Simulation Study of Electron Energy Reconstruction with Thinner Iron Plates in ICAL

Sub-GeV $$\nu _e$$ and $$\bar{\nu }_e$$ charged current (CC) events are sensitive to the CP phase $$\delta _{CP}$$ , irrespective of the neutrino mass hierarchy. The magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory, INO, is optimized to detect atmospheric $$\nu _\mu $$ and $$\bar{\nu }_\mu $$ via muons in the few GeV energy range. To increase the sensitivity to low-energy electrons in ICAL, a study of electron energy resolution in the sub-GeV range with thinner 1.8 cm Fe plates, rather than the design value of 5.6 cm, is performed and presented. A comparison of RPCs and plastic scintillators as active detectors was also made.