Title: Capabilities of long-baseline experiments in the presence of a sterile neutrino

Abstract

Assuming that there is a sterile neutrino, we ask what then is the ability of long-baseline experiments to i) establish that neutrino oscillation violates CP, ii) determine the three-neutrino mass ordering, and iii) determine which CP-violating phase or phases are the cause of any CP violation that may be observed. We find that the ability to establish CP violation and to determine the mass ordering could be very substantial. However, the effects of the sterile neutrino could be quite large, and it might prove very difficult to determine which phase is responsible for an observed CP violation. We explain why a sterile neutrino changes the long-baseline sensitivities to CP violation and to the mass ordering in the ways that it does. We note that long-baseline experiments can probe the presence of sterile neutrinos in a way that is different from, and complementary to, the probes of short-baseline experiments. As a result, we explore the question of how large sterile-active mixing angles need to be before long-baseline experiments can detect their effects, or how small they need to be before the interpretation of these experiments can safely disregard the possible existence of sterile neutrinos.

Authors:

Dutta, Debajyoti ^[1]; Gandhi, Raj ^[1]; Kayser, Boris ^[2]; Masud, Mehedi  ^[1];

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Prakash, Suprabh ^[3]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad (India)
2. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
3. Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad (India); Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan) Univ., Guangzhou (People's Republic of China)

Publication Date:

Mon Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2016

Research Org.:

Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

OSTI Identifier:

1331776

Report Number(s):

FERMILAB-PUB-16-251-T; HRI-P-16-07-001; arXiv:1607.02152
Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479; 1474682

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-07CH11359

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online); Journal Volume: 2016; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479

Publisher:

Springer Berlin

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Beyond Standard Model; CP violation; neutrino physics