Pure electron neutrino and anti-neutrino beams can be generated through the decay of high energy positron- and electron-emitting radioactive isotopes in a storage ring. This so-called "beta-beam" concept was first proposed by Piero Zucchelli in 2001 for neutrino oscillation physics on a baseline of 150 km. The first study of such a beta-beam facility was subsequently done at CERN with the objective to demonstrate that a sizeable part of the existing CERN structure could be used. This early work has been continued within the EU supported EURISOL Design Study and a first conceptual design report will be available in 2009 for this beta-beam facility. It is already apparent that the main limitation is the production of 18Ne or other positron-emitting isotopes for the generation of electron neutrinos. A recent proposal by C. Rubbia, et al. in 2006 to use a small storage ring with an internal target seems as a possible solution to this problem. More importantly, this new proposal opens the way for new beta-beam scenarios using other isotopes for different baselines. A first brief comparison of existing accelerator complexes indicates that the FermiLab accelerators with existing detector sites would be well suited for beta-beams. I will in this talk review the EURISOL DS beta-beam design, discuss the challenges which have faced the study group and present new ideas and future plans.

ANL Physics Division Colloquium Schedule