EUROnu: proposing future neutrino facilities at CERN

Margarita Synanidi — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:08:53 +0000

EUROnu: proposing future neutrino facilities at CERN
reported by Elene Wildner (CERN) and Rob Edgecock (STFC/RAL)

Comparison of error in delta measurement in the different neutrino facilities. Image credit: EUROnu

The EUROnu project studied three different “next generation” facilities that could be located at CERN. The final results and conclusions were delivered at the end of August 2012 after 4 years of prosperous work. The studies included the accelerators, the detectors and the physics performance and cost of the complete facilities.

Two studied facilities, the Super-Beam (SB) and the Beta-Beam (BB), are designed to send neutrino beams to a future Water Cherenkov detector located in the Fréjus tunnel, 130 km from CERN. Due to the short baseline, these two facilities have good sensitivity to the CP violation process. The SB can also, with great benefit for the physics reach, deliver a beam to a longer baseline (use of the second oscillation maximum), where the CP reach is good but also some access to the mass hierarchy is possible. The third facility studied in the EUROnu project, the Neutrino Factory (NF), would use a Magnetized Iron Neutrino Detector (MIND) located at more than 2000 km from CERN. This facility would have the best physics reach, able to determine both the neutrino mass hierarchy (the spectral order of neutrinos) and to study CP violation. In addition it would have the best potential to detect evidence of “new physics”.

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issue 4

Towards EUROnu summit of achievements: Entering the final phase

Margarita Synanidi — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:33:09 +0000

Towards EUROnu summit of achievements: Entering the final phase
by Rob Edgecock (STFC/RAL), Elena Wildner (CERN)

Image of the full EUROnu article, available here. Image credit: Accelerating News

The EUROnu FP7 design study is investigating three possible options for future high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The project started in 2008 and will finish on the 31st August 2012. It will communicate its results on performance and cost to the decision-making bodies in Europe, in particular the CERN Council.

A consortium of 15 full partners and another 15 associate partners undertake the work on accelerators, detectors and physics. The three facilities being studied are: a 4 MW protons on target “Super-Beam”; a “Beta-Beam” facility producing neutrino beams from the decay of accelerated beta decaying isotopes stored in a decay ring; a “Neutrino Factory” using muons from 4 MW protons impinging a heavy metal target that will be collected and cooled in a cooling channel before being accelerated and stored in a decay ring.

EUROnu is now far advanced and entering a phase where the costing exercises, which have already started, will be intensified. This assumes that the three facilities will be built at CERN, where existing machines and infrastructures will be used as far as possible, for costing of the civil engineering work.