Determination of the $\theta_{23}$ octant in LBNO

Understand

According to the recent results of the neutrino oscillation experiment MINOS, the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{23}$ may not be maximal ($45^{\circ}$).

• Two nearly degenerate solutions are possible, one in the lower octant (LO) where $\theta_{23}<45^{\circ}$, and one in the higher octant (HO) where $\theta_{23}>45^{\circ}$.
• Long baseline experiments measuring the $\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow\nu_{e}$ are capable of resolving this degeneracy.
• In this work we study the potential of the planned European LBNO experiment to distinguish between the LO and HO solutions.