Non-standard interactions versus planet-scale neutrino oscillations

Abstract

The low-energy threshold and the large detector size of Precision IceCube Next Generation Upgrade (PINGU) can make the study on neutrino oscillations with a planet-scale baseline possible. In this task, we consider the configuration that neutrinos are produced at CERN and detected in the PINGU detector, as a benchmark. We discuss its sensitivity of measuring the size of non-standard interactions (NSIs) in matter, which can be described by the parameter $\epsilon_{\alpha\beta}$ ($\alpha$ and $\beta$ are flavors of neutrinos). We find that the CERN-PINGU configuration improves $\tilde{\epsilon}_{\mu\mu}\equiv\epsilon_{\mu\mu}-\epsilon_{\tau\tau}$ and $\epsilon_{\mu\tau}$ significantly compared to the next-generation accelerator neutrino experiments. Most of degeneracy problems in the precision measurements can be resolved, except the one for $\tilde{\epsilon}_{\mu\mu}\sim-0.035$. Moreover, we point out that this configuration can also be used to detect the CP violation brought by NSIs. Finally, we compare the physics potential in this configuration to that for DUNE, T2HK and P2O, and find that the CERN-PINGU configuration can significantly improve the sensitivity to NSIs.