Why matter effects matter for JUNO

TL;DR

This paper develops a semi-analytical method to quantify Earth matter effects on neutrino oscillation parameters in JUNO, providing an independent cross-check for the experiment's measurements.

Contribution

It introduces perturbative expansions for neutrino mixing parameters in matter, enabling precise calculations of matter effects relevant for JUNO.

Findings

Matter effects cause significant shifts in solar neutrino parameters.

Shifts depend on baseline and Earth density, not detector specifics.

Proposes an alternative analysis method for JUNO parameter measurement.

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the Earth matter effects for the solar parameter determination by a medium baseline reactor experiment such as JUNO. We derive perturbative expansions for the mixing angles $\theta_{12}$ and $\theta_{13}$ as well as the $\Delta m^2_{21}$ and $\Delta m^2_{31}$ in terms of the matter potential relevant for JUNO. These expansions, up to second order in the matter potential, while simple, allow one to calculate the electron antineutrino survival probability to a precision much better than needed for the JUNO experiment. We use these perturbative expansions to semi-analytically explain and confirm the shift caused by the matter effects on the solar neutrino mixing parameters $\theta_{12}$ and $\Delta m^2_{21}$ which were previously obtained by a purely numerical $\chi^2$ analysis. Since these shifts do not satisfy the naive expectations and are significant given the precision that can be achieved by the JUNO experiment, a totally independent cross check using a completely different method is of particular importance. We find that these matter effect shifts do not depend on any of the details of the detector characteristics apart from the baseline and earth mass density between reactor(s) and detector, but do depend on the normalized product of reactor neutrino spectrum times the inverse-beta decay cross-section. The results of this manuscript suggests an alternative analysis method for measuring $\sin^2 \theta_{12}$ and $\Delta m^2_{21}$ in JUNO which would be a useful cross check of the standard analysis and for the understanding of the Wolfenstein matter effect. The explanation of these shifts together with a quantitative understanding, using a semi-analytical method, is the principal purpose of this paper.