Published February 1, 2006 | Version v1
Journal article

What would it take to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy if θ13 were too small?

  • 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208 (United States)
  • 2. School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (United States)

Description

We discuss the experimental requirements for a mass hierarchy measurement for θ13=0 using muon-neutrino disappearance. We find that a specially optimized neutrino factory at L≅6000 km could do this measurement using extreme luminosities. In particular, we do not require charge identification for this purpose. In order to measure the mass hierarchy for more adequate luminosities, we explore the capabilities of low-energy narrow band off-axis beams, which have relatively more events at low energies. We find that, in this case, the energy resolution of the detector quickly becomes the limiting factor of the measurement and significantly affects the baseline optimization for determining the mass hierarchy

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
Journal Volume
73
Journal Issue
3
Journal Page Range
p. 033003-033003.13
ISSN
0556-2821
CODEN
PRVDAQ

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2006 The American Physical Society