Abstract
The Protvino accelerator facility located in the Moscow region, Russia, is in a good position to offer a rich experimental research program in the field of neutrino physics. Of particular interest is the possibility to direct a neutrino beam from Protvino towards the KM3NeT/ORCA detector which is currently under construction in the Mediterranean sea 40 km offshore Toulon, France. Such an experiment, nicknamed P2O (Protvino-to-ORCA), would yield an unparalleled sensitivity to matter effects in the Earth, allowing for the determination of the neutrino mass ordering with a high level of certainty due to its baseline of 2595 km after only few years of running time at a modest beam intensity up to 100 kW. A second phase of the experiment comprizes a further intensity upgrade of the accelerator complex and a significant densification of the ORCA detector. This would allow for a competitive and complementary measurement of the leptonic CP-violating Dirac phase with a Mton detector but avoiding underground excavation costs.
Highlights
Neutrino physics is one of the most actively developing branches of particle physics, with many fundamental parameters still awaiting to be experimentally determined, as well as great promise for new insights into physics beyond the Standard Model
Some of the key open questions are the presence of charge-parity (CP) violation in the lepton sector, e.g. by the CP-violating Dirac phase in the neutrino mixing matrix and the relative ordering of the three neutrino mass eigenstates (“mass ordering”)
Such a beam power is perfectly suited for the ultimate measurement of the neutrino mass ordering at the KM3NeT/ORCA detector
Summary
Neutrino physics is one of the most actively developing branches of particle physics, with many fundamental parameters still awaiting to be experimentally determined, as well as great promise for new insights into physics beyond the Standard Model. Assuming that the accelerator works for the neutrino program with a 60% efficiency for 6 months a year, one year of the 90 kW beam corresponds to ≈ 0.8 × 1020 protons on target (POT) Such a beam power is perfectly suited for the ultimate measurement of the neutrino mass ordering at the KM3NeT/ORCA detector. Sending a neutrino beam from Protvino to ORCA would provide a baseline of 2595 km, larger than any accelerator neutrino experiment currently operating or planned elsewhere. The first νμ → νe oscillation maximum would be at Eν ≈ 5 GeV, within the energy range readily available from the U-70 synchrotron and within the ORCAs nominal energy range In this energy regime, the neutrino interaction cross section is dominated by deep inelastic scattering, which is relatively well described theoretically (compared to resonant interactions which dominate at ≈ 2–3 GeV), facilitating high-precision measurements of neutrino flavor conversions. The large instrument will allow one to detect thousands of neutrino events per year, even with a relatively modest accelerator beam power and despite the very long baseline
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