Study of Spherical Array Target for Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment

TL;DR

This study investigates a spherical array target for the LBNE neutrino experiment, analyzing how different geometrical parameters affect neutrino flux to optimize performance.

Contribution

It introduces a spherical array target design and evaluates its impact on neutrino flux using detailed simulations, which is a novel approach for LBNE.

Findings

17mm diameter target with 1.7mm beam size increases muon neutrino flux by up to 10%.

The same configuration suppresses flux above 3.5 GeV by up to 70%.

Optimal parameters depend on energy range for neutrino production.

Abstract

Spherical Array Target was studied by implementing the geometry in LBNE's Beam Simulation source code g4lbne version v3r2p4 and Monte Carlo. To compare with Nominal LBNE target, unoscillated Far Detector neutrino flux was produced using different parameters: sphere diameter 17mm and 13mm, different longitudinal positions, two interaction length and less, beam size R/3 and 1.7mm, and beam offset from 50 $\mu$m to 1mm. The 1.86 interaction length (901mm), 17mm diameter target, with beam size 1.7mm gives higher $\nu_{\mu}$ flux up to 10\% from 0-3.5 GeV, and suppresses flux up to 70\% at energy higher than 3.5 GeV.