Neutrino oscillation tomography of the Earth with KM3NeT-ORCA

• Published in: Journal of Physics: Conference Series
• Main Authors: Bourret, Simon, Coelho, João A.B., Van Elewyck, Véronique
• Other Authors: AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (M.E.N.E.S.R.), KM3NeT
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: neutrino: angular distribution; measurement methods; neutrino: energy spectrum; geophysics; numerical calculations: Monte Carlo; matter: effect; electron: density; neutrino: atmosphere; KM3NeT; neutrino: oscillation; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-INS-DET]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]; [PHYS.HEXP]Physics [physics]/High Energy Physics - Experiment [hep-ex]; [PHYS.HPHE]Physics [physics]/High Energy Physics - Phenomenology [hep-ph]; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEN-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/General Physics [physics.gen-ph]; [PHYS]Physics [physics]; Orca
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01645480; https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/888/1/012114

International audience KM3NeT-ORCA is a water-Cherenkov neutrino detector designed for studying the oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, with the primary objective of measuring the neutrino mass ordering. Atmospheric neutrinos crossing the Earth undergo matter effects, modifying the pattern of their flavour oscillations. The study of the angular and energy distribution of neutrino events in ORCA can therefore provide tomographic information on the Earth’s interior with an independent technique, complementary to the standard geophysics methods. Preliminary estimations based on a full Monte Carlo simulation of the detector response show that after ten years of operation the electron density can be measured with a precision of 3-5% in the mantle and 7-10% in the outer core – depending on the mass ordering.