Exploring Muon, Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics at the Intensity Frontiers

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Background

At the intensity frontier, a remarkable number of exceptionally sensitive experimental facilities are currently exploring neutrino physics, muon physics and astroparticle physics from a multidisciplinary viewpoint. The accelerators operating at laboratories like J-PARC (Japan), Fermilab and Brookhaven (USA), CERN and PSI (Switzerland) and others, have developed innovative concepts and advanced technologies required for neutrino factories and muon colliders.

In the effort to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), ambitious prospects are provided through precision measurements and rare decay searches, being complementary to the collider experiments at the high energy frontier. Advanced muon-related studies as the charged lepton flavour violation (cLFV) with muons, muon g-2, electric dipole moment (EDM), lepton flavour universality violation (LFUV) and the proton radius in muonic hydrogen, have attracted particular attention from theorists and experimentalists. The possibility of producing highly intense muon sources, based on techniques within the front-end of future neutrino factories is of accelerating interest. The recent muon facilities, including experiments using negative muons to develop low-energy muon beams, may support a wide range of muon investigations.

Over the last decades, neutrinos have attracted an intensive effort of the researchers working in nuclear physics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology. Presently, several neutrino experiments operate with extremely high sensitivities towards studying neutral-current coherent-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS). The recent observation of CEvNS by the COHERENT experiment at Oak-Ridge is expected to shed light on various neutrino properties beyond the standard model (BSM) such as non-standard neutrino interactions, etc. The physics research undertaken with the neutrino-beam facilities is associated with the mysteries in low- and intermediate-energy neutrinos in nuclear and astroparticle physics. Neutrino signals are seen as powerful tools for studying stellar evolution and astronuclear processes and, to this purpose, terrestrial neutrino telescopes provide crucial information concerning the weak processes occurring in the interior of distant stars. Furthermore, in various theoretical and phenomenological considerations of Dark Matter, the existence of a fourth sterile neutrino generation has drawn great attention.

Opportunities at the interface between neutrino and astroparticle physics have been steadily increasing in recent years. Neutrino oscillations, in particular non-linear effects due to self-interactions, play an important role in dense environments such as supernovae. They can furthermore induce instabilities with some intriguing similarities to plasma physics. Cosmology and the large-scale structure of the Universe provide sensitive probes of neutrino properties such as masses that are complementary to laboratory experiments. High energy extraterrestrial neutrinos, after their discovery by IceCube, start to play an important role in multi messenger astrophysics together with high energy gamma- and cosmic rays. Such neutrinos are likely produced by astrophysical sources directly and motivate measurements of the corresponding energy spectrum with improved sensitivity. More recently, gravitational waves have been added to these messengers. This has led to correlation studies and trigger alert systems such as AMON on the experimental side, and detailed model building of energetic events such as compact star coalescences. Finally, high energy astrophysical neutrinos are also used as probes of particle physics such as in atmospheric charm production.

Researchers working in these fields are welcome to contribute with original research articles as well as reviews of experimental, phenomenological as well as theoretical nature. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Coherent neutrino nucleus scattering – Neutrino detection: Theory and experiment – Standard and non-standard neutrino-nucleus interactions – Neutrinoless muon-to-electron conversion in nuclei – Sterile neutrinos to probe Dark Matter – Charged lepton flavor violation: Theory and experiment – Muon g-2 and muon EDM – Violation of lepton universality with muons and taus – Proton radius on muonic hydrogen – Beyond Standard Model physics with muons – High energy extra-terrestrial neutrinos – Gravitational waves – Search for the neutrino cosmic background – Structure formation of the Universe and neutrinos – Compact star coalescences

Keywords: Muon physics, neutrino physics, charged lepton flavor violation, Compact star coalescences, gravitational waves

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