Zenith distribution of atmospheric neutrino events and electron neutrino mixing

الأصل · EN

Assuming atmospheric neutrino oscillations with dominant nuₘu<--->nuₜau transitions, we discuss how subdominant nuₑ mixing (within the Chooz reactor bounds) can alter the zenith distributions of neutrino-induced electrons and muons. We isolate two peculiar distortion effects, one mainly related to nuₑ mixing in vacuum and the other to matter oscillations, that may be sufficiently large to be detected by the SuperKamiokande atmospheric nu experiment. These effects (absent for pure two-flavor nuₘu<--->nuₜau transitions) do not vanish in the limit of energy-averaged oscillations.