Active-sterile neutrino oscillations at INO-ICAL over a wide mass-squared range

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Thakore, Tarak, Moon Moon Devi, Agarwalla, Sanjib Kumar, Dighe, Amol
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 16.08.2018
• Subjects: Neutrinos; Oscillations; Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics - High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1804.09613

We perform a detailed analysis for the prospects of detecting active-sterile oscillations involving a light sterile neutrino, over a large \(\Delta m^2_{41}\) range of \(10^{-5}\) eV\(^2\) to \(10^2\) eV\(^2\), using 10 years of atmospheric neutrino data expected from the proposed 50 kt magnetized ICAL detector at the INO. This detector can observe the atmospheric \(\nu_{\mu}\) and \(\bar\nu_{\mu}\) separately over a wide range of energies and baselines, making it sensitive to the magnitude and sign of \(\Delta m^2_{41}\) over a large range. If there is no light sterile neutrino, ICAL can place competitive upper limit on \(|U_{\mu 4}|^2 \lesssim 0.02\) at 90\% C.L. for \(\Delta m^2_{41}\) in the range \((0.5 - 5) \times 10^{-3}\) eV\(^2\). For the same \(|\Delta m^2_{41}|\) range, ICAL would be able to determine its sign, exploiting the Earth's matter effect in \(\mu^{-}\) and \(\mu^{+}\) events separately if there is indeed a light sterile neutrino in Nature. This would help identify the neutrino mass ordering in the four-neutrino mixing scenario.