English

Low-energy atmospheric neutrino flux calculation with accelerator-data-driven tuning

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2026-04-21 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We have incorporated a hadron interaction tuning based on accelerator data into our atmospheric neutrino flux calculation, which has been used to analyze atmospheric neutrino oscillations at Super-Kamiokande. This new approach enables a more direct evaluation of the flux uncertainty than a conventional tuning using atmospheric muons. The neutrino flux calculated with this new tuning is 5\%--10\% smaller but still consistent with our previously published prediction within its uncertainty. The flavor ratio (νμ+νˉμ)/(νe+νˉe)(\nu_{\mu}+\bar{\nu}_{\mu})/(\nu_e+\bar{\nu}_e) and νˉ/ν\bar{\nu}/\nu ratios were consistent with the previous prediction. Based on the measurement errors of the accelerator data, we evaluated the flux uncertainty associated with the new tuning to be 7\%--9\% in the Eν<E_{\nu} < 1 GeV region, which was difficult to assess with the conventional tuning. The flux uncertainty in the 1<Eν<101<E_{\nu}<10 GeV region was evaluated to be 5\%--7\%, which is an improvement over the conventional tuning.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.09334,
  title  = {Low-energy atmospheric neutrino flux calculation with accelerator-data-driven tuning},
  author = {Kazufumi Sato and Hiroaki Menjo and Yoshitaka Itow and Morihiro Honda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.09334},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

29 pages, 17 figures