Probing the neutrino mass ordering with KM3NeT-ORCA: Analysis and perspectives
The discrimination of the two possible options for the neutrino mass ordering (normal or inverted) is a major goal for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. Such goal might be reached by observing high-statistics energy-angle spectra of events induced by atmospheric neutrinos and anti...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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arXiv
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1708.03022 https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.03022 |
| Summary: | The discrimination of the two possible options for the neutrino mass ordering (normal or inverted) is a major goal for current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. Such goal might be reached by observing high-statistics energy-angle spectra of events induced by atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos propagating in the Earth matter. Large volume water-Cherenkov detectors envisaged to this purpose include the so-called KM3NeT-ORCA project (in seawater) and the IceCube-PINGU project (in ice). Building upon a previous work focused on PINGU, we study in detail the effects of various systematic uncertainties on the ORCA sensitivity to the mass ordering, for the reference configuration with 9 m vertical spacing. We point out the need to control spectral shape uncertainties at the percent level, the effects of better priors on the theta-23 mixing parameter, and the benefits of an improved flavor identification in reconstructed ORCA events. : 15 pages, including 7 figures. A few paragraphs and references added. Invited contribution to appear in the JPG Focus Issue on "Neutrino Mass and Mass Ordering" |
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