Interference effects in reactor antineutrino oscillations

Abstract

We reformulate the probabilities of disappearance neutrino or antineutrino oscillations so as to single out the interference term proportional to the product of \sin[\Delta m^2_{21} L/(4 E)] and \sin[(\Delta m^2_{31} + \Delta m^2_{32}) L/(4 E)], which is transparently sensitive to the neutrino mass ordering. We elaborate this issue for a reactor-based antineutrino oscillation experiment like JUNO, and take account of terrestrial matter effects. If a light sterile neutrino species contributes to P(\overline{\nu}_e \to \overline{\nu}_e), we find that there will be a new interference term proportional to the product of \sin^2 2\theta_{14}, \sin[\Delta m^2_{21} L/(4 E)] and \sin[(\Delta m^2_{41} + \Delta m^2_{42}) L/ (4 E)] in the standard parametrization of the (3+1) X (3+1) active-sterile neutrino mixing matrix.