Biprobability approach to CP phase degeneracy from non-standard neutrino interactions

Abstract

Non-standard interactions (NSI) between neutrinos and matter at long-baseline experiments could make determination of the CP-violating phase ${\delta }_{13}$ ambiguous due to interference with additional complex phases. Such degeneracies are often studied in the context of specific experiments and a few parameter choices, leaving it unclear how to extract a general understanding of when two sets of parameters may be degenerate or how different types of experiments in principle combine to lift such a degeneracy. This work complements detailed simulations of individual experiments by showing how underlying parameters relate to degeneracies as represented on a biprobability plot. We show how a range of energies near the oscillation maximum ${\Delta }_{31}=\pi /2$ separates some degenerate probabilities along the CP-conserving direction of biprobability space according to ${\delta }_{+}\equiv {\delta }_{13}+{\delta }_{e\tau }$, while near ${\Delta }_{31}=3\pi /2$ degenerate probabilities are separated along the CP-violating direction according to ${\delta }_{e\tau }$. We apply this to the experimental hints that suggest ${\delta }_{13}\sim -\pi /2$ to see that this could also be consistent with ${\delta }_{13},{\delta }_{e\tau }=0$ or $\pi$. The baseline and energy range characteristic of DUNE provides some resolution, but a further improvement comes from beams a few degrees off-axis at $\gtrsim 1000$ km baselines, including some proposed sites for T2HKK.

Comments: Version accepted & to appear in Nuclear Physics B