The neutrino mass hierarchy measurement with a neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea: A feasibility study

With the measurement of a non zero value of the θ13 neutrino mixing parameter, interest in neutrinos as source of the baryon asymmetry of the universe has increased. Among the measurements of a rich and varied program in near future neutrino physics is the determination of the mass hierarchy. We present the status of a study of the feasibility of using a densely instrumented undersea neutrino detector to determine the mass hierarchy, utilizing the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect on atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The detector will use technology developed for KM3NeT. We present the systematic studies of the optimization of a detector in the required 5–10 GeV energy regime. These studies include new tracking and interaction identification algorithms as well as geometrical optimizations of the detector.