Pinning down neutrino oscillation parameters in the 2-3 sector with a mgnetised atmospheric neutrino detector: a new study

Abstract

We determine the sensitivity to neutrino oscillation parameters from a study of atmospheric neutrinos in a magnetised detector such as the ICAL at the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory. In such a detector that can {\em separately} count ${\nu }_{\mu }$ and ${\overline{\nu }}_{\mu }$-induced events, the relatively smaller (about 5\%) uncertainties on the neutrino--anti-neutrino flux ratios translate to a constraint in the ${\chi }^2$ analysis that results in a significant improvement in the precision with which neutrino oscillation parameters such as ${\sin }^2{\theta }_{23}$ can be determined. Such an effect is unique to all magnetisable detectors and constitutes a great advantage in determining neutrino oscillation parameters using such detectors. Such a study has been performed for the first time here. Along with an increase in the kinematic range compared to earlier analyses, this results in sensitivities to oscillation parameters in the 2--3 sector that are comparable to or better than those from accelerator experiments where the fluxes are significantly higher. For example, the $1\sigma$ precisions on ${\sin }^2{\theta }_{23}$ and $|\Delta m_{32(31)}^2|$ achievable for 500 kTon yr exposure of ICAL are $\sim 9\%$ and $\sim 2.5\%$ respectively for both normal and inverted hierarchies. The mass hierarchy sensitivity achievable with this combination when the true hierarchy is normal (inverted) for the same exposure is $\Delta {\chi }^2\approx 8.5$ ($\Delta {\chi }^2\approx 9.5$).

References in corpus (21)

• Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at Daya Bay
• Updated fit to three neutrino mixing: status of leptonic CP violation
• Global fit to three neutrino mixing: critical look at present precision
• Neutrino oscillations refitted
• Calculation of atmospheric neutrino flux using the interaction model calibrated with atmospheric muon data
• Measurements of neutrino oscillation in appearance and disappearance channels by the T2K experiment with 6.6E20 protons on target
• Observation of Energy and Baseline Dependent Reactor Antineutrino Disappearance in the RENO Experiment
• The GERDA experiment for the search of 0νββ decay in ^{76}Ge
• A new measurement of antineutrino oscillation with the full detector configuration at Daya Bay
• Improvement of low energy atmospheric neutrino flux calculation using the JAM nuclear interaction model
• Improved measurements of the neutrino mixing angle ${\theta }_{13}$ with the Double Chooz detector
• Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)
• First measurement of muon-neutrino disappearance in NOvA
• Measurement of ${\theta }_{13}$ in Double Chooz using neutron captures on hydrogen with novel background rejection techniques
• A Simulations Study of the Muon Response of the Iron Calorimeter Detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory
• Enhancing sensitivity to neutrino parameters at INO combining muon and hadron information
• New measurement of ${\theta }_{13}$ via neutron capture on hydrogen at Daya Bay
• Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Oscillations with an Accelerator-Produced Off-Axis Beam
• Neutrino oscillation probabilities: Sensitivity to parameters
• Optimised sensitivity to leptonic CP violation from spectral information: the LBNO case at 2300 km baseline
• Simulations Study of Muon Response in the Peripheral Regions of the Iron Calorimeter Detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Sensitivity to neutrino decay with atmospheric neutrinos at INO
• Active-sterile neutrino oscillations at INO-ICAL over a wide mass-squared range
• From oscillation dip to oscillation valley in atmospheric neutrino experiments
• Can INO be Sensitive to Flavor-Dependent Long-Range Forces?
• Probing Lorentz Invariance Violation with Atmospheric Neutrinos at INO-ICAL
• Prospects of Indirect Searches for Dark Matter at INO
• Determining Neutrino Mass Ordering with ICAL, JUNO and T2HK
• Study of neutrino oscillation parameters at the INO-ICAL detector using event-by-event reconstruction
• Indirect searches of Galactic diffuse dark matter in INO-MagICAL detector
• Probing the sensitivity to leptonic ${\delta }_{CP}$ in presence of invisible decay of ${\nu }_3$ using atmospheric neutrinos
• First simulation study of trackless events in the INO-ICAL detector to probe the sensitivity to atmospheric neutrinos oscillation parameters
• A simulation study of tau neutrino events at the ICAL detector in INO
• Hierarchy independent sensitivity to leptonic δ_CP with atmospheric neutrinos