Non-Standard Interactions in propagation at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment can improve constraints on non-standard neutrino interactions affecting propagation through Earth, addressing parameter degeneracies and potential to rule out alternative solutions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive sensitivity study of DUNE to dimension six NSI operators, considering parameter degeneracies and combining data with T2HK.

Findings

DUNE will significantly tighten constraints on most NSI parameters.

It can exclude the LMA-dark solution with future data.

Sensitivity to off-diagonal NSI parameters is at the level of 0.05 to 0.5.

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of current and future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments to the effects of dimension six operators affecting neutrino propagation through Earth, commonly referred to as Non-Standard Interactions (NSI). All relevant parameters entering the oscillation probabilities (standard and non-standard) are considered at once, in order to take into account possible cancellations and degeneracies between them. We find that the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment will significantly improve over current constraints for most NSI parameters. Most notably, it will be able to rule out the so-called LMA-dark solution, still compatible with current oscillation data, and will be sensitive to off-diagonal NSI parameters at the level of $\varepsilon \sim \mathcal{O}(0.05 - 0.5)$. We also identify two degeneracies among standard and non-standard parameters, which could be partially resolved by combining T2HK and DUNE data.