Short-baseline neutrino oscillation waves in ultra-large liquid scintillator detectors

Abstract

Powerful new multi-kiloton liquid scintillator neutrino detectors, including NOνA and, possibly, LENA, will come on-line within the next decade. When coupled with a modest-power decay-at-rest (DAR) neutrino source at short-baseline, these detectors can decisively address signals for neutrino oscillations at high Δm2. Along the greater than 50 m length of the detector, the characteristic oscillation wave will be apparent, providing powerful verification of the oscillation phenomenon. LENA can simultaneously perform νμ → νe appearance and νe → νe disappearance searches while NOνA is likely limited to νe disappearance. For the appearance channel, a LENA-like detector could test the LSND and MiniBooNE signal regions at >5 σ with a fiducial volume of 5 kt and a 10 kW neutrino source. The LENA and NOνA νe disappearance sensitivities are complementary to the recent reactor anomaly indicating possible νe disappearance and would cover this possible oscillation signal at ~3 σ.