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-charged muons arising from the chain \mu^+ to \nu_e to \nu_\mu\ to \mu^- and the right-charged muons coming from the chain \mu^+ to \bar{\nu}_\mu\ to \bar{\nu}_\mu\ to \mu^+ (similar to \mu^- chains), where \nu_e to \nu_\mu\ and \bar{\nu}_\mu\ to \bar{\nu}_\mu\ 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.