English

Neutrino Tomography of the Earth with ORCA Detector

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2022-09-20 v2

Abstract

Using PREM as a reference model for the Earth density distribution we investigate in the present article the sensitivity of the ORCA detector to deviations of the Earth i) outer core (OC) density, ii) inner core (IC) density, iii) total core density, and iv) mantle density, from their respective PREM densities. The analysis is performed by studying the effects of the Earth matter on the oscillations of atmospheric νμ\nu_{\mu}, νe\nu_e, νˉμ\bar{\nu}_\mu and νˉe\bar{\nu}_e. We present results which, in particular, illustrate the dependence of the ORCA sensitivity to the OC, IC, core and mantle densities on the type of systematic uncertainties used in the analysis, on the value of the atmospheric neutrino mixing angle θ23\theta_{23}, on whether the Earth mass constraint is implemented or not, and on the way it is implemented, and on the type - with normal ordering (NO) or inverted ordering (IO) - of the light neutrino mass spectrum. We show, in particular, that in the "most favorable" NO case of implemented Earth mass constraint, "minimal" systematic errors and sin2θ23=0.58\sin^2\theta_{23}=0.58, ORCA can determine, e.g., the OC (mantle) density at 3σ3\sigma C.L. after 10 years of operation with an uncertainty of (-18\%)/+15\% (of (-6\%)/+8\%). In the "most unfavourable" NO case of "conservative" systematic errors and sin2θ23=0.42\sin^2\theta_{23}=0.42, the uncertainty reads (-43\%)/+39\% ((-17\%/+20\%), while for for sin2θ23=0.50\sin^2\theta_{23} = 0.50 and 0.58 it is noticeably smaller: (-37)\%/+30\% and (-30\%)/+24\% ((-13\%)/+16\% and (-11\%/+14\%)). We find also that the sensitivity of ORCA to the outer core, core and mantle densities is significantly worse for IO neutrino mass spectrum.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2111.13048,
  title  = {Neutrino Tomography of the Earth with ORCA Detector},
  author = {F. Capozzi and S. T. Petcov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.13048},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

34 pages, 11 figures; Earth hydrostatic equilibrium conditions taken into account, typos corrected; version published in EPJC