2006/07/25 by Hisakazu Minakata, H. Minakata, H. Nunokawa +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.74.053008
published as Phys.Rev.D74:053008,2006 · 12 pages, 6 postscript figures
arxiv created 2006/07/25 · openalex publication_date 2006/09/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recently a new method for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the effective values of the atmospheric \ensuremathΔm2 measured in the electron neutrino disappearance channel, \ensuremathΔm2(ee), with the one measured in the muon neutrino disappearance channel, \ensuremathΔm2(\ensuremathμ\ensuremathμ), was proposed. If \ensuremathΔm2(ee) is larger (smaller) than \ensuremathΔm2(\ensuremathμ\ensuremathμ) the hierarchy is of the normal (inverted) type. We reexamine this proposition in the light of two very high precision measurements: \ensuremathΔm2(\ensuremathμ\ensuremathμ) that may be accomplished by the phase II of the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment, for example, and \ensuremathΔm2(ee) that can be envisaged using the novel M"ossbauer enhanced resonant \ensuremathνe absorption technique. Under optimistic assumptions for the systematic uncertainties of both measurements, we estimate the parameter region of (\ensuremathθ13, \ensuremathδ) in which the mass hierarchy can be determined. If \ensuremathθ13 is relatively large, sin22\ensuremathθ13\ensuremath\gtrsim0.05, and both of \ensuremathΔm2(ee) and \ensuremathΔm2(\ensuremathμ\ensuremathμ) can be measured with the precision of \ensuremath∼0.5% it is possible to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at >95% CL for 0.3\ensuremathπ\ensuremath\lesssim\ensuremathδ\ensuremath\lesssim1.7\ensuremathπ for the current best fit values of all the other oscillation parameters.