Mass hierarchy resolution in reactor anti-neutrino experiments: Parameter degeneracies and detector energy response

Abstract

Determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy using a reactor neutrino experiment at ∼60  km is analyzed. Such a measurement is challenging due to the finite detector resolution, the absolute energy scale calibration, and the degeneracies caused by current experimental uncertainty of |Δm_(32)^2|. The standard χ^2 method is compared with a proposed Fourier transformation method. In addition, we show that for such a measurement to succeed, one must understand the nonlinearity of the detector energy scale at the level of a few tenths of percent.

Files

Additional details