APS » Phys. Rev. D » Volume 77 » Issue 5

K. Abe,¹ Y. Hayato,¹ T. Iida,¹ M. Ikeda,²⁴ J. Kameda,¹ Y. Koshio,¹ A. Minamino,¹ M. Miura,¹ S. Moriyama,¹ M. Nakahata,¹ S. Nakayama,² Y. Obayashi,¹ H. Ogawa,¹ H. Sekiya,¹ M. Shiozawa,¹ Y. Suzuki,¹ A. Takeda,¹ Y. Takeuchi,¹ K. Ueshima,¹ H. Watanabe,¹ S. Yamada,¹ I. Higuchi,² C. Ishihara,² T. Kajita,² K. Kaneyuki,² G. Mitsuka,² H. Nishino,² K. Okumura,² C. Saji,² Y. Takenaga,² S. Clark,³ S. Desai,³ F. Dufour,³ E. Kearns,³ S. Likhoded,³ M. Litos,³ J. L. Raaf,³ J. L. Stone,³ L. R. Sulak,³ W. Wang,³ M. Goldhaber,⁴ D. Casper,⁵ J. P. Cravens,⁵ J. Dunmore,⁵ W. R. Kropp,⁵ D. W. Liu,⁵ S. Mine,⁵ C. Regis,⁵ M. B. Smy,⁵ H. W. Sobel,⁵ M. R. Vagins,⁵ K. S. Ganezer,⁶ B. Hartfield,⁶ J. Hill,⁶ W. E. Keig,⁶ J. S. Jang,⁷ I. S. Jeong,⁷ J. Y. Kim,⁷ I. T. Lim,⁷ K. Scholberg,⁸ M. Fechner,⁸ N. Tanimoto,⁸ C. W. Walter,⁸ R. Wendell,⁸ S. Tasaka,¹⁰ G. Guillian,¹¹ J. G. Learned,¹¹ S. Matsuno,¹¹ M. D. Messier,¹² T. Hasegawa,¹³ T. Ishida,¹³ T. Ishii,¹³ T. Kobayashi,¹³ T. Nakadaira,¹³ K. Nakamura,¹³ K. Nishikawa,¹³ Y. Oyama,¹³ Y. Totsuka,¹³ A. T. Suzuki,¹⁴ T. Nakaya,¹⁵ H. Tanaka,¹⁵ M. Yokoyama,¹⁵ T. J. Haines,^5,16 S. Dazeley,¹⁷ R. Svoboda,¹⁷ A. Habig,¹⁹ Y. Fukuda,²⁰ T. Sato,²⁰ Y. Itow,²¹ T. Koike,²¹ T. Tanaka,²¹ C. K. Jung,²² T. Kato,²² K. Kobayashi,²² C. McGrew,²² A. Sarrat,²² R. Terri,²² C. Yanagisawa,²² N. Tamura,²³ Y. Idehara,²⁴ M. Sakuda,²⁴ M. Sugihara,²⁴ Y. Kuno,²⁵ M. Yoshida,²⁵ S. B. Kim,²⁶ B. S. Yang,²⁶ T. Ishizuka,²⁷ H. Okazawa,²⁸ Y. Choi,²⁹ H. K. Seo,²⁹ Y. Gando,³⁰ K. Inoue,³⁰ Y. Furuse,³¹ H. Ishii,³¹ K. Nishijima,³¹ Y. Watanabe,³² M. Koshiba,³³ S. Chen,³⁴ Z. Deng,³⁴ Y. Liu,³⁴ D. Kielczewska,^5,35 H. Berns,³⁶ K. K. Shiraishi,³⁶ E. Thrane,³⁶ and R. J. Wilkes³⁶

(Super-Kamiokande Collaboration)

¹Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Gifu, 506-1205, Japan
²Research Center for Cosmic Neutrinos, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8582, Japan
³Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
⁴Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-4575, USA
⁶Department of Physics, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California 90747, USA
⁷Department of Physics, Chonnam National University, Kwangju 500-757, Korea
⁸Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
⁹Department of Physics, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA
¹⁰Department of Physics, Gifu University, Gifu, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
¹¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
¹²Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7105, USA
¹³High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
¹⁴Department of Physics, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
¹⁵Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
¹⁶Physics Division, P-23, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544, USA
¹⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
¹⁸Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
¹⁹Department of Physics, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota 55812-2496, USA
²⁰Department of Physics, Miyagi University of Education, Sendai, Miyagi 980-0845, Japan
²¹Solar Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan
²²Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800, USA
²³Department of Physics, Niigata University, Niigata, Niigata 950-2181, Japan
²⁴Department of Physics, Okayama University, Okayama, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
²⁵Department of Physics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
²⁶Department of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
²⁷Department of Systems Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan
²⁸Department of Informatics in Social Welfare, Shizuoka University of Welfare, Yaizu, Shizuoka, 425-8611, Japan
²⁹Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea
³⁰Research Center for Neutrino Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
³¹Department of Physics, Tokai University, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa 259-1292, Japan
³²Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute for Technology, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
³³The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
³⁴Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
³⁵Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland
³⁶Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1560, USA

We consider nu_µ-->nu_tau oscillations in the context of the mass varying neutrino (MaVaN) model, where the neutrino mass can vary depending on the electron density along the flight path of the neutrino. Our analysis assumes a mechanism with dependence only upon the electron density, hence ordinary matter density, of the medium through which the neutrino travels. Fully-contained, partially-contained and upward-going muon atmospheric neutrino data from the Super-Kamiokande detector, taken from the entire SK-I period of 1489 live days, are compared to MaVaN model predictions. We find that, for the case of 2-flavor oscillations, and for the specific models tested, oscillation independent of electron density is favored over density dependence. Assuming maximal mixing, the best-fit case and the density-independent case do not differ significantly.

©2008 The American Physical Society

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