  For high energy long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, we propose a
Figure of Merit criterion to compare the statistical quality of experiments at
various oscillation distances under the condition of identical detectors and a
given neutrino beam. We take into account all possible experimental errors
under general consideration. In this way the Figure of Merit is closely related
to the usual statistical criterion of number of sigmas. We use a realistic
neutrino beam for an entry level neutrino factory and a possible superbeam from
a meson source and a 100 kt detector for the calculation. We considered in
detail four oscillation distances, 300 km, 700 km, 2100 km and 3000 km, in the
neutrino energy range of 0.5-20 GeV for a 20 GeV entry level neutrino factory
and a 50 GeV superbeam. We found that the very long baselines of 2100 km and
3000 km are preferred for the neutrino factory according to the figure of merit
criterion. Our results also show that, for a neutrino factory, lower primary
muon energies such as 20 GeV are preferred rather than higher ones such as 30
or 50 GeV. For the superbeam, the combination of a long baseline such as 300 km
and a very long baseline like 2100 km will form a complete measurement of the
oscillation parameters besides the CP phase. To measure the CP phase in a
superbeam, a larger detector (a factor 3 beyond what is considered in this
article) and/or a higher intensity beam will be needed to put some significant
constraints on the size of the CP angle.
