English

Determining the Octant of $\theta_{23}$ with PINGU, T2K, NOvA and Reactor Data

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-06-17 v1

Abstract

We explore the prospects of determining the octant of θ23\theta_{23} with atmospheric neutrinos at PINGU. We study in detail the impact of energy and angle resolutions of the neutrino on the octant sensitivity. We show that the systematic uncertainties on the atmospheric neutrino flux predictions, especially the ones which affect the energy and zenith angle spectrum of the neutrinos, make a rather drastic reduction of the sensitivity of PINGU. We also study the prospects of measuring the octant of θ23\theta_{23} in the long baseline experiments T2K and NOvA in conjunction with the reactor experiments. We study this for two configurations of NOvA and T2K and make a comparative analysis of them. From just 3 years of PINGU data, the octant could be determined at more than 3σ3\sigma C.L. for sin2θ23<0.419sin^2\theta_{23}<0.419 and sin2θ23>0.586sin^2\theta_{23}>0.586 if we add the reactor data and if normal hierarchy is true. On addition of the data from T2K and NOvA, the sensitivity improves so that the octant could be determined at the 4σ4\sigma C.L. for sin2θ23<0.426sin^2\theta_{23}<0.426 and sin2θ23>0.586sin^2\theta_{23}>0.586 if normal hierarchy is true. Even a 5σ5\sigma significance for the right octant can be achieved if sin2θ23<0.413sin^2\theta_{23}<0.413 for the true normal hierarchy. The sensitivity for the true inverted hierarchy is lower and we expect a 3σ3\sigma determination of octant for sin2θ23<0.43sin^2\theta_{23}<0.43 and >0.585>0.585 from the combined data set for this case.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.5760,
  title  = {Determining the Octant of $\theta_{23}$ with PINGU, T2K, NOvA and Reactor Data},
  author = {Sandhya Choubey and Anushree Ghosh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.5760},
  year   = {2015}
}

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20 pages