Probing neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the charged-current and neutral-current interaction rates of supernova neutrinos
- Center for General Education, Chang Gung University,Kwei-Shan, Taoyuan, 333, Taiwan (China)
- Institute of Physics, National Chiao Tung University,Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan (China)
- Department of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University,Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan (China)
- Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (LeCosPA), National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan (China)
The neutrino mass hierarchy is one of the neutrino fundamental properties yet to be determined. We introduce a method to determine neutrino mass hierarchy by comparing the interaction rate of neutral current (NC) interactions, ν(ν-bar)+p→ν(ν-bar)+p, and inverse beta decays (IBD), ν-bar{sub e}+p→n+e{sup +}, of supernova neutrinos in scintillation detectors. Neutrino flavor conversions inside the supernova are sensitive to neutrino mass hierarchy. Due to Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effects, the full swapping of ν-bar{sub e} flux with the ν-bar{sub x} (x=μ, τ) one occurs in the inverted hierarchy, while such a swapping does not occur in the normal hierarchy. As a result, more high energy IBD events occur in the detector for the inverted hierarchy than the high energy IBD events in the normal hierarchy. By comparing IBD interaction rate with the mass hierarchy independent NC interaction rate, one can determine the neutrino mass hierarchy.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- SCOAP3, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)
- OSTI ID:
- 22572121
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 07; Other Information: PUBLISHER-ID: JCAP07(2016)039; OAI: oai:repo.scoap3.org:16558; cc-by Article funded by SCOAP3. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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