Physics potential of the CERN-MEMPHYS neutrino oscillation project

Abstract

We consider the physics potential of CERN based neutrino oscillation experiments consisting of a Beta Beam (BB) and a Super Beam (SPL) sending neutrinos to MEMPHYS, a 440 kt water Čerenkov detector at Frejus, at a distance of 130 km from CERN. The $θ_{13}$ discovery reach and the sensitivity to CP violation are investigated, including a detailed discussion of parameter degeneracies and systematical errors. For SPL sensitivities similar to the ones of the phase II of the T2K experiment (T2HK) are obtained, whereas the BB may reach significantly better sensitivities, depending on the achieved number of total ion decays. The results for the CERN-MEMPHYS experiments are less affected by systematical uncertainties than T2HK. We point out that by a combination of data from BB and SPL a measurement with antineutrinos is not necessary and hence the same physics results can be obtained within about half of the measurement time compared to one single experiment. Furthermore, it is shown how including data from atmospheric neutrinos in the MEMPHYS detector allows to resolve parameter degeneracies and, in particular, provides sensitivity to the neutrino mass hierarchy and the octant of $θ_{23}$.