Discrimination of mass hierarchy with atmospheric neutrinos at a magnetized muon detector

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that a magnetized muon detector can effectively distinguish the neutrino mass hierarchy with over 90% confidence if the mixing angle θ13 is at least 5 degrees, considering systematic uncertainties.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel analysis method using two-dimensional energy-angle resolution functions and optimized binning to improve hierarchy discrimination in atmospheric neutrino experiments.

Findings

Hierarchy can be distinguished at >90% C.L. for θ13 ≥ 5°

Binning in log10 E - L^{0.4} plane enhances sensitivity

Systematic uncertainties significantly affect hierarchy determination

Abstract

We have studied the mass hierarchy with atmospheric neutrinos considering the muon energy and zenith angle of the event at the magnetized iron calorimeter detector. For $\chi^2$ analysis we have migrated the number of events from neutrino energy and zenith angle bins to muon energy and zenith angle bins using the two-dimensional energy-angle correlated resolution functions. The binning of data is made in two-dimensional grids of $\log_{10} E - L^{0.4}$ plane to get a better reflection of the oscillation pattern in the $\chi^2$ analysis. Then the $\chi^2$ is marginalized considering all possible systematic uncertainties of the atmospheric neutrino flux and cross section. The effects of the ranges of oscillation parameters on the marginalization are also studied. The lower limit of the range of $\theta_{13}$ for marginalization is found to be very crucial in determining the sensitivity of hierarchy for a given $\theta_{13}$. Finally, we show that one can discriminate atmospheric neutrino mass hierarchy at $>$90% C.L. if the lower limit of $\theta_{13} \ge 5^\circ$.