Neutrino mass ordering sensitivities at DUNE, HK and KNO in presence of scalar NSI

TL;DR

This paper investigates how scalar non-standard interactions (NSI) could influence neutrino mass ordering sensitivities at DUNE, HK, and KNO experiments, highlighting the importance of considering such interactions in future neutrino oscillation studies.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of scalar NSI effects on mass ordering sensitivities at multiple long-baseline neutrino experiments, including potential combined data strategies.

Findings

Scalar NSI can significantly alter mass ordering sensitivities.

Combining data from multiple experiments enhances sensitivity.

Scalar NSI effects scale linearly with matter density.

Abstract

The limitations of the Standard Model in explaining neutrino masses and neutrino mixing lead to the exploration of frameworks beyond the Standard Model (BSM). The possibility of neutrinos interacting with fermions via a scalar mediator is one of the interesting prospects. The study of neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) is a well-motivated phenomenological scenario to explore new physics beyond the Standard Model. These new interactions may alter the standard neutrino oscillation probabilities, potentially leading to observable effects in experiments. It also allows for the exploration of absolute neutrino masses via oscillation experiments. It can modify the oscillation probabilities, which in turn can affect the physics sensitivities in long-baseline experiments. The linear scaling of the effects of scalar NSI with matter density also motivates its exploration in long-baseline (LBL) experiments. We will present our study on the impact of a scalar-mediated NSI on the mass ordering (MO) sensitivities of three long-baseline neutrino experiments, i.e., DUNE, HK and KNO. We study the impact on MO sensitivities at these experiments assuming that scalar NSI parameters are present in nature and are known from other non-LBL experiments. The presence of scalar NSI can notably impact the MO sensitivities of these experiments. Furthermore, we analyze the potential synergy by combining data from DUNE with HK and HK+KNO, thereby exploring a broader parameter space.