Neutrino CP Violation with the European Spallation Source neutrino Super Beam project

Abstract

After measuring in 2012 a relatively large value of the neutrino mixing angle θ 13, the door is now open to observe for the first time a possible CP violation in the leptonic sector. The measured value of θ 13 also privileges the 2nd oscillation maximum for the discovery of CP violation instead of the usually used 1st oscillation maximum. The sensitivity at this 2nd oscillation maximum is about three times higher than for the 1st oscillation maximum inducing a lower influence of systematic errors. Going to the 2nd oscillation maximum necessitates a very intense neutrino beam with the appropriate energy. The world’s most intense pulsed spallation neutron source, the European Spallation Source (ESS), will have a proton linac with 5 MW power and 2 GeV energy. This linac, under construction, also has the potential to become the proton driver of the world’s most intense neutrino beam with very high potential to discover a neutrino CP violation. The physics performance of that neutrino Super Beam in conjunction with a megaton underground Water Cherenkov neutrino detector installed at a distance of about 500 km from ESS has been evaluated. In addition, the choice of such detector will extent the physics program to proton–decay, atmospheric neutrinos and astrophysics searches. The ESS proton linac upgrades, the accumulator ring needed for proton pulse compression, the target station optimization and the physics potential are described. In addition to neutrinos, this facility will also produce at the same time a copious number of muons which could be used by a muon collider. The ESS neutron facility will be fully ready by 2023 at which moment the upgrades for the neutrino facility could start.