Discovery of Non-Zero Neutrino Mixing Angle θ₁₃ Using Daya Bay Antineutrino Detectors

Author: Tsang, Raymond Hei Man

Year: 2013

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: McKeown, Robert D.

Committee Members: Filippone, Bradley W.; Wise, Mark B.; Golwala, Sunil; McKeown, Robert D.

Option: Physics

DOI: 10.7907/CE4Y-BX48

Abstract

The Daya Bay Reactor Antineutrino Experiment observed the disappearance of reactor ν_e from six 2.9 GW_th reactor cores in Daya Bay, China. The Experiment consists of six functionally identical ν_e detectors, which detect ν_e by inverse beta decay using a total of about 120 metric tons of Gd-loaded liquid scintillator as the target volume. These ν_e detectors were installed in three underground experimental halls, two near halls and one far hall, under the mountains near Daya Bay, with overburdens of 250 m.w.e, 265 m.w.e and 860 m.w.e. and flux-weighted baselines of 470 m, 576 m and 1648 m. A total of 90179 ν_e candidates were observed in the six detectors over a period of 55 days, 57549 at the Daya Bay near site, 22169 at the Ling Ao near site and 10461 at the far site. By performing a rate-only analysis, the value of sin²2θ₁₃ was determined to be 0.092 ± 0.017.

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