Octant of $\theta_{23}$ at long baseline neutrino experiments in the light of Non Unitary Leptonic mixing

Abstract

The octant of the atmospheric mixing angle $\theta_{23}$ is still undetermined by neutrino oscillation experiments. Long-baseline experiments like NO$\nu$A, T2K and DUNE offer good prospects for determining the octant of $\theta_{23}$. However, their capability to do so may be compromised by the possible presence of non-unitarity in the leptonic mixing matrix. In this paper, we study in detail the octant degeneracy with and without non-unitarity at the level of oscillation probabilities and events for these experiments. We also analyze their octant sensitivity and discovery reach and show that they are hampered in the presence of non-unitarity.