Sub-GeV Atmospheric Neutrinos and CP Violation in DUNE

Abstract

We propose to use the unique event topology and reconstruction capabilities of liquid argon time projection chambers to study sub-GeV atmospheric neutrinos. The detection of low energy recoiled protons in DUNE allows for a determination of the leptonic CP-violating phase independent from the accelerator neutrino measurement. Our findings indicate that this analysis can exclude a range of values of δCP beyond the 3σ level. Moreover, the determination of the sub-GeV atmospheric neutrino flux will have important consequences in the detection of diffuse supernova neutrinos and in dark matter experiments.