Precision Measurement of Electron Antineutrino Disappearance in the Daya Bay Experiment
The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment studies the disappearance of electron antineutrinos from reactor cores at the Daya Bay Power Plant located in China. Daya Bay has made a precision measurement of one of the parameters describing the quantum mechanical mixing between neutrino flavor states and mass states, the mixing angle $$\theta_{13}$$. One source of systematic uncertainty in the measurement is due to background induced by cosmic ray muons. The detectors are located underground to minimize the cosmic flux, but the residual backgrounds must be measured. This program will focus on the study and measurement of the cosmic muon-induced backgrounds at Daya Bay with a goal of achieving the lowest possible level of background-related systematics on the disappearance measurement. In addition to providing crucial input to the Daya Bay disappearance analysis, measurements of the muon flux and the production of neutrons and radioactive nuclei by cosmic muons will be of general interest to other underground experiments such as double beta decay and dark matter searches.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Houston, Houseton, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0008073
- OSTI ID:
- 1483003
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UH-8073
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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