Upgraded experiments with super neutrino beams: Reach versus Exposure

Abstract

We introduce exposure as a means to making balanced comparisons of the sensitivities of long-baseline neutrino experiments to a nonzero \theta_{13}, to CP violation and to the neutrino mass hierarchy. We illustrate its use by comparing the sensitivities of possible upgrades of superbeam experiments, namely NOvA*, T2KK and experiments with wide band beams. For the proposed exposures, we find the best nominal CP violation performance for T2KK. For equal exposures, a wide band beam experiment has the best mass hierarchy performance. The physics concept on which NOvA* is based has the best potential for discovering CP violation only for exposures above a threshold value.

Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Version to appear as a Rapid Communication in PRD