Scientific Opportunities with the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment

In this document, we describe the wealth of science opportunities and capabilities of LBNE, the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment. LBNE has been developed to provide a unique and compelling program for the exploration of key questions at the forefront of particle physics. Chief among the discovery opportunities are observation of CP symmetry violation in neutrino mixing, resolution of the neutrino mass hierarchy, determination of maximal or near-maximal mixing in neutrinos, searches for nucleon decay signatures, and detailed studies of neutrino bursts from galactic supernovae. To fulfill these and other goals as a world-class facility, LBNE is conceived around four central components: (1) a new, intense wide-band neutrino source at Fermilab, (2) a fine-grained ‘near’ neutrino detector just downstream of the source, (3) the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota at an optimal distance (∼ 1300 km) from the neutrino source, and (4) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) deployed there as a ‘far’ detector. The facilities envisioned are expected to enable many other science opportunities due to the high event rates and excellent detector resolution from beam neutrinos in the near detector and atmospheric neutrinos in the far detector. This is a mature, well developed, world class experiment whose relevance, importance, and probability of unearthing critical and exciting physics has increased with time. This document is being submitted as a white paper to the 2013 DPF Community Summer Study program.

Note: This is the original version of the reference document for LBNE science program. The latest version is a major revision with a different title (The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe).