This white paper describes LAr1-ND and the compelling physics it brings first in Phase 1 and next towards the full LAr1 program. In addition, LAr1-ND serves as a key step in the development toward large-scale LArTPC detectors. Its development goals will encompass testing existing and possibly innovative designs for LBNE while at the same time providing a training ground for teams working towards LBNE combining timely neutrino physics with experience in detector development.
A new experiment with an intense ~2 GeV neutrino beam at CERN SPS is proposed in order to definitely clarify the possible existence of additional neutrino states, as pointed out by neutrino calibration source experiments, reactor and accelerator experiments and measure the corresponding oscillation parameters. The experiment is based on two identical LAr-TPCs complemented by magnetized spectrometers detecting electron and muon neutrino events at Far and Near positions, 1600 m and 300 m from the proton target, respectively. The ICARUS T600 detector, the largest LAr-TPC ever built with a size of about 600 ton of imaging mass, now running in the LNGS underground laboratory, will be moved at the CERN Far position. An additional 1/4 of the T600 detector (T150) will be constructed and located in the Near position. Two large area spectrometers will be placed downstream of the two LAr-TPC detectors to perform charge identification and muon momentum measurements from sub-GeV to several GeV energy range, greatly complementing the physics capabilities. This experiment will offer remarkable discovery potentialities, collecting a very large number of unbiased events both in the neutrino and antineutrino channels, largely adequate to definitely settle the origin of the observed neutrino-related anomalies.
Several observed anomalies in neutrino oscillation data could be explained by a hypothetical fourth neutrino separated from the three standard neutrinos by a squared mass difference of a few 0.1 eV$^2$ or more. This hypothesis can be tested with MCi neutrino electron capture sources ($^{51}$Cr) or kCi antineutrino $beta$-source ($^{144}$Ce) deployed inside or next to a large low background neutrino detector. In particular, the compact size of this source coupled with the localization of the interaction vertex lead to an oscillating pattern in event spatial (and possibly energy) distributions that would unambiguously determine neutrino mass differences and mixing angles.
This proposal describes an experimental search for sterile neutrinos beyond the Standard Model with a new CERN-SPS neutrino beam. The experiment is based on two identical LAr-TPCs followed by magnetized spectrometers, observing the electron and muon neutrino events at 1600 and 300 m from the proton target. This project will exploit the ICARUS T600, moved from LNGS to the CERN Far position. An additional 1/4 of the T600 detector will be constructed and located in the Near position. Two spectrometers will be placed downstream of the two LAr-TPC detectors to greatly complement the physics capabilities. Spectrometers will exploit a classical dipole magnetic field with iron slabs, and a new concept air-magnet, to perform charge identification and muon momentum measurements in a wide energy range over a large transverse area. In the two positions, the radial and energy spectra of the nu_e beam are practically identical. Comparing the two detectors, in absence of oscillations, all cross sections and experimental biases cancel out, and the two experimentally observed event distributions must be identical. Any difference of the event distributions at the locations of the two detectors might be attributed to the possible existence of { u}-oscillations, presumably due to additional neutrinos with a mixing angle sin^2(2theta_new) and a larger mass difference Delta_m^2_new. The superior quality of the LAr imaging TPC, in particular its unique electron-pi_zero discrimination allows full rejection of backgrounds and offers a lossless nu_e detection capability. The determination of the muon charge with the spectrometers allows the full separation of nu_mu from anti-nu_mu and therefore controlling systematics from muon mis-identification largely at high momenta.
The scintillator-strip electromagnetic calorimeter (ScECAL) is one of the calorimeter technologies which can achieve fine granularity required for the particle flow algorithm. Second prototype of the ScECAL has been built and tested with analog hadron calorimeter (AHCAL) and tail catcher (TCMT) in September 2008 at Fermilab meson test beam facility. Data are taken with 1 to 32 GeV of electron, pion and muon beams to evaluate all the necessary performances of the ScECAL, AHCAL and TCMT system. This manuscript describes overview of the beam test and very preliminary results focusing on the ScECAL part.
A new experiment at Fermilab will measure the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon with a precision of 140 parts per billion (ppb). This measurement is motivated by the results of the Brookhaven E821 experiment that were first released more than a decade ago, which reached a precision of 540 ppb. As the corresponding Standard Model predictions have been refined, the experimental and theoretical values have persistently differed by about 3 standard deviations. If the Brookhaven result is confirmed at Fermilab with this improved precision, it will constitute definitive evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. The experiment observes the muon spin precession frequency in flight in a well-calibrated magnetic field; the improvement in precision will require both 20 times as many recorded muon decay events as in E821 and a reduction by a factor of 3 in the systematic uncertainties. This paper describes the current experimental status as well as the plans for the upgraded magnet, detector and storage ring systems that are being prepared for the start of beam data collection in 2017.