From DeepCore to PINGU: Measuring atmospheric neutrino oscillations at the South Pole

TL;DR

This paper discusses the use of large-volume neutrino telescopes like DeepCore and PINGU at the South Pole to measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations, aiming to improve parameter precision and determine the mass hierarchy.

Contribution

It presents recent results from DeepCore and outlines the plans for PINGU to enhance neutrino oscillation measurements and resolve the neutrino mass hierarchy.

Findings

DeepCore has measured $ heta_{23}$ and $| riangle m^2_{32}|$ with meaningful precision.

PINGU aims to lower energy thresholds to improve measurement accuracy.

Plans to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy are discussed.

Abstract

Very large volume neutrino telescopes (VLVNTs) observe atmospheric neutrinos over a wide energy range (GeV to TeV), after they travel distances as large as the Earth's diameter. DeepCore, the low energy extension of IceCube, has started making meaningful measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameters $\theta_{23}$ and $|\Delta m^2_{32}|$ by analyzing the atmospheric flux at energies above 10 GeV. PINGU, a proposed project to lower DeepCore's energy threshold, aims to use the same flux to further increase the precision with which these parameters are known, and eventually determine the sign of $\Delta m^2_{32}$. The latest results from DeepCore, and the planned transition to PINGU, are discussed here.