Phenomenology of neutrino oscillations at the neutrino factory

Abstract

We consider the prospects for a neutrino factory to measure mixing angles, the CP violating phase and mass-squared differences by detecting wrong-charge muons arising from the chain μ+ → νe → νμ → μ− and the right-charge muons coming from the chain μ+ → ν̄μ → ν̄μ → μ+ (similar to μ− chains), where νe → νμ and ν̄μ → ν̄μ are neutrino oscillation channels through a long baseline. First, we perform the baseline and energy optimization of the neutrino factory including the latest simulation results from the magnetized iron neutrino detector (MIND). Second, we study physics with near detectors and consider the treatment of systematic errors including cross section errors, flux errors, and background uncertainties. Third, the effects of one additional massive sterile neutrino are investigated in the context of near and far detector combinations.