Measuring neutrino mixing above 1 TeV with astrophysical neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos above 1 TeV to measure neutrino mixing parameters, highlighting current limitations and future prospects with multi-neutrino telescopes.

Contribution

It provides the first assessment of neutrino mixing measurements at TeV--PeV energies using astrophysical neutrino flavor composition and outlines future experimental sensitivities.

Findings

Current IceCube data cannot constrain mixing parameters effectively.

Upcoming telescopes may measure $ heta_{23}$ and $ heta_{13}$ with existing data.

The study quantifies sensitivity to beyond-Standard-Model effects.

Abstract

We assess the potential for measuring neutrino mixing parameters at energies above 1~TeV, for the first time, using the flavor composition of TeV--PeV astrophysical neutrinos, i.e., the proportion of $\nu_e$, $\nu_\mu$, and $\nu_\tau$. Today, flavor measurements inferred from the 11.4-year IceCube Medium Energy Starting Events sample are insufficient to constrain the mixing parameters due to limited statistics, challenges in flavor identification, and uncertainty in neutrino production. Yet, upcoming multi-neutrino-telescope observations -- even using only existing telescopes -- may achieve sensitivity to $\theta_{23}$ and $\theta_{13}$ when combined with traditional oscillation experiments. We establish the current status and future prospects for testing the three-flavor mixing framework in the previously unexplored TeV--PeV regime and quantify the minimum detectable size of flavor-modifying beyond-Standard-Model effects, providing a roadmap for high-energy neutrino mixing measurements.