Neutrino mixing sum rules and oscillation experiments

Abstract

The neutrino mixing sum rule $\theta_{12} - \theta_{13}\cos(\delta) \approx \theta^\nu_{12}$ provides a possibility to explore the structure of the neutrino mass matrix in the presence of charged lepton corrections, since it relates the 1-2 mixing angle from the neutrino mass matrix, $\theta_{12}^\nu$, to observable parameters of the PMNS mixing matrix. The neutrino mixing sum rule holds if the charged lepton mixing angles are CKM-like, i.e., small and dominated by a 1-2 mixing, and for small 1-3 mixing in the neutrino mass matrix. These conditions hold in a wide class of well motivated flavour models. We apply this sum rule to present oscillation data, and we investigate the prospects of future neutrino facilities for exploring the sum rule by simulating various setups for long-baseline reactor and accelerator experiments. As explicit examples, we use the sum rule to test the hypotheses of tri-bimaximal and bimaximal neutrino mixing, where $\theta^\nu_{12}$ is predicted by $\sin^2(\theta^\nu_{12}) = 1/3$ or 1/2, respectively, although the neutrino mixing sum rule can be used to test any prediction for $\theta^\nu_{12}$.