Cyclotrons as Drivers for Precision Neutrino Measurements

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of cyclotron-driven decay-at-rest neutrino sources for precision measurements, enabling improved flux control and low-background conditions crucial for exploring new physics and CP-violation in neutrino oscillations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme for using cyclotrons as drivers for decay-at-rest neutrino sources within the DAEdALUS program, enhancing precision in neutrino flux and enabling new physics searches.

Findings

High-precision neutrino beams improve sensitivity to BSM interactions.

Combined DAEdALUS--Hyper-K analysis achieves 4-12 degree errors on mixing parameters.

Demonstrates feasibility of compact cyclotron-based neutrino sources.

Abstract

As we enter the age of precision measurement in neutrino physics, improved flux sources are required. These must have a well-defined flavor content with energies in ranges where backgrounds are low and cross section knowledge is high. Very few sources of neutrinos can meet these requirements. However, pion/muon and isotope decay-at-rest sources qualify. The ideal drivers for decay-at-rest sources are cyclotron accelerators, which are compact and relatively inexpensive. This paper describes a scheme to produce decay-at-rest sources driven by such cyclotrons, developed within the DAEdALUS program. Examples of the value of the high precision beams for pursuing Beyond Standard Model interactions are reviewed. New results on a combined DAEdALUS--Hyper-K search for CP-violation that achieve errors on the mixing matrix parameter of 4 degrees to 12 degrees are presented.