A High Resolution Neutrino Experiment in a Magnetic Field for Project-X at Fermilab

Abstract

We propose a new high-resolution neutrino experiment within a dipole magnetic field, HiResM$ν$. This experiment will run along with long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments (LBL$ν$) such as NO$ν$A, a large-cavity detector at DUSEL, or a Liquid-Argon detector in the Medium-Energy (ME) configuration of the NuMI-beam. Assuming the 120 GeV Main Injector proton intensities we anticipate 140(50) million $ν_μ$ ($\overlineν_μ$) Charged-Current (CC) events in the fiducial volume, for 3(4)-year run with the ME (anti)neutrino beam. Alternatively, the same statistics could be collected in just 1(1.5) year with the High Energy (HE) beam configuration. The goals of HiResM$ν$ are twofold. It will measure the relative abundance and the energy spectrum of $ν_μ$, $\overlineν_μ$, $ν_e$ and $\overlineν_e$ CC-interactions, which are directly relevant to LBL$ν$. It will serve as an `Event-Generator' of real neutrino interactions to estimate backgrounds and efficiencies in LBL$ν$. As such, it will provide a quantitative determination of the overall energy-scale of neutrino CC interactions and of hadronic multiplicities for all CC and Neutral-Current (NC) event topologies. In addition, it will perform precise measurements of electroweak parameters, of (semi)exclusive processes such as quasi-elastic, resonance, $π^0$ / $K^0_S$ / $Λ$/charm-hadron production, as well as of the hadronic structure of nucleons and nuclei. We expect to reach a sensitivity of about 0.2% on the weak mixing angle by combining different channels. The new experiment will also perform searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model.