A method for detecting $\nu_\tau$ appearance in the spectra of quasielastic CC events

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to detect tau neutrino appearance in long-baseline experiments by comparing spectra ratios of quasielastic charged-current events, suitable for large water Cherenkov and calorimeter detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spectral ratio method for identifying bcc4b1b3b1b9b1c2b9b1c2a0b4a0a0in long-baseline experiments, emphasizing its statistical feasibility.

Findings

Method is feasible with large detectors.

Detection limited by statistics, not systematics.

Applicable to water Cherenkov and calorimeter detectors.

Abstract

A method for detecting the transition \omutau in long-baseline accelerator experiments, that consists in comparing the far-to-near ratios of the spectra of quasielastic CC events generated by high- and low-energy beams of muon neutrinos, is proposed. The test may be accessible to big water Cherenkov detectors and iron--scintillator calorimeters, and is limited by statistics rather than systematics.