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The neutrino factory is a facility for future precision studies of neutrino oscillations. A so-called near detector is essential for reaching the required precision for a neutrino oscillation analysis. The main task of the near detector is to measure the flux of the neutrino beam. Such a high intensity neutrino source like a neutrino factory provides also the opportunity for precision studies of various neutrino interaction processes in the near detector. We discuss the design concepts of such a detector. Results of simulations of a high resolution scintillating fiber tracker show that such a detector is capable of determining the neutrino flux normalization with an uncertainty of less than 1% by measuring pure leptonic interactions. Reconstruction of the neutrino energy in each event and a flux estimation based on the shapes of the neutrino energy spectra are discussed. A full setup of the near detector, consisting of a high granularity vertex detector, high resolution tracker, and muon catcher is also presented. Finally, a method to extrapolate the measured near detector flux to the far detector is shown, demonstrating that it is able to extract the correct values of θ13 and the CP violation phase δ without any significant bias and with high accuracy.

Deep learning semantic segmentation algorithms have provided improved frameworks for the automated production of Land-Use and Land-Cover (LULC) maps, which significantly increases the frequency of map generation as well as consistency of production quality. In this research, a total of 28 different model variations were examined to improve the accuracy of LULC maps. The experiments were carried out using Landsat 5/7 or Landsat 8 satellite images with the North American Land Change Monitoring System labels. The performance of various CNNs and extension combinations were assessed, where VGGNet with an output stride of 4, and modified U-Net architecture provided the best results. Additional expanded analysis of the generated LULC maps was also provided. Using a deep neural network, this work achieved 92.4% accuracy for 13 LULC classes within southern Manitoba representing a 15.8% improvement over published results for the NALCMS. Based on the large regions of interest, higher radiometric resolution of Landsat 8 data resulted in better overall accuracies (88.04%) compare to Landsat 5/7 (80.66%) for 16 LULC classes. This represents an 11.44% and 4.06% increase in overall accuracy compared to previously published NALCMS results, including larger land area and higher number of LULC classes incorporated into the models compared to other published LULC map automation methods.

The European Spallation Source (ESS), currently under construction in Lund, Sweden, is a research center that will provide, by 2023, the world's most powerful neutron source. The average power of the proton linac will be 5 MW. Pulsing this linac at higher frequency will make it possible to raise the average total beam power to 10 MW to produce, in parallel with the spallation neutron production, a very intense neutrino Super Beam of about 0.4 GeV mean neutrino energy. This will allow searching for leptonic CP violation at the second oscillation maximum where the sensitivity is about 3 times higher than at the first. The ESS neutrino Super Beam, ESSnuSB operated with a 2.0 GeV linac proton beam, together with a large undergroundWater Cherenkov detector located at 540 km from Lund, will make it possible to discover leptonic CP violation at 5 sigma. significance level in 56% (65% for an upgrade to 2.5 GeV beam energy) of the leptonic CP-violating phase range after 10 years of data taking, assuming a 5% systematic error in the neutrino flux and 10% in the neutrino cross section. The paper presents the outstanding physics reach possible for CP violation with ESSnuSB obtainable under these assumptions for the systematic errors. It also describes the upgrade of the ESS accelerator complex required for ESSnuSB.

The present document summarizes the view and the vision of the Bulgarian subatomic physics scientific community for the development of the field of subatomic physics from the Bulgarian national perspective. It outlines the present activities and the strengths and weaknesses of the research field, together with the interests of the community for the future development of the technological and scientific landscape.

This conceptual design report provides a detailed account of the European Spallation Source neutrino Super Beam (ESS\\(\\nu\\)SB) feasibility study. This facility has been proposed after the measurements reported in 2012 of a relatively large value of the neutrino mixing angle \\(\\theta_{13}\\), which raised the possibility of observing potential CP violation in the leptonic sector with conventional neutrino beams. The measured value of \\(\\theta_{13}\\) also privileges the \\(2^{nd}\\) oscillation maximum for the discovery of CP violation instead of the more typically studied \\(1^{st}\\) maximum. The sensitivity at this \\(2^{nd}\\) oscillation maximum is about three times higher than at the \\(1^{st}\\) one, which implies a reduced influence of systematic errors. Working at the \\(2^{nd}\\) oscillation maximum requires a very intense neutrino beam with an appropriate energy. The world's most intense pulsed spallation neutron source, the European Spallation Source (ESS), will have a proton linac operating at 5\\,MW power, 2\\,GeV kinetic energy and 14~Hz repetition rate (3~ms pulse duration, 4\\% duty cycle) for neutron production. In this design study it is proposed to double the repetition rate and compress the beam pulses to the level of microseconds in order to provide an additional 5~MW proton beam for neutrino production. The physics performance has been evaluated for such a neutrino super beam, in conjunction with a megaton-scale underground water Cherenkov neutrino detector installed at a distance of 360--550\\,km from ESS. The ESS proton linac upgrades, the accumulator ring required for proton-pulse compression, the target station design and optimisation, the near and far detector complexes, and the physics potential of the facility are all described in this report. The ESS linac will be operational by 2025, at which point the implementation of upgrades for the neutrino facility could begin.

In this paper, we present the physics performance of the ESSnuSB experiment in the standard three flavor scenario using the updated neutrino flux calculated specifically for the ESSnuSB configuration and updated migration matrices for the far detector. Taking conservative systematic uncertainties corresponding to a normalization error of \\(5\\%\\) for signal and \\(10\\%\\) for background, we find that there is \\(10\\) \\((13)\\) CP violation discovery sensitivity for the baseline option of 540 km (360 km) at \\(_ CP = 90^\\). The corresponding fraction of \\(_ CP\\) for which CP violation can be discovered at more than \\(5 \\) is \\(70\\%\\). Regarding CP precision measurements, the \\(1\\) error associated with \\(_ CP = 0^\\) is around \\(5^\\) and with \\(_ CP = -90^\\) is around \\(14^\\) \\((7^)\\) for the baseline option of 540 km (360 km). For hierarchy sensitivity, one can have \\(3\\) sensitivity for 540 km baseline except \\(_ CP = 90^\\) and \\(5\\) sensitivity for 360 km baseline for all values of \\(_ CP\\). The octant of \\(_23\\) can be determined at \\(3 \\) for the values of: \\(_23 > 51^\\) (\\(_23 < 42^\\) and \\(_23 > 49^\\)) for baseline of 540 km (360 km). Regarding measurement precision of the atmospheric mixing parameters, the allowed values at \\(3 \\) are: \\(40^ < _23 < 52^\\) (\\(42^ < _23 < 51.5^\\)) and \\(2.485 10^-3\\) eV\\(^2 < m^2_31 < 2.545 10^-3\\) eV\\(^2\\) (\\(2.49 10^-3\\) eV\\(^2 < m^2_31 < 2.54 10^-3\\) eV\\(^2\\)) for the baseline of 540 km (360 km).

Atmospheric neutrinos provide a unique avenue to study neutrino interactions in matter. In this work, the prospects of constraining non-standard neutrino interactions with atmospheric neutrino oscillations are investigated for the proposed ESSnuSB far detector. By analyzing atmospheric neutrino samples equivalent to 5.4 Mt\\(\\cdot\\)year exposure, it is found that ESSnuSB could be able to set the upper bounds \\(|\\epsilon_{e\\mu}^m| < 0.053, |\\epsilon_{e\\tau}^m| < 0.057, |\\epsilon_{\\mu\\tau}^m| < 0.021, \\epsilon_{ee}^m - \\epsilon_{\\mu\\mu}^m < 0.075\\) and \\(|\\epsilon_{\\tau\\tau}^m - \\epsilon_{\\mu\\mu}^m| < 0.031\\) at \\(90\\%\\) CL, when the results are minimized for \\(\\phi_{e\\mu}^m, \\phi_{e\\tau}^m\\) and \\(\\phi_{\\mu\\tau}^m\\) and normal ordering is assumed for neutrino masses. It is also shown that the presence of non-standard interactions could affect the sensitivities to neutrino mass ordering and \\(\\theta_{23}^{}\\) octant in comparison to the standard interaction scheme. The results of this work highlight the complementarity between atmospheric and accelerator neutrino programs in ESSnuSB.

A novel scintillator detector, the SuperFGD, has been selected as the main neutrino target for an upgrade of the T2K experiment ND280 near detector. The detector design will allow nearly 4{\\pi} coverage for neutrino interactions at the near detector and will provide lower energy thresholds, significantly reducing systematic errors for the experiment. The SuperFGD is made of optically-isolated scintillator cubes of size 10x10x10 mm^3, providing the required spatial and energy resolution to reduce systematic uncertainties for future T2K runs. The SuperFGD for T2K will have close to two million cubes in a 1920x560x1840 mm^3 volume. A prototype made of 24x8x48 cubes was tested at a charged particle beamline at the CERN PS facility. The SuperFGD Prototype was instrumented with readout electronics similar to the future implementation for T2K. Results on electronics and detector response are reported in this paper, along with a discussion of the 3D reconstruction capabilities of this type of detector. Several physics analyses with the prototype data are also discussed, including a study of stopping protons.

This study provides an analysis of atmospheric neutrino oscillations at the ESSnuSB far detector facility. The prospects of the two cylindrical Water Cherenkov detectors with a total fiducial mass of 540 kt are investigated over 10 years of data taking in the standard three-flavor oscillation scenario. We present the confidence intervals for the determination of mass ordering, \\(\\theta_{23}\\) octant as well as for the precisions on \\(\\sin^2\\theta_{23}\\) and \\(|\\Delta m_{31}^2|\\). It is shown that mass ordering can be resolved by \\(3\\sigma\\) CL (\\(5\\sigma\\) CL) after 4 years (10 years) regardless of the true neutrino mass ordering. Correspondingly, the wrong \\(\\theta_{23}\\) octant could be excluded by \\(3\\sigma\\) CL after 4 years (8 years) in the case where the true neutrino mass ordering is normal ordering (inverted ordering). The results presented in this work are complementary to the accelerator neutrino program in the ESSnuSB project.

In this paper we study non-standard interactions mediated by a scalar field (SNSI) in the context of ESSnuSB experiment. In particular we study the capability of ESSnuSB to put bounds on the SNSI parameters and also study the impact of SNSI in the measurement of the leptonic CP phase \\(\\delta_{\\rm CP}\\). Existence of SNSI modifies the neutrino mass matrix and this modification can be expressed in terms of three diagonal real parameters (\\(\\eta_{ee}\\), \\(\\eta_{\\mu\\mu}\\) and \\(\\eta_{\\tau\\tau}\\)) and three off-diagonal complex parameters (\\(\\eta_{e \\mu}\\), \\(\\eta_{e\\tau}\\) and \\(\\eta_{\\mu\\tau}\\)). Our study shows that the upper bounds on the parameters \\(\\eta_{\\mu\\mu}\\), \\(\\eta_{\\tau\\tau}\\) and \\(\\eta_{\\mu\\tau}\\) depend upon how \\(\\Delta m^2_{31}\\) is minimized in the theory. However, this is not the case when one tries to measure the impact of SNSI on \\(\\delta_{\\rm CP}\\). Further, we show that the CP sensitivity of ESSnuSB can be completely lost for certain values of \\(\\eta_{ee}\\) and \\(\\eta_{\\mu\\tau}\\) for which the appearance channel probability becomes independent of \\(\\delta_{\\rm CP}\\).