Determination of the $\theta_{23}$ octant in long baseline neutrino experiments within and beyond the standard model

Abstract

The recent data indicate that the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{23}$ deviates from the maximal-mixing value of 45$^\circ$, showing two nearly degenerate solutions, one in the lower octant (LO) ($\theta_{23}<45^\circ$) and one in the higher octant (HO) ($\theta_{23}>45^\circ$). We investigate, using numerical simulations, the prospects for determining the octant of $\theta_{23}$ in the future long baseline oscillation experiments. We present our results as contour plots on the ($\theta_{23}-45^\circ$, $\delta$)--plane, where $\delta$ is the $CP$ phase, showing the true values of $\theta_{23}$ for which the octant can be experimentally determined at 3$\,\sigma$, 2$\,\sigma$ and 1$\,\sigma$ confidence level. In particular, we study the impact of the possible nonunitarity of neutrino mixing on the experimental determination of $\theta_{23}$ in those experiments.