Golden measurements at a neutrino factory

The precision and discovery potential of a neutrino factory based on muon s torage rings is studied. For three-family neutrino oscillations, we analyse how to measure or severely constraint the angle theta(13), CP-violation, M SW effects and the sign of the atmospheric mass difference Delta m(23)(2) W e present a simple analytical formula for the oscillation probabilities in matter, with all neutrino mass differences non-vanishing, which clarifies t he subtleties involved in disentangling the unknown parameters. The appeara nce of "wrong-sign muons" at three reference baselines is considered: 732 k m, 3500 km, and 7332 km. We exploit the dependence of the signal on the neu trino energy, and include as well realistic background estimations and dete ction efficiencies. The optimal baseline turns out to be O(3000 km). Analys es combining the information from different baselines are also presented. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.