Study of the performance of a large scale water-Cherenkov detector (MEMPHYS)

TL;DR

MEMPHYS is a proposed large-scale underground water Cherenkov detector designed for diverse neutrino physics and nucleon decay searches, with performance evaluated through detailed simulations and migration matrices.

Contribution

This study provides a comprehensive simulation of MEMPHYS, assessing its performance for beam physics and neutrino detection using detailed energy reconstruction matrices.

Findings

Performance characterized by migration matrices of reconstructed vs. true neutrino energy.

Detector shows promising capabilities for neutrino oscillation and decay searches.

Simulation results support feasibility for future neutrino experiments.

Abstract

MEMPHYS (MEgaton Mass PHYSics) is a proposed large-scale water Cherenkov experiment to be performed deep underground. It is dedicated to nucleon decay searches, neutrinos from supernovae, solar and atmospheric neutrinos, as well as neutrinos from a future Super-Beam or Beta-Beam to measure the CP violating phase in the leptonic sector and the mass hierarchy. A full simulation of the detector has been performed to evaluate its performance for beam physics. The results are given in terms of "Migration Matrices" of reconstructed versus true neutrino energy, taking into account all the experimental effects.