High Rate Neutrino Detectors for Neutrino Factories

TL;DR

This paper discusses three types of high rate neutrino detectors for neutrino factories, highlighting their potential to vastly improve neutrino interaction studies and explore new physics topics.

Contribution

It introduces novel detector concepts, including a compact vertexing tracker and specialized polarized and liquid tracking targets, for advanced neutrino physics research.

Findings

Potential to collect over a billion events, greatly enhancing analysis capabilities.

Design proposals for specialized detectors targeting nucleon spin structure and weak mixing angle.

Discussion of technical challenges and physics benefits of the proposed detectors.

Abstract

Three types of high rate neutrino detectors for neutrino interaction physics at neutrino factories are discussed. High performance general-purpose detectors might collect event samples on the order of a billion events or more. This could greatly improve on existing analyses of neutrino interactions and also lead to new and important analysis topics including, for example, precise determinations of the CKM matrix elements |Vub| and |Vcb|. The potential of such general purpose detectors is illustrated with reference to a detector, presented previously in reference hep-ex/9907033, that is structured around a novel and compact vertexing and tracking neutrino target comprising a stack of CCD pixel devices. Design ideas and prospects are also discussed for two types of specialized detectors: (i) polarized targets filled with polarized solid protium-deuterium (HD), for unique and powerful studies of the nucleon's spin structure, and (ii) Fully active liquid tracking targets with masses of several tonnes for precise determinations of the weak mixing angle, from the total cross-section for neutrino-electron scattering. All three detector types pose severe technical challenges but their utilization could add significantly to the physics motivation for neutrino factories.