Exploring neutrino parameters with a beta-beam experiment from FNAL to DUSEL

Abstract

We discuss in detail the physics reach of an experimental set-up where electron neutrinos (antineutrinos) produced in a beta-beam facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) are sent, over a distance of L ≃ 1300 km, to the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL). A 300 kt Water Cherenkov (WC) detector and a 50 kt Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) are considered as possible detector choices. We propose to use 18 Ne and 6 He as source ions for ν e andν e beams respectively. The maximum Lorentz boost factor, γ, available for these ions using the Tevatron are γ Ne = 585 and γ He = 350. This particular set-up provides the opportunity to probe the first oscillation maximum using ν e beam and the second oscillation maximum using theν e beam which helps to evade some parameter degeneracies. The resulting physics sensitivities for θ 13 , CP violation and the mass hierarchy are compared to those of a conventional superbeam from FNAL to DUSEL.

Measuring Dirac CP-violating phase with intermediate energy beta beam facility

“…The energy resolution for QE CC interactions is assumed to be of the form 0.085 + 0.05 √ E/GeV GeV for both muon and electron neutrino detection. The first term originates from the Fermi motion of the nucleons inside nuclei and the second term reflects the error in measuring the energy of the final charged lepton [22].…”

“…a e-mail: pouya_bakhti@ipm.ir b e-mail: yasaman@theory.ipm.ac.ir Recently, beta beam facilities producing ν e orν e beams from the decay of relativistic ions [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] have been proposed and studied as an alternative machine to establish CPviolation in the neutrino sector. Most studies were, however, performed before the measurement of θ 13 , with a focus on the CP-discovery reach for values of θ 13 much smaller than the measured one [22]. References [23,24] show that using the ν e beam from 18 Ne decay with energies peaked around 1.5-2 GeV, information on δ D can be extracted without need for an antineutrino beam.…”

“…Moreover, varying the values of γ and baselines, it has been shown that for 150 < γ < 300 with 500 kton WC detector [28][29][30] or iron calorimeter [31], there is a very good chance of CP-discovery. Reference [22] explores the θ 13 -δ D -discovery reach with a 300 kton WC and 50 kton LAr detector at Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL), taking maximum boosts possible at Tevatron. Now that the value of θ 13 is measured and found to be sizeable, reconsidering γ < 300 setup is imperative.…”