Physics reach of CERN-based SuperBeam neutrino oscillation experiments

TL;DR

This paper evaluates and compares the physics potential of two CERN-based SuperBeam neutrino experiments with different baselines and detectors, focusing on their ability to measure CP violation, mass hierarchy, and CP violation discovery potential.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of two experimental setups for neutrino oscillation studies, considering various statistical scenarios influenced by recent  measurements.

Findings

Both setups can measure  with high precision.

The shorter baseline setup has better sensitivity for CP violation discovery.

Reduced flux or detector size still allows significant physics reach.

Abstract

We compare the physics potential of two representative options for a SuperBeam in Europe, studying the achievable precision at 1\sigma with which the CP violation phase (\delta) could be measured, as well as the mass hierarchy and CP violation discovery potentials. The first setup corresponds to a high energy beam aiming from CERN to a 100 kt liquid argon detector placed at the Pyh\"asalmi mine (2300 km), one of the LAGUNA candidate sites. The second setup corresponds to a much lower energy beam, aiming from CERN to a 500 kt water \v{C}erenkov detector placed at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (730 km). This second option is also studied for a baseline of 650 km, corresponding to the LAGUNA candidate sites of Umbria and the Canfranc underground laboratory. All results are presented also for scenarios with statistics lowered by factors of 2, 4, 8 and 16 to study the possible reductions of flux, detector mass or running time allowed by the large value of \theta_{13} recently measured.