A Rephasing Invariant Formula for the Dirac CP Phase and its Perturbative Expansion: Prospects for DUNE and T2HK

Abstract: We present a formula for the Dirac CP phase $\delta = \arg ( U_{e1} U_{e2} U_{\mu 3} U_{\tau 3} / U_{e3} \det U_{\rm MNS} )$, directly derived from the lepton mixing matrix in an arbitrary basis. In contrast to the numerically suppressed Jarlskog invariant, this expression is computationally simple and less sensitive to approximations. We apply the formula to derive perturbative corrections from charged-lepton mixing $s_{ij}^{e}$ to the underlying CP phase of neutrinos $\delta_{\nu}$. A compact analytic expressions $\delta = \delta_{\nu} + s_{12}^{e} D_{12} + s_{13}^{e} D_{13} + s_{23}^{e} D_{23}$ shows that these corrections can substantially exceed $O(10^{\circ})$, potentially within the reach of future long-baseline experiments such as DUNE and T2HK.