Measuring the CP-violating phase by a long base-line neutrino experiment with Hyper-Kamiokande

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of a long-base-line (LBL) experiment with neutrino beams from the High Intensity Proton Accelerator (HIPA), that delivers 10^{21} POT per year, and a proposed 1Mt water-Cherenkov detector, Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) 295km away from the HIPA, to the CP phase (delta_{M N S}) of the three-flavor lepton mixing matrix. We examine a combination of the nu_mu narrow-band beam (NBB) at two different energies, vev{p_pi}=2, 3GeV, and the bar{nu}_mu NBB at vev{p_pi}=2GeV. By allocating one year each for the two nu_mu beams and four years for the bar{nu}_mu beam, we can efficiently measure the nu_mu to nu_e and bar{nu}_mu to bar{nu}_e transition probabilities, as well as the nu_mu and bar{nu}_mu survival probabilities. CP violation in the lepton sector can be established at 4sigma (3sigma) level if the MSW large-mixing-angle scenario of the solar-neutrino deficit is realized, |\dmns| or |delta{M N S}-180^{circ}| > 30^{circ}, and if 4|U_{e3}|^2 (1-|U_{e3}|^2) equiv sin^2 2 theta_{CHOOZ} > 0.03 (0.01). The phase delta_{M N S} is more difficult to constrain by this experiment if there is little CP violation, delta_{M N S} sim 0^{circ} or 180^{circ}, which can be distinguished at 1sigma level if sin^2 2 theta_{CHOOZ} >~ 0.01.