggered by all types of neutrinos with the rate for slightly upgoing showers generated by Earth-skimming tau neutrinos, any deviation of the neutrino-nucleon cross-section from the Standard Model expectation can be constrained. We show that this can test models of low-scale quantum gravity (including processes such as Kaluza-Klein graviton exchange, microscopic black hole production and string resonances), as well as non-perturbative electroweak instanton mediated processes. Moreover, the observed ratios of neutrino flavors would severely constrain the possibility of neutrino decay. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

A critical review is given of the current status of cosmological nucleosynthesis. In the framework of the Standard Model with 3 types of relativistic neutrinos, the baryon-to-photon ratio, $η$, corresponding to the inferred primordial abundances of deuterium and helium-4 is consistent with the independent determination of $η$ from WMAP observations of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. However the primordial abundance of lithium-7 inferred from observations is significantly below its expected value. Taking systematic uncertainties in the abundance estimates into account, there is overall concordance in the range $η= (4.7 - 6.5) x 10^{-10}$ @ 95% c.l. (corresponding to a cosmological baryon density $Ω_B h^2$ = 0.017 - 0.024). The D and He-4 abundances, together with the CMB determination of $η$, provide the bound $N_ν= 3.24 \pm 1.2$ @ 95% c.l. on the effective number of neutrino species. Other constraints on new physics are discussed briefly.