Tau contribution and precision measurement of theta23 at a neutrino factory

TL;DR

This paper explores how tau neutrino contributions at a neutrino factory impact the precision measurement of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters, especially theta23, and assesses deviations from maximal mixing.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of tau neutrino effects on parameter measurements at a neutrino factory, highlighting their significance for precision and deviation detection.

Findings

Tau neutrino contributions significantly affect muon event samples.

Inclusion of tau effects improves measurement accuracy of theta23.

Results suggest potential deviations from maximal muon-tau mixing can be more precisely identified.

Abstract

We discuss precision measurements of the leading atmospheric parameters at a standard neutrino factory. The oscillation of the muon and electron neutrinos (anti-neutrinos) to tau neutrinos (anti-neutrinos) adds to the muon events sample (both right sign and wrong sign) via leptonic decays of the taus produced through charge-current interactions in the detector. We focus on how this contribution affects a precision measurement of the atmospheric mixing parameters and the deviation of muon neutrino -- tau neutrino mixing from maximality.