Very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and the MSW effect

Assuming three-neutrino mixing, we study the capabilities of very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments to verify and test the MSW effect and to measure the lepton mixing angle theta(13). We suppose that intense neutrino and antineutrino beams will become available in the so-called neutrino factories. We find that the most promising and statistically significant results can be obtained by studying nu(e) --> nu(mu) and <(nu)over bar> --> nu(mu) oscillations which lead to matter enhancements and suppressions of wrong-sign muon rates. We show the theta(13) ranges where matter effects could be observed as a function of the baseline. We discuss the scaling laws of rates, significances and sensitivities with the relevant mixing angles and experimental parameters. Our analysis includes fluxes, event rates and statistical aspects so that the conclusions should be useful for the planning of experimental setups. We discuss the subleading Delta m(21)(2) effects in the case of the LMA MSW solution of the solar problem, showing that they are small for L greater than or similar to 7000 km. For shorter baselines, Delta m(21)(2) effects can be relevant and their dependence on L offers a further handle for the determination of the CP-violation phase delta. Finally, we comment on the possibility to measure the specific distortion of the energy spectrum due to the MSW effect. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.