Effect of non-unitarity on neutrino mass hierarchy determination at DUNE, NOνA and T2K

Abstract

The neutrino mass ordering is one of the principal unknowns in the neutrino sector. Long baseline neutrino experiments have the potential of resolving this issue as they are sensitive to large matter effects. The superbeam experiment DUNE is one of the most promising candidates to study the neutrino mass hierarchy, along with NOνA and T2K. But in the presence of non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix, the capability of such experiments to discriminate between the two hierarchies gets suppressed. The mass hierarchy sensitivity of DUNE decreases in the presence of new physics. In this paper we analyze the origin and extent of this loss of sensitivity at the level of oscillation probabilities, events, mass hierarchy sensitivity and the discovery reach of DUNE, NOνA and T2K.