Optimized Neutrino Factory for small and large $\theta_{13}$

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how to optimize the design of Neutrino Factories for different values of theta(13), focusing on baseline length and muon energy to improve measurements of CP violation and neutrino properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive optimization study of Neutrino Factory parameters considering recent theta(13) measurements, highlighting different configurations for small and large theta(13).

Findings

Optimal baseline for small theta(13) is 2500-5000 km.

Lower muon energies (5-8 GeV) are effective for large theta(13).

Low- and high-energy Neutrino Factories are adaptable for different parameter regions.

Abstract

Recent results from long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments point towards a non-zero value of theta(13) at around 3 sigma confidence level. In the coming years, further ratification of this result with high significance will have crucial impact on the planning of the future long baseline Neutrino Factory setup aimed to explore leptonic CP violation and the neutrino mass ordering. In this talk, we discuss the baseline and energy optimization of the Neutrino Factory including the latest simulation results on the magnetized iron neutrino detector (MIND) in the light of both small and large theta(13). We find that in case of small theta(13), baselines of about 2500 to 5000 km is the optimal choice for the CP violation measurement with E(mu) as low as 12 GeV can be considered. However, for large theta(13), we show that the lower threshold and the backgrounds reconstructed at lower energies allow in fact for muon energies as low as 5 to 8 GeV at considerably shorter baselines, such as Fermilab to Homestake. This suggests that with the latest MIND simulation, low- and high-energy versions of the Neutrino Factory are just two different forms of the same experiment optimized for different regions of the parameter space.