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Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla

Sanjib



      High Energy Particle Physics  (Phenomenology)
       Research Associate         Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University,
       Physics Department,
       Office 324A,
       Robeson Hall (0435),
       Blacksburg, VA 24061
       USA
      sanjib@vt.edu                
      sanjib.agarwalla@gmail.com
     
        +1 540 231 3308 (Office)
       +1 540 449 6600 (Cell)
      +1 540 231 7511 

        Achievements :
     
      Best  student  of  Nufact 07  summer school  (KEK,  Tsukuba,  Japan)
                            
        Research Interests :
        
         Futuristic Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiments  (Phenomenology)
         [Beta Beam, Super Beam, Neutrino Factory]

         New Physics Studies with Long Baseline Experiments
 
         Studies of  Geophysics

         Renormalization Group Evolution and possible connection between CKM and PMNS matrix
            
         Neutrino Astrophysics

         Detector Simulation (Geant Package) and Neutrino Event Generator  (Nuance)

         Neural Networks

         INDIA BASED NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY (INO)


        Research Field, Collaboration :                                          

Spectacular results on neutrino oscillations in the last several years have triggered a lot of interest in neutrinos, from experimental as well as theoretical point of view, and many future neutrino experiments are in preparation or under discussion to sharpen our understanding about these tiny particles. Our work addresses several aspects of these issues.

We have studied the physics reach of an experiment where neutrinos produced in a Beta Beam facility at CERN are observed in a large magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). The idea of Beta Beam is based on the production of a pure, intense, collimated beam of electron neutrinos or their antiparticles via the beta decay of accelerated radioactive ions circulating in a storage ring. Interestingly, the CERN-INO distance of 7152 km happens to be tantalizingly close to the so-called ``magic'' baseline where the sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering (sign of $\Delta m^2_{31} \equiv m_3^2 - m_1^2$) and more importantly, $\theta_{13}$, goes up significantly, while the sensitivity to the CP phase is absent. This permits such an experiment involving the golden $P_{e\mu}$ channel to make precise measurements of the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and neutrino mass hierarchy avoiding the issues of intrinsic degeneracies and correlations which plague other baselines.

We propound the possibility of using large matter effects in the survival channel, $P_{ee}$, at long baselines for determination of the neutrino mass ordering and the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. Matter effects in the transition probabilites $P_{e\mu}$ and $P_{e \tau}$ act in consonance to give an almost two-fold effect in the survival channel. In addition, the problem of spurious solutions due to the leptonic CP phase and the atmospheric mixing angle $\theta_{23}$ does not crop up. Thus Beta Beams enable one to exclusively study the $P_{ee}$ survival probability with the help of proposed megaton class water detectors like UNO, HyperKamiokande, MEMPHYS.

We have also explored the possibility of detecting new physics signals in dedicated experiments using a near and a far detector and a Beta Beam source. We focus on the possible impact of flavor-changing and flavor-diagonal neutral current interactions that might crop up at the production point, in the oscillation stage, or at the detection point when one will deal with these upcoming facilities. For an example, the R-parity violating Supersymmetric model allows this kind of interactions and long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments may well emerge as test beds for this kind of models.

We discuss the possibility that weak interaction properties of quarks and leptons parameterized by very different flavor mixing matrices at low energies may become identical at high scales and provide another signature of quark-lepton unification. We call this high scale mixing unification (HUM) hypothesis. It states that if at the seesaw scale, the quark and lepton mixing matrices are equal then for quasi-degenerate neutrinos, radiative corrections can lead to large solar and atmospheric mixings and small reactor angle at the weak scale in agreement with data. Evidence for quasi-degenerate neutrinos could, within this framework, be interpreted as being consistent with quark-lepton unification at high scale.

The proposed large magnetized iron calorimeter at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) will be the world's first magnetized large mass iron calorimeter with interleaved Glass RPC detectors. It is planned to have a total mass of 50 kton at startup, which will be later upgraded to 100 kton. The INO facility is expected to come up at PUSHEP (lat. North 11.5 deg, long. East 76.6 deg), situated close to Bangalore in southern India. This constitutes a baseline of 7152 km from CERN. I am a member of India-Based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Collaboration and I am doing some simulation study with Nuance and Geant to estimate the background rate at ICAL for future long baseline studies.

      Collaborators :

          Professor Amitava Raychaudhuri       
          email  :  raychaud@hri.res.in

         Professor Sandhya Choubey               
         email  :  sandhya@mri.ernet.in

        Professor Srubabati Goswami                
        email  :  sruba@mri.ernet.in

        Professor G. Rajasekaran                  
        email  :  graj@imsc.res.in
 
        Professor M. K. Parida                      
        email  :  mkparida@iopb.res.in

        Professor  R. N. Mohapatra               
        email  :  rmohapat@physics.umd.edu

       Professor Anjan S. Joshipura             
       email  :  anjan@prl.res.in

       Professor Subhendra Mohanty           
       email  :  mohanty@prl.res.in

       Dr. Walter Winter                                      
       email  :  winter@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de

       Dr. Patrick Huber                                      
       email  :  pahuber@vt.edu

       Dr. Rathin Adhikari                           
       email  :  rathin@jamia-physics.net

       Dr. Subhendu Rakshit                         
       email  :  rakshit@zylon.physik.uni-dortmund.de

       Dr. Abhijit Samanta                            
       email  :  abhijit.samanta@saha.ac.in
      
       Preprints and Publications  :

    (1) Exploration prospects of a long baseline beta beam neutrino experiment
         with an iron calorimeter detector.
             Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Amitava Raychaudhuri, Abhijit Samanta
              Published in Phys.Lett.B629:33-40,2005
              e-Print Archive: hep-ph/0505015                                    

   (2) Can R-parity violating supersymmetry be seen in long baseline beta-beam experiments?
             Rathin Adhikari, Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Amitava Raychaudhuri
             Published in Phys.Lett.B642:111-118,2006
             e-Print Archive: hep-ph/0608034 

    (3)  Probing Lepton Number Violating Interactions with Beta-beams.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Subhendu Rakshit, Amitava Raychaudhuri
              Published in Phys.Lett.B647:380-388,2007
              e-Print Archive: hep-ph/0609252 

    (4) Neutrino mass hierarchy and $\theta_{13}$  with a magic baseline beta-beam experiment.
             Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Sandhya Choubey, Amitava Raychaudhuri
             Nucl.Phys.B 771 (2007) 1-27
             e-Print Archive: hep-ph/0610333 

    (5)  Neutrino Mixings and Leptonic CP Violation from CKM Matrix and Majorana Phases.
              S .K. Agarwalla, M. K. Parida, R. N. Mohapatra, G. Rajasekaran
              Published in Phys.Rev.D75:033007,2007
              e-Print Archive: hep-ph/0611225

    (6)  Neutrino parameters from matter effects in at long baselines.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Sandhya Choubey, Srubabati Goswami , Amitava Raychaudhuri
              Published in Phys.Rev.D75:097302,2007
              e-Print Archive: hep-ph/0611233

   (7)  Magic Baseline Beta Beam.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Sandhya Choubey, Amitava Raychaudhuri
              Published in AIP Conf. Proc. 939, 265 (2007)
              e-Print Archive: 0707.3367

  (8)  Unraveling neutrino parameters with a magical beta-beam experiment at INO.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Sandhya Choubey, Amitava Raychaudhuri
              Nucl.Phys.B 798 (2008) 124-145  
              e-Print Archive: 0711.1459

  (9)  Optimizing the greenfield Beta-beam.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Sandhya Choubey, Amitava Raychaudhuri, Walter Winter
              e-Print Archive: 0802.3621

  (10)  Exceptional Sensitivity to Neutrino Parameters with a Two Baseline Beta-Beam Set-up.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Sandhya Choubey, Amitava Raychaudhuri
              e-Print Archive: 0804.3007

  (11)  Searching for Long range forces in Long Baseline Beta-Beam Experiment.
              Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, Anjan S. Joshipura, Subhendra Mohanty
              In preparation :  HRI-P-07-11-001; CU-PHYSICS-13/2007.

     Lectures/Seminars:

      (1)  ``Precision measurement of  \theta_13  using beta beam'',
             talk given at 16th DAE-BRNS Symposium on HEP, SINP, Kolkata, India, Nov-Dec 2004.

     (2)  ``The novel aspects of a long baseline Beta Beam experiment with INO'',
             talk given at Satellite neutrino meeting Mumbai, August 1-2, 2005, preceedings  of  the
             International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC2005, Pune, Aug 2005.

     (3)  ``Scoping study: Beta Beam and INO'',
             talk given at INO simulation meeting HRI Allahabad, October 24-26, 2005.

     (4)  ``Physics reach of CERN - INO baseline with Beta Beam'',
             talk given at WHEPP-9, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, January, 2006.

     (5)  ``Physics reach of CERN-INO baseline with beta beams'',
             Poster presented at Neutrino 2006, 13-19 June, 2006, Santa Fe, USA.

     (6)  ``Neutrino mass hierarchy and  \theta_13 with a magic baseline Beta Beam experiment'',
             talk given at 17th DAE-BRNS Symposium on HEP, IIT KHARAGPUR, India, Dec, 2006.

     (7)  ``Neutrino mass hierarchy and  \theta_13 with a magic baseline Beta Beam experiment'',
             Theoretical Physics Seminar Circuit talk given at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad,
             India, 11th Jan, 2007.
 
     (8)  ``Neutrino mass hierarchy and  \theta_13 with a magic baseline Beta Beam experiment'', 
             talk given at 21st International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos (WIN07),
             SINP, Kolkata, India, Jan, 2007.

     (9)  ``Neutrino Mixings and Leptonic CP Violation from CKM Matrix and Majorana Phases'',
             talk given at 21st International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos (WIN07),
             SINP, Kolkata, India, Jan, 2007.

    (10) ``New Physics Search at INO'', 
             Poster presented at Joint Indo - German School and Workshop 2007 (JIGSAW '07),
            12 - 23 February, 2007, TIFR, Mumbai, India.

    (11) ``Neutrino Mixings and Leptonic CP Violation from CKM Matrix and Majorana Phases'', 
            talk given at Joint Indo - German School and Workshop 2007 (JIGSAW '07),
            12 - 23 February, 2007, TIFR, Mumbai, India.
 
    (12) ``Prospects of INO with Beams'', 
             talk given at INO Collaboration meeting, University of Delhi, Delhi, India, 9th March, 2007.

     (13) ``Neutrino Oscillation and India Based Neutrino Observatory'', 
             talk given at Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, 13th March, 2007.

    (14) ``Neutrino mass hierarchy and  \theta_13 with a magic baseline Beta Beam experiment'', 
             talk given at International Workshop on Theoretical High Energy Physics (IWTHEP),
             15 - 20 March, 2007, IIT, Roorkee, India.

    (15)  ``Magic Baseline Beta Beam'', 
              talk given at  MPI-K, Heidelberg, Germany, 21st May, 2007.

    (16) ``The India-based Neutrino Observatory : Present Status and Physics Prospects'', 
             talk given at University of Wurzburg, Germany, 24th May, 2007.
                                   
    (17) ``Magic Baseline Beta Beam'', 
             talk given at Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany, 29th May, 2007.

    (18) ``Magic Baseline Beta Beam'', 
             talk given at  ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 26th June, 2007.

    (19) ``Magic Baseline Beta Beam'', 
             talk given at  INFN, Padova, Italy, 28th June, 2007.

    (20) ``New Physics Searches with Beta Beams'', 
             talk given at  NuFact 07 Conference, Okayama University, Japan, 8th August, 07.
    
    (21) ``Some aspects of neutrino mixing and oscillations'', 
             talk given at  Calcutta University, Kolkata, India, 10th September, 07. 

     (22) ``Physics Potential of Long Baseline Experiments'', 
             talk given at  WHEPP-X, IMSc, Chennai, India, 5th January, 08.

     (23) ``Long Range Forces in Long Baseline Experiments'', 
             talk given at  Nu HoRIzons  (conference), HRI, Allahabad, India, 14th February, 08.

     (24) ``Prospects of INO with Neutrino Beams'', 
             talk given at  Diamond Jubilee Seminar on Current Trends in Physics, Panjab University,
            Chandigarh, India, 29th February, 08.

     (25) ``Physics Potential of Long Baseline Experiments'', 
             talk given at  Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, India, 24th April, 08.

     (26) ``Exceptional Sensitivity to Neutrino Parameters with a Two-Baseline Beta-Beam Set-up'', 
             talk given in the conference dedicated to ``Neutrinos and Beams'' at Darjeeling, India, 6th May, 08.

     (27)  ``Neutrino Parameters with Magical Beta-Beam at INO'',
             Poster presented at Neutrino 2008, 25th-31st May, 2008, Christchurch, New Zealand.