Research Article an Appraisal of Muon Neutrino Disappearance at Short Baseline
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in High Energy Physics Volume 2013, Article ID 948626, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/948626 Research Article An Appraisal of Muon Neutrino Disappearance at Short Baseline L. Stanco,1 S. Dusini,1 A. Longhin,2 A. Bertolin,1 and M. Laveder3 1 INFN-Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy 2 Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Via E. Fermi 40, 00044 Frascati, Italy 3 Padova University and INFN-Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to L. Stanco; [email protected] Received 20 June 2013; Revised 12 September 2013; Accepted 6 October 2013 Academic Editor: Kate Scholberg Copyright © 2013 L. Stanco et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Neutrino physics is nowadays receiving more and more attention as a possible source of information for the long-standing problem of new physics beyond the Standard Model. The recent measurement of the third mixing angle 13 in the standard mixing oscillation scenario encourages us to pursue the still missing results on leptonic CP violation and absolute neutrino masses. However, several puzzling measurements exist which deserve an exhaustive evaluation. Wewill illustrate the present status of the muon disappearance measurements at small / and the current CERN project to revitalize the neutrino field in Europe with emphasis on the search for sterile neutrinos. We will then illustrate the achievements that a double muon spectrometer can make with regard to discovery of new neutrino states, using a newly developed analysis. 1. Introduction There are actually several experimental hints for devi- ations from the “coherent” picture described above. Many The unfolding of the physics of the neutrino is a long and unexpected results, not statistically significant on a single exciting story spanning the last 80 years. Over this time basis, appeared also in the last decade and a half, bringing the interchange of theoretical hypotheses and experimental attention to the hypothesis of sterile neutrinos [5]. A recent facts has been one of the most fruitful demonstrations of White Paper [6] contains a comprehensive review of these the progress of knowledge in physics. The work of the last issues. In this paper we will focus on one of the most intrigu- decade and a half finally brought a coherent picture within ing and long-standing unresolved result: the unexpected the Standard Model (SM) (or some small extensions of it), oscillation of neutrinos at relatively small values of the ratio namely, the mixing of three neutrino flavour states with / (distance in km, energy in GeV), corresponding to a 2 three ]1, ]2,and]3 mass eigenstates. The last unknown scale of O(1) eV , incompatible with the much smaller values 2 −3 2 mixing angle, 13, was recently measured [1–4], but still relatedtotheatmospheric|Δ32| ≃ 2.4 × 10 eV and to the 2 −5 2 many questions remain unanswered to completely settle the solar Δ21 ≃8×10 eV scales. scenario: the absolute masses, the Majorana/Dirac nature, The first unexpected measurement came from an excess and the existence and magnitude of leptonic CP violation. of ] originating from an initial ] beam from Decay At Rest Answers to these questions will beautifully complete the (LNSD [7]). The LSND experiment saw a 3.8 effect. The (standard) three-neutrino model, but they will hardly provide subsequent experiment with ](]) beam from accelerator, an insight into new physics Beyond the Standard Model MiniBooNE [8–11], despite confirming an independent 3.8 (BSM). Many relevant questions will stay open: the reason effect after sustained experimental work, was unable to draw for neutrinos, the relation between the leptonic and hadronic conclusive results on the origin of the LSND effect having sectors of the SM, the origin of Dark Matter, and overall observed an excess at higher / in an energy region where where and how to look for BSM physics. Neutrinos may be an background is high. excellent source of BSM physics and their story is supporting In recent years many phenomenological studies were that at length. performed by analyzing the LSND effect together with similar 2 Advances in High Energy Physics unexpected results coming from the measurement of lower Further, in the paper we will briefly discuss the newly than expected rates of ] and ] interactions (disappearance), proposed CERN experiment, following a detailed analysis either from (a) near-by nuclear reactors (])[12–14]or(b) of possible ways to measure the ] disappearance channel. from Mega-Curie -capture calibration sources in the solar In particular the evaluation of the ] disappearance rates at ] gallium experiments [15–21]. These ](]) disappearance two different sites leads us naturally to take their ratio, eluci- measurements, all at the statistical level of 3-4 ,couldalso dating the possibility to observe depletions and/or excesses. be interpreted [22] as oscillations between neutrinos at large Throughout the paper we will focus on the need for a new 2 2 ] Δ ≃1eV . Several attempts were then tried to reach a CC measurement corresponding to an increase of one coherent picture in terms of mixing between active and sterile order of magnitude in the sensitivity to the mixing parameter, neutrinos, in 3+1and 3+2[23, 24]oreven3+1+1 exploiting the determination of the muon charge for a proper evaluation of the different models and the separation of ] [25, 26]or3+3[27] models, as extensions of the standard and ] in the same neutrino beam. Finally, we will pay three-neutrino model. We refer to [28–30]asthemostrecent particular attention to the consistency and robustness (in and industrious works where a very crucial issue is raised: “a statistical terms) of the results. consistent interpretation of the global data in terms of neutrino oscillations is challenged by the non-observation of a positive signal in ] disappearance experiments”[29]. In fact, in any of the above models, essential information comes from the 2. The CERN Experimental Proposal ] ] disappearance channels ( or ), which is one of the cleanest The need for a definitive clarification on the possible exis- channels to measure the oscillation parameters (see Section 3 tence of a neutrino mass scale around 1 eV has brought up for details). several proposals and experimental suggestions exploiting The presence of additional sterile states introduces quite the sterile neutrino option by using different interaction naturally appearance and disappearance phenomena involv- channels and refurbished experiments. In the light of the ing the flavour states in all channels. In particular, a ] considerations discussed in the previous section there are disappearance effect has to be present and possibly measured. essentially two sets of experiments which must be redone: (a) It turns out that only old experiments and measurements the measurement of ] neutrino fluxes at reactors (primarily are available for Charged Current (CC) ] interactions at the ILL one) together with refined and detailed computa- small / [31]. The CDHS experiment reported in 1984 tions of the flux simulations (see, e.g., [39, 40]); (b) the 2 the nonobservation of ] oscillations in the Δ range appearance/disappearance oscillation measurements at low 2 2 / 0.3 eV to 90 eV . Their analyzed region of oscillation did with a standard muon neutrino beam with its intrinsic electron neutrino component. notspan,however,lowvaluesofthemixingparameterdown 2 There is actually another interesting option which comes to around 0.1 in sin (2). More recent results are available ] from the Neutrino Factory studies and the very recently on disappearance from MiniBooNE [32], a joint Mini- submitted EOI from ]STORM [41]. We refer to [42]fora BooNE/SciBooNE analysis [33, 34] and the Long-Baseline comprehensive review of the corresponding possible ] and MINOS experiment [35]. These results slightly extend the ] disappearance effects. It is interesting to note that our ] disappearance exclusion region, however, still leaving out figures of merit about ] disappearance are rather similar to the small-mixing region. Similar additional constraints on ] or even slightly more competitive than those illustrated in disappearance could possibly come from the analysis of [42] (e.g., compare the exclusion regions in Figure 6 of [42] atmospheric neutrinos in IceCube [36, 37]. and those in Figure 7 of this paper despite the use of different Despite this set of measurements being rather unsat- C.L.), not forgetting the rather long time needed to set up the isfactory when compared with the corresponding LSND ]STORM project. allowed region that lies at somewhat lower values of the Coming to experiments with standard beams, investiga- mixing angle, they are still sufficient to introduce tensions tions are underway at CERN where two physics proposals in all the phenomenological models developed so far (see, [43, 44] were submitted in October 2011 and later merged into e.g., [6, 28–30, 38] for comprehensive and recent reviews). a single technical proposal (ICARUS-NESSiE, [45]). CERN Therefore it is mandatory to set up a new experiment able has subsequently set up working groups for the proton beam to improve the small-mixing angle region exclusion by at extraction from the SPS, the secondary beam line, and the least one order of magnitude with respect to the current needed infrastructure/buildings for the detectors. The work results. In such a way one could also rule out the idea that was reported in a recent LOI [46]. the mixing angle extracted from LSND is larger than the The experiment is based on two identical Liquid Argon ] true value due to a data overfluctuation. Once again, the (LAr)—Time Projection Chambers (TPC) [44]comple- disappearancechannelshouldbetheoptimalonetoperform mented by magnetized spectrometers [43] detecting electron a full disentangling of the mechanism given the strong and muon neutrino events at far and near positions, 1600 m ] ] tension between the appearance and disappearance and 460 m away from the proton target, respectively.