Neutrino Factory R&D

Elegant experiments are being carried out, or are in preparation, to improve the precision with which the solar and atmospheric neutrino-oscillation parameters are known, and to attempt to make a first measurement of the small mixing angle $theta_{13}$. The compelling case for the development of an accelerator-based neutrino source to serve the programme of precision measurements of neutrino oscillations and sensitive searches for leptonic-CP violation that is required to follow these experiments is briefly reviewed. The Neutrino Factory, an intense high-energy neutrino source based on a stored muon beam, is widely believed to yield a precision and sensitivity superior to other proposed second-generation facilities. The alternatives are identified and the case for a critical comparison of the performance of the various options is presented. Highlights of the exciting international R&D programmes which are designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the required techniques are then reviewed. The steps that the international community is taking to produce, by the end of the decade, a full conceptual design for the facility are described. The ambition of the Neutrino Factory community is to demonstrate the feasibility of a cost-effective design such that, should forthcoming measurements show that it is required, the facility could be brought into operation in the second half of the next decade.