Bridging Fund for LBNE-UK (Standard Scheme)

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In recent years we have learnt a great deal about the properties of the elusive neutrino from accelerator experiments wherea beam of neutrinos is fired over distances of hundreds of miles and their rare interactions are detected in large deepunderground experiments. As the propagate over large distances neutrinos change flavour and by studying these neutrinooscillations we can learn a lot about their nature. The next generation of long baseline (LBL) neutrino oscillationexperiments will address one of the most crucial questions in particle physics: is CP violated in the neutrino sector? If this isthe case, that it would represent a breakthrough discovery with the potential to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry inthe Universe through the process called leptogenesis.LBNE is the US flagship next generation neutrino oscillation project. It will send a neutrino beam 1300 km from Fermilabtowards a large Liquid Argon (LAr) detector located in South Dakota. In 2012 LBNE received US DoE CD-1 approval with aprovisional budget of $867M and CD-2/CD-3 approval is expected by 2017, with start of data taking planned for 2023. Thisproposal is for initial bridging funds for 9 months, which will allow the UK to retain and build on existing leadership in thiscrucial period that will see first operations in 2014 of both the LBNE 35 ton prototype detector and the first neutrino beaminteractions in the MicroBooNE detector; these are significant steps towards the full LBNE LAr far detector.