Here Comes the Sun: Solar Parameters in Long-Baseline Accelerator Neutrino Oscillations

Abstract

Long-baseline (LBL) accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments, such as NOvA and T2K in the current generation, and DUNE-LBL and HK-LBL in the coming years, will measure the remaining unknown oscillation parameters with excellent precision. These analyses assume external input on the so-called ``solar parameters,'' $\theta_{12}$ and $\Delta m^2_{21}$, from solar experiments such as SNO, SK, and Borexino, as well as reactor experiments like KamLAND. Here we investigate their role in long-baseline experiments. We show that, without external input on $\Delta m^2_{21}$ and $\theta_{12}$, the sensitivity to detecting and quantifying CP violation is significantly, but not entirely, reduced. Thus long-baseline accelerator experiments can actually determine $\Delta m^2_{21}$ and $\theta_{12}$, and thus all six oscillation parameters, without input from \emph{any} other oscillation experiment. In particular, $\Delta m^2_{21}$ can be determined; thus DUNE-LBL and HK-LBL can measure both the solar and atmospheric mass splittings in their long-baseline analyses alone. While their sensitivities are not competitive with existing constraints, they are very orthogonal probes of solar parameters and provide a key consistency check of a less probed sector of the three-flavor oscillation picture. Furthermore, we also show that the true values of $\Delta m^2_{21}$ and $\theta_{12}$ play an important role in the sensitivity of other oscillation parameters such as the CP violating phase $\delta$.