Geomagnetic Effects on Atmospheric Neutrinos

Abstract

Geomagnetic effects distort the zenith angle distribution of sub--GeV and few--GeV atmospheric neutrinos, breaking the up--down symmetry that would be present in the absence of neutrino oscillations and without a geomagnetic field. The geomagnetic effects also produce a characteristic azimuthal dependence of the $\nu$--fluxes, related to the well known east--west effect, that should be detectable in neutrino experiments of sufficiently large mass. We discuss these effects quantitatively. Because the azimuthal dependence is in first order independent of any oscillation effect, it is a useful diagnostic tool for studying possible systematic effects in the search for neutrino oscillations.