Letter of interest for a neutrino beam from Protvino to KM3NeT/ORCA
The Protvino accelerator facility located in the Moscow region, Russia, is in a good position to offer a rich experimental research program in the field of neutrino physics. Of particular interest is the possibility to direct a neutrino beam from Protvino towards the KM3NeT/ORCA detector, which is c...
Published in: | The European Physical Journal C |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2019
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11386/4728207 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7259-5 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7259-5.pdf |
Summary: | The Protvino accelerator facility located in the Moscow region, Russia, is in a good position to offer a rich experimental research program in the field of neutrino physics. Of particular interest is the possibility to direct a neutrino beam from Protvino towards the KM3NeT/ORCA detector, which is currently under construction in the Mediter- ranean Sea 40 km offshore Toulon, France. This proposal is known as P2O. Thanks to its baseline of 2595 km, this experiment would yield an unparalleled sensitivity to mat- ter effects in the Earth, allowing for the determination of the neutrino mass ordering with a high level of certainty after only a few years of running at a modest beam intensity of ≈ 90 kW. With a prolonged exposure (≈ 1500 kW year), a 2σ sensitivity to the leptonic CP-violating Dirac phase can be achieved. A second stage of the experiment, comprising a further intensity upgrade of the accelerator complex and a densified version of the ORCA detector (Super-ORCA), would allow for up to a 6σ sensitivity to CP violation and a 10 ◦ −17 ◦ resolution on the CP phase after 10 years of running with a 450 kW beam, competitive with other planned exper- iments. The initial composition and energy spectrum of the neutrino beam would need to be monitored by a near detector, to be constructed several hundred meters downstream from the proton beam target. The same neutrino beam and near detector set-up would also allow for neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements to be performed. A short-baseline ster- ile neutrino search experiment would also be possible. |
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