FOURIER-ANALYSIS OF REAL-TIME, HIGH-STATISTICS SOLAR-NEUTRINO OBSERVATIONS

Solar neutrino oscillations with wavelengths comparable to the Earth-S un distance provide a viable explanation of the long-standing solar ne utrino deficit, They imply a time-dependent modulation of the solar ne utrino Bur due to the eccentricity of the Earth orbit. Motivated by th is testable prediction, we propose a Fourier analysis of the signal ob servable in real-time, solar neutrino experiments. We give the general expressions of the Fourier coefficients and of their correlated uncer tainties in the presence-of background. The expressions assume a parti cularly compact form in the case of two-flavor neutrino oscillations i n vacuum. We discuss the sensitivity to the lowest harmonics of the ne w-generation, high-statistics experiments SuperKamiokande, Sudbury Neu trino Observatory, and Borexino.