Invited review: Physics potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detectorat the India-based NeutrinoObservatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinosand antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinosin the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillationphysics, including the fundamental issue of neutrinomass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detectoras obtained from realistic detectorsimulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrinointeractions in the detector, and the expected response of the detectorto particles traversing it. The ICAL detectorcan determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinosfrom antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detectorfor determining the neutrinomass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrinomass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrinomixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detectorwith 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.