Detecting matter effects in long baseline experiments

Abstract

Experiments strongly suggest that the flavour mixing responsible for the atmospheric neutrino anomaly is very close to being maximal. Thus, it is of great theoretical as well as experimental importance to measure any possible deviation from maximality. In this context, we reexamine the effects of matter interactions in long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. Contrary to popular belief, the muon neutrino survival probability is shown to be quite sensitive to matter effects. Moreover, for moderately long baselines, the difference between the survival probilities for $\nu_\mu$ and $\bar\nu_\mu$ is shown to be large and sensitive to the deviation of $|U_{\mu 3}|$ from maximality. Performing a realistic analysis, we demonstrate that a muon-storage ring $\nu$-source alongwith an iron calorimeter detector can measure such deviations. (Contrary to recent claims, this is not so for the NuMI--{\sc minos} experiment.) We also discuss the possible correlation in measuring $U_{\mu 3}$ and $U_{e3}$ in such experiment.