The Earth Effect in the MSW Analysis of the Solar Neutrino Experiments

Abstract

We consider the Earth effect in the MSW analysis of the Homestake, Kamiokande, GALLEX, and SAGE solar neutrino experiments. Using the time-averaged data and assuming two-flavor oscillations, the large-angle region of the combined fit extends to much smaller angles (to $\sin^22\theta \simeq 0.1$) than when the Earth effect is ignored. However, the additional constraint from the Kamiokande II day-night data excludes most of the parameter space sensitive to the Earth effect independent of astrophysical uncertainties, and leaves only a small large-angle region close to maximal mixing at 90\% C.L. The nonadiabatic solution remains unaffected by the Earth effect and is still preferred. Both theoretical and experimental uncertainties are included in the analysis.