Exploring constraints on the core radius and density jumps inside Earth using atmospheric neutrino oscillations

TL;DR

This paper explores how atmospheric neutrino oscillations can be used to independently constrain Earth's internal structure, specifically core radius and density jumps, complementing seismic data.

Contribution

It demonstrates that atmospheric neutrino experiments like ICAL can simultaneously constrain Earth's core radius and density jumps using a five-layered density model.

Findings

Neutrino oscillation data can constrain Earth's core properties.

Charge identification improves the accuracy of constraints.

Constraints are consistent with existing seismic models.

Abstract

Atmospheric neutrinos, through their weak interactions, can serve as an independent tool for exploring the internal structure of Earth. The information obtained would be complementary to that provided by seismic and gravitational measurements. The Earth matter effects in neutrino oscillations depend upon the energy of neutrinos and the electron density distribution that they encounter during their journey through Earth, and hence, can be used to probe the inner structure of Earth. In this contribution, we demonstrate how well an atmospheric neutrino experiment, such as an iron calorimeter detector (ICAL), would simultaneously constrain the density jumps inside Earth and determine the location of the core-mantle boundary. In this work, we employ a five-layered density model of Earth, where the layer densities and core radius are modified to explore the parameter space, ensuring that the mass and moment of inertia of Earth remain constant while satisfying the hydrostatic equilibrium condition. We further demonstrate that the charge identification capability of an ICAL-like detector would play a crucial role in obtaining these correlated constraints.