How to do a $\nu_e \to \nu_\mu$ measurement in a SK-like detector

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of water Cherenkov detectors, similar to Super-Kamiokande, for measuring electron-to-muon neutrino oscillations using beta-beam facilities, focusing on detection efficiency and background estimation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed simulation-based analysis of signal detection efficiencies and background sources for $ u_e o u_$ measurements in a SK-like detector at beta-beam facilities, which is a novel application.

Findings

Detection efficiencies range from 36.4% to 75.3%.

Neutral current pion production is the main background.

Background fraction increases with neutrino energy.

Abstract

In the future neutrino experiments, a beta-beam, which can produce pure electron neutrino beam, is expected to achive precise measurement of the neutrino oscillation parameters. In the $\nu_{\mu}$ appearance measurement of a beta-beam, a detector does not need to identify particle charge and thus, a water Cherecov detector will be a candidate for the far detector. In this paper, we study the expected signal detection efficiencies and background at the proposed beta beam facilities with the water Cherenkov detector. In the estimation, we use the current simulation and analysis tools developed for the Super-Kamiokande experiment. Depending on the beta beam setups, the signal detection efficiencies are found to vary from 36.4$%$ to 75.3$%$ in the standard $\nu_{\mu}$ search. The major source of background was found to be neutral current pion production, and the fraction of the background increases with the mean energy of the neutrino beam.