Reactor measurement ofθ12: Principles, accuracies, and physics potentials

2004/07/31 by Hisakazu Minakata, H. Minakata, H. Nunokawa +2 · 2 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Algorithm #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Combinatorics #Computer science #Energy (signal processing) #Mathematics #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Sensitivity (control systems) #hep-ex #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.71.013005

published as Phys.Rev.D71:013005,2005 · 31 pages, 8 figures. version to appear in PRD

arxiv created 2005/01/07 · openalex publication_date 2005/01/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We discuss reactor measurement of \ensuremathθ₁₂ which has a potential of reaching the ultimate sensitivity which surpasses all the methods so far proposed. The key is to place a detector at an appropriate baseline distance from the reactor neutrino source to have an oscillation maximum at around a peak energy of the event spectrum in the absence of oscillation. By a detailed statistical analysis the optimal distance is estimated to be \ensuremath≃(50\ensuremath-70) km\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi[8\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-5 eV²/\ensuremathΔm₂₁²], which is determined by maximizing the oscillation effect in the event number distribution and minimizing geo-neutrino background contamination. To estimate possible uncertainty caused by surrounding nuclear reactors in distance of \ensuremath∼100 km, we examine a concrete example of a detector located at Mt. Komagatake, 54 km away from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan, the most powerful reactor complex in the world. The effect turns out to be small. Under a reasonable assumption of systematic error of 4% in the experiment, we find that sin²\ensuremathθ₁₂ can be determined to the accuracy of \ensuremath≃2%(\ensuremath≃3%), at 68.27% CL for 1 degree of freedom, for 60 GW_th\ifmmode⋅\else\textperiodcentered\fikton\ifmmode⋅\else\textperiodcentered\fiyr (20 GW_th\ifmmode⋅\else\textperiodcentered\fikton\ifmmode⋅\else\textperiodcentered\fiyr) operation. We also discuss implications of such an accurate measurement of \ensuremathθ₁₂.

Citations

• Solar Neutrinos Before and After Neutrino 2004
• Direct Evidence for Neutrino Flavor Transformation from Neutral-Current Interactions in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• On the effect of θ13 on the determination of solar oscillation parameters at KamLAND
• Determining the oscillation parameters by solar neutrinos and KamLAND
• Exploring leptonic CP violation by reactor and neutrino superbeam experiments
• Relation Between the Neutrino and Quark Mixing Angles and Grand Unification
• Measurement of Day and Night Neutrino Energy Spectra at SNO and Constraints on Neutrino Mixing Parameters
• Remarks on the Unified Model of Elementary Particles
• Antineutrino astronomy and geophysics
• Unity of All Elementary-Particle Forces
• Measurement of the Total Active 8B Solar Neutrino Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory with Enhanced Neutral Current Sensitivity
• Lepton number as the fourth "color"
• Neutrino oscillations and stellar collapse
• Neutrino mixing and quark-lepton complementarity
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (in "The Review of Particle Properties" 2004)
• GADZOOKS! Antineutrino Spectroscopy with Large Water Cerenkov Detectors

Cited by

• Probing new physics by comparing solar and KamLAND data
• Solar model parameters and direct measurements of solar neutrino fluxes
• What fraction of boron-8 solar neutrinos arrive at the Earth as aν2mass eigenstate?