Could one find petroleum using neutrino oscillations in matter?

Abstract

In neutrino physics, it is now widely believed that neutrinooscillations are influenced by the presence of matter, modifying theenergy spectrum produced by a neutrino beam traversing theEarth. Here, we will discuss the reverse problem, i.e. what could belearned about the Earth's interior from a single neutrino baselineenergy spectrum, especially about the Earth's mantle.We will use a statistical analysis with a low-energy neutrino beam under veryoptimistic assumptions. At the end, we will note that it is hard to findpetroleum with such a method, though it is not too far away fromtechnical feasibility.