Flavor Decomposition of Nucleon Structure at a Neutrino Factory

Abstract

We explore the possibilities for measuring the quark content of the proton and neutron using neutrino beams produced at a muon storage ring. Because of the nature of the beams, small nuclear targets such as hydrogen and deuterium can be considered, as well as polarized targets. The statistics expected from these targets are calculated using nominal muon storage ring intensities, and the resulting statistical errors on the numerous structure functions available are given, for both polarized and unpolarized targets. It is shown that with a relatively small target, the structure functions F_2, xF_3, xg_1 and xg_5 for neutrinos and antineutrinos on protons and deuterium, either unpolarized or polarized, could be determined with excellent precision over most of the accessible kinematic range.