Constraints on Three-Neutrino Mixing from Atmospheric and Reactor Data

Abstract

Observations of atmospheric neutrinos are usually analyzed using the simplifying approximation that either \(\nu_\mu \leftrightarrow \nu_\tau\) or \(\nu_e \leftrightarrow \nu_\mu\) two-flavor mixing is relevant. Here we instead consider the data using the simplifying approximation that only one neutrino mass scale is relevant. This approximation is the minimal three-flavor notation that includes the two relevant two-flavor approximations. The constraints in the parameter space orthogonal to the usual, two-flavor analyses are studied.