Neutrinos and their flavor mixing in nuclear astrophysics

Abstract

In this thesis we explore the implications of neutrino oscillations in the context of the solar neutrino data, the atmospheric neutrino data and results from the terrestrial accelerator/reactor neutrino oscillation experiments. We perform comprehensive $χ^2$ analysis for the global solar neutrino data including SNO and present our results for two flavor $ν_e-ν_{active}$ and $ν_e-ν_{sterile}$ oscillations. We explore the apparent conflict between the flat SK spectrum and the non-monotonic energy dependence of the solar neutrino survival probability inferred from the global data on total rates. We analyze the SK atmospheric neutrino data in the framework of two and three generations. For the three-generation analysis we simultaneously take into account the results of the terrestrial neutrino experiments. We consider the possibility of unstable neutrinos and explore the viability of this decay model as a solution to the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. We make quantitative predictions for the number of events recorded in the water Cerenkov detectors due a galactic supernova and examine the signatures of neutrino mass and mixing in the resultant neutrino signal.