Apparent multiple Delta m^2_32 in muon anti-neutrino and muon neutrino survival oscillations from non-standard interaction matter effect

Abstract

Neutrinos propagating through matter may participate in forward coherent neutral-current-like scattering arising from non-standard interactions as well as from the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein matter potential $V_e$. We show that at fixed long baselines through matter of constant density, the non-standard interaction potential ${\epsilon }_{\mu \tau }{V}_e$ can contribute an additional term to the oscillation phase whose sign differs for $\anumu$ versus $\numu$ propagation in matter. Its presence can cause different apparent $\Delta m^2$ to be erroneously inferred on the basis of oscillations in vacuum, with values lying above (for $\anumu$) or below (for $\numu$) the actual $\Delta m_{32}^2$ for the case where ${\epsilon }_{\mu \tau }$ is predominantly real-valued and of sign opposite to $\Delta m_{32}^2$. An NSI scenario invoking only $\Re ({\epsilon }_{\mu \tau })$ is shown to be capable of accounting for a disparity recently reported between oscillation survival for $\anumu$ and $\numu$ fluxes measured at $735\mathrm{km}$ by the MINOS experiment. Implications for mantle traversal by atmospheric neutrinos are examined. The NSI matter potential with non-maximal mixing could evade conventional atmospheric neutrino analyses which do not distinguish $\numu$ from $\anumu$ on an event-by-event basis.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

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• Gauged L_mu - L_tau and different Muon Neutrino and Anti-Neutrino Oscillations: MINOS and beyond
• Measurements of atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos in the MINOS Far Detector
• A search for flavor-changing non-standard neutrino interactions by MINOS
• Long-Range Lepton Flavor Interactions and Neutrino Oscillations
• Hint of non-standard dynamics in solar neutrino conversion
• Search for the disappearance of muon antineutrinos in the NuMI neutrino beam
• Constraints on Non-Commutative Physics Scale with Neutrino-Electron Scattering
• A search for flavor-changing non-standard neutrino interactions using ${\nu }_e$ appearance in MINOS
• MINOS Anomaly as A Signal of Lorentz Violation
• Rare Z Decays and Neutrino Flavor Universality
• Mutual consistency of the MINOS and MiniBooNE Antineutrino Results and Possible CPT Violation
• Neutrino Phenomenology of gauged L_mu - L_tau: MINOS and beyond
• Long-range interaction effects on neutrino oscillation