Neutrino mass hierarchy and θ₁₃ with a magic baseline beta-beam experiment

Abstract

We underscore the physics advantage of an experiment where neutrinos produced in a beta-beam facility at CERN are observed in a large magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). The CERN-INO distance is close to the so-called "magic" baseline which helps evade some of the parameter degeneracies and allows for a better measurement of the neutrino mass hierarchy and θ₁₃. We expound the possibility of using radioactive ⁸B and ⁸Li as the source isotopes for the ν_e and ν̅_e beta-beam, respectively, and show that very good sensitivity to both the mass hierarchy and θ₁₃ is possible with a boost γ in the 250-500 ballpark.