No Arabic abstract
The KM3NeT/ORCA sensitivity to atmospheric neutrino oscillation is presented. The event reconstruction, selection and classification are described. The sensitivity to determine the neutrino mass ordering was evaluated and found to be 4.4 $sigma$ if the true ordering is normal and 2.3 $sigma$ if inverted, after three years of data taking. The precision to measure $Delta m^2_{32}$ and $theta_{23}$ were also estimated and found to be $85cdot10^{-6}$ eV$^2$ and $(^{+1.9}_{-3.1})^{circ}$ for normal neutrino mass ordering and, $75cdot10^{-6}$ eV$^2$ and $(^{+2.0}_{-7.0})^{circ}$ for inverted ordering. Finally, a unitarity test of the leptonic mixing matrix by measuring the rate of tau neutrinos is described. Three years of data taking were found to be sufficient to exclude $ u_{tau}$ and $bar{ u}_{tau}$ event rate variations larger than 20% at 3$sigma$ level.
This article presents the potential of a combined analysis of the JUNO and KM3NeT/ORCA experiments to determine the neutrino mass ordering. This combination is particularly interesting as it significantly boosts the potential of either detector, beyond simply adding their neutrino mass ordering sensitivities, by removing a degeneracy in the determination of $Delta m_{31}^2$ between the two experiments when assuming the wrong ordering. The study is based on the latest projected performances for JUNO, and on simulation tools using a full Monte Carlo approach to the KM3NeT/ORCA response with a careful assessment of its energy systematics. From this analysis, a $5sigma$ determination of the neutrino mass ordering is expected after 6 years of joint data taking for any value of the oscillation parameters. This sensitivity would be achieved after only 2 years of joint data taking assuming the current global best-fit values for those parameters for normal ordering.
KM3NeT/ORCA is a next-generation neutrino telescope optimised for atmospheric neutrino oscillations studies. In this paper, the sensitivity of ORCA to the presence of a light sterile neutrino in a 3+1 model is presented. After three years of data taking, ORCA will be able to probe the active-sterile mixing angles $theta_{14}$, $theta_{24}$, $theta_{34}$ and the effective angle $theta_{mu e}$, over a broad range of mass squared difference $Delta m^2_{41} sim [10^{-5}, 10]$ $rm{eV}^2$, allowing to test the eV-mass sterile neutrino hypothesis as the origin of short baseline anomalies, as well as probing the hypothesis of a very light sterile neutrino, not yet constrained by cosmology. ORCA will be able to explore a relevant fraction of the parameter space not yet reached by present measurements.
Non-standard interactions (NSIs) in the propagation of neutrinos in matter can lead to significant deviations in neutrino oscillations expected within the standard 3-neutrino framework. These additional interactions would result in an anomalous flux of neutrinos observable at neutrino telescopes. The ANTARES detector and its next-generation successor, KM3NeT, located in the abyss of the Mediterranean Sea, have the potential to measure sub-dominant effects in neutrino oscillations, coming from non-standard neutrino interactions. In this contribution, a likelihood-based search for NSIs with 10 years of atmospheric muon-neutrino data recorded with ANTARES is reported and sensitivity projections for KM3NeT/ORCA, based on realistic detector simulations, are shown. The bounds obtained with ANTARES in the NSI $mu - tau$ sector constitute the most stringent limits up to date.
Several theories of particle physics beyond the Standard Model consider that neutrinos can decay. In this work we assume that the standard mechanism of neutrino oscillations is altered by the decay of the heaviest neutrino mass state into a sterile neutrino and, depending on the model, a scalar or a Majoron. We study the sensitivity of the forthcoming KM3NeT-ORCA experiment to this scenario and find that it could improve the current bounds coming from oscillation experiments, where three-neutrino oscillations have been considered, by roughly two orders of magnitude. We also study how the presence of this neutrino decay can affect the determination of the atmospheric oscillation parameters $sin^2theta_{23}$ and $Delta m_{31}^2$, as well as the sensitivity to the neutrino mass ordering.
We present a measurement of neutrino oscillations via atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of data of the completed IceCube neutrino detector. DeepCore, a region of denser instrumentation, enables the detection and reconstruction of atmospheric muon neutrinos between 10 GeV and 100 GeV, where a strong disappearance signal is expected. The detector volume surrounding DeepCore is used as a veto region to suppress the atmospheric muon background. Neutrino events are selected where the detected Cherenkov photons of the secondary particles minimally scatter, and the neutrino energy and arrival direction are reconstructed. Both variables are used to obtain the neutrino oscillation parameters from the data, with the best fit given by $Delta m^2_{32}=2.72^{+0.19}_{-0.20}times 10^{-3},mathrm{eV}^2$ and $sin^2theta_{23} = 0.53^{+0.09}_{-0.12}$ (normal mass hierarchy assumed). The results are compatible and comparable in precision to those of dedicated oscillation experiments.