Search for Matter-Dependent Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations in Super-Kamiokande

Abstract

We consider muon neutrino to tau neutrino oscillations in the context of the Mass Varying Neutrino (MaVaN) model, where the neutrino mass can vary depending on the electron density along the flight path of the neutrino. Our analysis assumes a mechanism with dependence only upon the electron density, hence ordinary matter density, of the medium through which the neutrino travels. Fully-contained, partially-contained and upward-going muon atmospheric neutrino data from the Super--Kamiokande detector, taken from the entire SK--I period of 1489 live days, are compared to MaVaN model predictions. We find that, for the case of 2-flavor oscillations, and for the specific models tested, oscillation independent of electron density is favored over density dependence. Assuming maximal mixing, the best-fit case and the density-independent case do not differ significantly.

6 pages, 1 figure

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Study of Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions with Atmospheric Neutrino Data in Super-Kamiokande I and II
• Testing for Large Extra Dimensions with Neutrino Oscillations
• Neutrino Flavor Goniometry by High Energy Astrophysical Beams
• Bulk Neutrinos as an Alternative Cause of the Gallium and Reactor Anti-neutrino Anomalies
• Exploring the Earth matter effect with atmospheric neutrinos in ice
• Apparent CPT Violation in Neutrino Oscillation Experiments
• Possible scenario for MaVaN's as the only neutrino flavor conversion mechanism in the Sun
• Testing Nonstandard Neutrino Properties with a Mössbauer Oscillation Experiment
• Searching for non-diagonal Mass varying mechanism in the ${\nu }_{\mu }$-${\nu }_{\tau }$ system
• Neutrino Flavor Detection at Neutrino Telescopes and Its Uses
• Mass Varying Neutrinos in Supernovae