Date: Wednesday 3rd December 2003
Title: The NuMI Off-Axis Experiment
Speaker: Dr Alfons Weber (RAL)
Abstract
Neutrino oscillations are now a well-established phenomenon in
particle physics. Current experiments have or shortly will measure
the parameters for the dominant oscillation modes.
We are planning an experiment to measure the subdominant
numu to nue oscillation probability,
which is related to the so
far unknown neutrino mixing angle theta13. The experiment will use
the (soon) existing NuMI neutrino beam, which is aimed from Fermilab
to the MINOS experiment in northern Minnesota. The detector, made
from 50 kton low "Z" absorber, will be at a distance of 712-980 km on
the surface and slightly off axis. The angle will be optimised to maximise
the neutrino flux at the oscillation maximum. This experiment will be best
suited to measure numu to nue oscillation
probabilities at a frequency
corresponding to the atmospheric delta m2. It will have
some ability to
determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to measure CP violation.
This detector may take data as soon as 2008. In a second phase we plan
to increase the product of neutrino flux and detector mass by a factor
of five. The physics potential and the detector technologies will be
discussed.