Testing non-standard neutrino matter interactions in atmospheric neutrino propagation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-standard neutrino interactions influence atmospheric neutrino oscillation patterns, using oscillograms and event rate calculations across different detector types to understand their impact on neutrino physics measurements.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of NSI effects on atmospheric neutrino oscillations and compares sensitivities of different detector configurations to these interactions.

Findings

NSI parameters significantly alter oscillation probabilities.

Detector type affects sensitivity to specific NSI parameters.

NSI impacts the determination of neutrino mixing angles.

Abstract

We study the effects of non-standard interactions on the oscillation pattern of atmospheric neutrinos. We use neutrino oscillograms as our main tool to infer the role of non-standard interactions (NSI) parameters at the probability level in the energy range, $E \in [1,20]$ GeV and zenith angle range, $\cos \theta \in [-1,0]$. We compute the event rates for atmospheric neutrino events in presence of NSI parameters in the energy range $E \in [1,10]$ GeV for two different detector configurations - a magnetized iron calorimeter and an unmagnetized liquid Argon time projection chamber which have different sensitivities to NSI parameters due to their complementary characteristics. As an application, we discuss how NSI parameter, $\epsilon_{\mu\tau}$ impacts the determination of the correct octant of $\theta_{23}$.