Towards a Sub-percent Precision Measurement of ${\sin }^2{\theta }_{13}$ with Reactor Antineutrinos

Abstract

Measuring the neutrino mixing parameter \ensuremath{\sin^2θ_{13}} to the sub-percent precision level could be necessary in the next ten years for the precision unitary test of the PMNS matrix. In this work, we discuss the possibility of such a measurement with reactor antineutrinos. We find that a single liquid scintillator detector on a reasonable scale could achieve the goal. We propose to install a detector of $\sim 10$\% energy resolution at about 2.0~km from the reactors with a JUNO-like overburden. The integrated luminosity requirement is about 150~$\mathrm{kton}\cdot \mathrm{GW}\cdot \mathrm{year}$, corresponding to 4 years' operation of a 4~kton detector near a reactor complex of 9.2 GW thermal power like Taishan reactor. Unlike the previous ${\theta }_{13}$ experiments with identical near and far detectors, which can suppress the systematics especially the rate uncertainty by the near-far relative measurement and the optimal baseline is at the first oscillation maximum of about 1.8~km, a single-detector measurement prefers to offset the baseline from the oscillation maximum. At low statistics $\lesssim 10$~$\mathrm{kton}\cdot \mathrm{GW}\cdot \mathrm{year}$, the rate uncertainty dominates the systematics, and the optimal baseline is about 1.3~km. At higher statistics, the spectral shape uncertainty becomes dominant, and the optimal baseline shifts to about 2.0~km. The optimal baseline keeps being $\sim 2.0$~km for an integrated luminosity up to $10^6$~$\mathrm{kton}\cdot \mathrm{GW}\cdot \mathrm{year}$. We have assumed that the TAO experiment will improve our understanding of the spectral shape uncertainty, which gives the highest precision measurement of reactor antineutrino spectrum for neutrino energy in the range of 3--6~MeV. We find that the optimal baseline is $\sim 2.9$~km with a flat input spectral shape uncertainty provided by the future summation or conversion methods' prediction.

arXiv comment24 pages, 7 figures, submitted to JHEP

References in corpus (31)

• Neutrino Physics with JUNO
• Improved Predictions of Reactor Antineutrino Spectra
• The T2K Experiment
• 2020 Global reassessment of the neutrino oscillation picture
• The angular distribution of the reaction ${\bar{\nu }}_e+p\to e^{+}+n$
• Precise quasielastic neutrino/nucleon cross section
• Sterile neutrino search at NEOS Experiment
• Unitarity of the Leptonic Mixing Matrix
• Series expansions for three-flavor neutrino oscillation probabilities in matter
• Uncertainties of Predictions from Parton Distribution Functions I: the Lagrange Multiplier Method
• Non-Unitarity, sterile neutrinos, and Non-Standard neutrino Interactions
• First Double Chooz ${\theta }_{13}$ Measurement via Total Neutron Capture Detection
• Updated Summation Model: An Improved Agreement with the Daya Bay Antineutrino Fluxes
• Reactor Neutrino Experiments Compared to Superbeams
• Unitarity and the three flavour neutrino mixing matrix
• Earth regeneration effect in solar neutrino oscillations: an analytic approach
• The Possible Origin and Implications of the Shoulder in Reactor Neutrino Spectra
• Reactor as a Source of Antineutrinos: Thermal Fission Energy
• Improved Calculation of Thermal Fission Energy
• A framework for testing leptonic unitarity by neutrino oscillation experiments
• Sterile Neutrinos and the Global Reactor Antineutrino Dataset
• Current and Future Neutrino Oscillation Constraints on Leptonic Unitarity
• From Double Chooz to Triple Chooz - Neutrino Physics at the Chooz Reactor Complex
• Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, the Inverted Hierarchy and Precision Determination of theta(12)
• Towards the meV limit of the effective neutrino mass in neutrinoless double-beta decays
• An accurate evaluation of electron (anti-)neutrino scattering on nucleons
• First antineutrino energy spectrum from ${}^{235}$U fissions with the STEREO detector at ILL
• JUNO and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Indirect unitarity violation entangled with matter effects in reactor antineutrino oscillations
• Measurement of Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at RENO
• Calibration Strategy of the JUNO-TAO Experiment

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Comprehensive Measurement of the Reactor Antineutrino Spectrum and Flux at Daya Bay