Neutrino oscillations with three flavors in matter: Applications to neutrinos traversing the Earth

Analytic formulas are presented for three flavor neutrino oscillations in matter in the plane wave approximation. We calculate in particular the time evolution operator in both mass and flavor bases. We also find the transition probabilities expressed as functions of the vacuum mass squared differences, the vacuum mixing angles, and the matter density parameter. The application of this to neutrino oscillations for both atmospheric and long baseline neutrinos in a mantle-core-mantle step function model of the Earth's matter density profile is discussed. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.