Energy and Flavor Discrimination Using Precision Time Structure in On-Axis Neutrino Beams

Abstract

We propose to use a higher-frequency RF bunch structure for the primary proton beam on target and precision timing to select different energy and flavor spectra from a wide-band neutrino beam, based on the relative arrival times of the neutrinos with respect to the RF bunch structure. This `stroboscopic' approach is complementary to techniques that select different neutrino energy spectra based on the angle with respect to the beam axis. A timing-based approach allows for the selection of varying energy spectra from the same on-axis detector, and applies equally to both the near and far detectors in an oscillation experiment. Energy and flavor discrimination of neutrinos produced by hadrons in-flight will require proton bunch lengths on the order of 100 ps and commensurate time resolution in the detector. Correlating neutrino events with the parent proton interaction is currently limited by the nanosecond-scale width of the proton bunches impinging on the target. We show that these limitations can be addressed by using a superconducting RF cavity to rebunch the present 53.1 MHz RF bunch structure with a factor of 10 higher RF frequency, thus attaining the required shorter bunch length.

arXiv comment12 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (19)

• The T2K Experiment
• Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam
• Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Conceptual Design Report Volume 2: The Physics Program for DUNE at LBNF
• Search for pair and single production of vectorlike quarks in final states with at least one $Z$ boson decaying into a pair of electrons or muons in $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV
• Dark Matter Search in Nucleon, Pion, and Electron Channels from a Proton Beam Dump with MiniBooNE
• Neutrino-nucleus interactions and the determination of oscillation parameters
• Hunting On- and Off-Axis for Light Dark Matter with DUNE-PRISM
• Measuring Directionality in Double-Beta Decay and Neutrino Interactions with Kiloton-Scale Scintillation Detectors
• First Measurement of Monoenergetic Muon Neutrino Charged Current Interactions
• Supernova neutrinos can tell us the neutrino mass hierarchy independently of flux models
• Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE): Preliminary Results and Physics Phase Proposal
• Dark Tridents at Off-Axis Liquid Argon Neutrino Detectors
• Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiments
• The Fermilab Main Injector: high intensity operation and beam loss control
• Neutrino vs. Antineutrino Oscillation Parameters at DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande
• Experiment Simulation Configurations Used in DUNE CDR
• Letter of Intent to Construct a nuPRISM Detector in the J-PARC Neutrino Beamline
• Topological track reconstruction in unsegmented, large-volume liquid scintillator detectors
• Theia: A multi-purpose water-based liquid scintillator detector

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Design and diagnostics of high-precision accelerator neutrino beams
• Air-Transfer Production Method for Large-Area Picosecond Photodetectors
• Detector R&D for ANNIE and Future Neutrino Experiments
• Finding BSM Needles in Electromagnetic Haystacks at DUNE
• Constraining neutrino charges at beam experiments
• Measuring the Neutrino Event Time in Liquid Argon by a Post-Reconstruction One-parameter Fit