Mass hierarchy determination via future atmospheric neutrino detectors

2007/07/31 by Raj Gandhi, Pomita Ghoshal, Srubabati Goswami +5 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ex #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.76.073012

published as Phys.Rev.D76:073012,2007 · 36 pages, 13 figures, revised version accepted in Physical Review D

arxiv created 2007/09/06 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study the problem of determination of the sign of \ensuremathΔm₃₁², or the neutrino mass hierarchy, through observations of atmospheric neutrinos in future detectors. We consider two proposed detector types: (a) Megaton sized water C\ifmmode \breve\else \u\fierenkov detectors, which can measure the event rates of \ensuremathν_\ensuremathμ+\ensuremathν_\ensuremathμ and \ensuremathν_e+\ensuremathν_e and (b) 100 kton sized magnetized iron detectors, which can measure the event rates of \ensuremathν_\ensuremathμ and \ensuremathν_\ensuremathμ. For energies and path lengths relevant to atmospheric neutrinos, these rates obtain significant matter contributions from P_\ensuremathμe, P_\ensuremathμ\ensuremathμ and P_ee, leading to an appreciable sensitivity to the hierarchy. We do a binned \ensuremathχ² analysis of simulated data in these two types of detectors which includes the effect of smearing in neutrino energy and direction and incorporates detector efficiencies and relevant statistical, theoretical and systematic errors. We also marginalize the \ensuremathχ² over the allowed ranges of neutrino parameters in order to accurately account for their uncertainties. Finally, we compare the performance of both types of detectors vis a vis the hierarchy determination.

Citations

• Simulation of long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments with GLoBES
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Cited by

• Neutrino mass hierarchy extraction using atmospheric neutrinos in ice
• Physics at a future Neutrino Factory and super-beam facility
• Implications of the Super-K atmospheric, long baseline, and reactor data for the mixing anglesθ13andθ23