Physics potential of neutrino oscillation experiment with a far detector in Oki Island along the T2K baseline

TL;DR

This study evaluates the physics potential of installing a neutrino detector on Oki Island along the T2K baseline, demonstrating its ability to determine neutrino mass hierarchy and constrain the CP phase with specific experimental setups.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the physics reach of a new far detector location in Oki Island, comparing its sensitivity to other proposed sites like Korea and Super-Kamiokande.

Findings

Oki Island detector can distinguish mass hierarchy at 3σ if sin^22θ13 ≥ 0.09.

The CP phase δ_mns can be constrained within ±20°.

Sensitivity to mass hierarchy is about one-third of T2KK.

Abstract

Oki Island is located between Japan and Korea along the Tokai-To-Kamioka (T2K) baseline. The distance from J-PARC to Oki Island is about 653km, which is twice that of the T2K experiment (L=295km). When the off-axis angle of the neutrino beam from J-PARC is 3.0^\circ (2.0^\circ) at Super-Kamiokande (SK), the off-axis beam (OAB) with 1.4^\circ (0.6^\circ) reaches at Oki Island. We examine physics case of placing a far detector in Oki Island during the T2K experimental period. We estimate the matter density profile along the Tokai-to-Oki baseline by using recent seismological measurements. For a detector of 100kton fiducial volume and 2.5x10^21 POT (protons on target) exposure for both \nu_\mu and \bar{\nu}_\mu beams, we find that the mass hierarchy pattern can be distinguished at 3\sigma level if sin^22theta_rct \equiv 4|U_{e3}|^2(1-|U_{e3}|^2) \gsim 0.09, by observing the electron-like CCQE (Charged-Current Quasi Elastic) events. The CP phase in the Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata lepton flavor mixing matrix, \delta_mns, can be constrained with \pm 20^\circ. As a reference, we repeat the same analysis by placing the same detector in Korea at L=1000km and OAB=0.5^\circ (T2KK) and also by placing it at the SK site (T2K_122). The Tokai-to-Kamioka-OKI (T2KO) sensitivity to the mass hierarchy is about 1/3 (in \Delta \chi^2_min) of T2KK, while the sensitivity to the phase \delta_mns is similar between T2KO and T2KK. The T2K_122 option has almost no sensitivity to the mass hierarchy, and cannot measure the CP phase except when \delta_mns \sim -90^\circ (90^\circ) for the normal (inverted) hierarchy.