Physics Potential of ESS$ν$SB in the presence of a Light Sterile Neutrino

Abstract

ESS$ν$SB is a proposed neutrino super-beam project at the ESS facility. We study the performance of this setup in the presence of a light eV-scale sterile neutrino, considering 540 km baseline with 2 years (8 years) of $ν$ ($\barν$) run-plan. This baseline offers the possibility to work around the second oscillation maximum, providing high sensitivity towards CP-violation (CPV). We explore in detail its capability in resolving CPV generated by the standard CP phase $δ_{13}$, the new CP phase $δ_{14}$, and the octant of $θ_{23}$. We find that the sensitivity to CPV induced by $δ_{13}$ deteriorates noticeably when going from $3ν$ to 4$ν$ case. The two phases $δ_{13}$ and $δ_{14}$ can be reconstructed with a 1$σ$ uncertainty of $\sim15^0$ and $ \sim35^0$ respectively. Concerning the octant of $θ_{23}$, we find poor sensitivity in both $3ν$ and $4ν$ schemes. Our results show that a setup like ESS$ν$SB working around the second oscillation maximum with a baseline of 540 km, performs quite well to explore CPV in 3$ν$ scheme, but it is not optimal for studying CP properties in 3+1 scheme.