High energy beta beams without massive detectors

In this paper, the possibility to exploit a high energy beta beam without massive detectors is discussed. The radioactive ions are boosted up to very high γ with the neutrino beam pointing towards an instrumented surface located at a moderate baseline (e.g. from CERN to the Gran Sasso Laboratories). νe → νμ oscillations and their CP conjugate are tagged as an excess of horizontal muons produced in the rock and tracked by the low-mass instrumented surface installed in one of the LNGS experimental halls. We show that the performance of this complex for what concerns the determination of the θ13 angle of the leptonic mixing matrix is comparable with the current low-γ design based on a gigantic water Cherenkov at Frejus. PACS: 14.60.Pq, 14.60.Lm