On the Effect of theta_{13} on the Determination of Solar Oscillation Parameters at KamLAND

Abstract

If the solution to the solar neutrino puzzle falls in the LMA region, KamLAND should be able to measure with good precision the corresponding oscillation parameters after a few years of data taking. Assuming a positive signal, we study their expected sensitivity to the solar parameters (theta_{12},Delta m^2_{21}) when considered in the framework of three-neutrino mixing after taking into account our ignorance on the mixing angle theta_{13}. We find a simple ``scaling'' dependence of the reconstructed theta_{12} range with the value of theta_{13} while the Delta m^2_{12} range is practically unaffected. Our results show that the net effect is approximately equivalent to an uncertainty on the overall neutrino flux normalization of up to sim 10 %.

Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures. Typos corrected and reference added. Final version to appear in PLB