Description
The neutrino mass ordering (NMO) is one of the big open questions in neutrino physics. It can either be normal (m1<m2<m3) or inverted (m3<m1<m2). One way to determine the NMO is to study atmospheric neutrino oscillations. Below about 15 GeV, matter effects distort the oscillation probabilities for neutrinos (normal ordering) and anti-neutrinos (inverted ordering) while they traverse Earth's core. Differences in the atmospheric flux and cross-section yield a higher rate of neutrinos than anti-neutrinos, resulting in differences between the normal and inverted orderings in the combined neutrino/anti-neutrino signal. The distortion is most prominent around 5 GeV, which is roughly the energy threshold of DeepCore, the IceCube low energy extension, meaning that DeepCore is just at the edge of being sensitive to the NMO. Within the scope of the IceCube Upgrade, 7 additional densely instrumented strings will be installed inside the DeepCore volume holding approximately 700 newly developed optical sensors. This will lower the energy threshold to roughly 1 GeV and give access to nearly the full NMO signal. This poster shows the projected IceCube Upgrade NMO sensitivities and discusses potential improvements for future studies.
| Collaboration | IceCube Collaboration |
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