New look at the degeneracies in the neutrino oscillation parameters, and their resolution by T2K, NO$ u$A and ICAL

At present the three major unknowns in neutrino oscillation parameters are the mass hierarchy, the octant of $theta_{23}$ and the CP phase $delta_{CP}$. It is well known that the presence of hierarchy$-delta_{CP}$ and octant degeneracies affects the unambiguous determination of these parameters. In this paper we show that a comprehensive way to study the remaining parameter degeneracies is in the form of a generalized hierarchy-$theta_{23}$ - $delta_{CP}$ degeneracy. We show that the wrong-hierarchy and/or wrong-octant solutions can be further classified into eight different solutions depending on whether they occur with the wrong or right value of $delta_{CP}$. These eight solutions are different from the original eightfold degenerate solutions and can exist, in principle, even if $theta_{13}$ is known. These multiple solutions, apart from affecting the determination of the true hierarchy and octant, also affect the accurate estimation of $delta_{CP}$. We identify which of these eight different degenerate solutions can occur in the test ($theta_{23} - delta_{CP}$) parameter space, taking the long-baseline experiment NO$ u$A running in the neutrino mode as an example. The inclusion of the NO$ u$A antineutrino run removes the wrong-octant solutions appearing with both right and wrong hierarchy. Adding T2K data to this resolves the wrong hierarchy -- right octant solutions to a large extent. The remaining wrong hierarchy solutions can be removed by combining NO$ u$A + T2K with atmospheric neutrino data. We demonstrate this using ICAL@INO as the prototype atmospheric neutrino detector. We find that the degeneracies can be resolved at the $2sigma$ level by the combined data set, for the true parameter space considered in the study.

Octant sensitivity for large theta(13) in atmospheric and long baseline neutrino experiments

One of the unknown parameters in neutrino oscillations is the octant of the mixing angle theta_{23}. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of determining the octant of theta_{23} in the long baseline experiments T2K and NOvA in conjunction with future atmospheric neutrino detectors, in light of non-zero value of theta_{13} measured by reactor experiments. We consider two detector technologies for atmospheric neutrinos - magnetized iron calorimeter and non-magnetized Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber. We present the octant sensitivity for T2K/NOvA and atmospheric neutrino experiments separately as well as combined. For the long baseline experiments, a precise measurement of theta_{13}, which can exclude degenerate solutions in the wrong octant, increases the sensitivity drastically. For theta_{23} = 39^o and sin^2 2 theta_{13} = 0.1, at least ~2 sigma sensitivity can be achieved by T2K+NOvA for all values of delta_{CP} for both normal and inverted hierarchy. For atmospheric neutrinos, the moderately large value of theta_{13} measured in the reactor experiments is conducive to octant sensitivity because of enhanced matter effects. A magnetized iron detector can give a 2 sigma octant sensitivity for 500 kT yr exposure for theta_{23} = 39^o, delta_{CP} = 0 and normal hierarchy. This increases to 3 sigma for both hierarchies by combining with T2K+NOvA. This is due to a preference of different theta_{23} values at the minimum chi^2 by T2K/NOvA and atmospheric neutrino experiments. A Liquid Argon detector for atmospheric neutrinos with the same exposure can give higher octant sensitivity, due to the interplay of muon and electron contributions and superior resolutions. We obtain a ~3 sigma sensitivity for theta_{23} = 39^o for normal hierarchy. This increases to > ~4 sigma for all values of delta_{CP} if combined with T2K+NOvA. For inverted hierarchy the combined sensitivity is ~3 sigma.