The sensitivity of liquid scintillator detectors to CP-violation with atmospheric neutrinos

Abstract

The detection of CP violation in neutrino oscillations is one of the most important goals of the next generation of neutrino experiments. Here we study the detectability of the CP-violating phase in the oscillation of atmospheric neutrinos. Liquid scintillator detectors of a few kilotons can probe the low-energy range of the atmospheric neutrino flux. We calculate the expected rate, spectrum, and zenith angle distribution for a typical liquid scintillator detector for different detector sites. We include a typical detector response with different capabilities for flavour identification and a background model. The sensitivity is estimated using a Poisson likelihood analysis.