Daya at Antineutrinos Reactor Eebr1 2006 1, December Proposal Aabay Daya Θ 13 Using Daya Bay Collaboration
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Daya Bay Proposal December 1, 2006 A Precision Measurement of the Neutrino Mixing Angle θ13 Using Reactor Antineutrinos At Daya Bay arXiv:hep-ex/0701029v1 15 Jan 2007 Daya Bay Collaboration Beijing Normal University Xinheng Guo, Naiyan Wang, Rong Wang Brookhaven National Laboratory Mary Bishai, Milind Diwan, Jim Frank, Richard L. Hahn, Kelvin Li, Laurence Littenberg, David Jaffe, Steve Kettell, Nathaniel Tagg, Brett Viren, Yuping Williamson, Minfang Yeh California Institute of Technology Christopher Jillings, Jianglai Liu, Christopher Mauger, Robert McKeown Charles Unviersity Zdenek Dolezal, Rupert Leitner, Viktor Pec, Vit Vorobel Chengdu University of Technology Liangquan Ge, Haijing Jiang, Wanchang Lai, Yanchang Lin China Institute of Atomic Energy Long Hou, Xichao Ruan, Zhaohui Wang, Biao Xin, Zuying Zhou Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ming-Chung Chu, Joseph Hor, Kin Keung Kwan, Antony Luk Illinois Institute of Technology Christopher White Institute of High Energy Physics Jun Cao, Hesheng Chen, Mingjun Chen, Jinyu Fu, Mengyun Guan, Jin Li, Xiaonan Li, Jinchang Liu, Haoqi Lu, Yusheng Lu, Xinhua Ma, Yuqian Ma, Xiangchen Meng, Huayi Sheng, Yaxuan Sun, Ruiguang Wang, Yifang Wang, Zheng Wang, Zhimin Wang, Liangjian Wen, Zhizhong Xing, Changgen Yang, Zhiguo Yao, Liang Zhan, Jiawen Zhang, Zhiyong Zhang, Yubing Zhao, Weili Zhong, Kejun Zhu, Honglin Zhuang Iowa State University Kerry Whisnant, Bing-Lin Young Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Yuri A. Gornushkin, Dmitri Naumov, Igor Nemchenok, Alexander Olshevski Kurchatov Institute Vladimir N. Vyrodov Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley Bill Edwards, Kelly Jordan, Dawei Liu, Kam-Biu Luk, Craig Tull Nanjing University Shenjian Chen, Tingyang Chen, Guobin Gong, Ming Qi Nankai University Shengpeng Jiang, Xuqian Li, Ye Xu National Chiao-Tung University Feng-Shiuh Lee, Guey-Lin Lin, Yung-Shun Yeh National Taiwan University Yee B. Hsiung National United University Chung-Hsiang Wang Princeton University Changguo Lu, Kirk T. McDonald Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute John Cummings, Johnny Goett, Jim Napolitano, Paul Stoler Shenzhen Univeristy Yu Chen, Hanben Niu, Lihong Niu Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan) University Zhibing Li Tsinghua University Shaomin Chen, Hui Gong, Guanghua Gong, Li Liang, Beibei Shao, Qiong Su, Tao Xue, Ming Zhong University of California at Los Angeles Vahe Ghazikhanian, Huan Z. Huang, Charles A. Whitten, Stephan Trentalange University of Hong Kong, K.S. Cheng, Talent T.N. Kwok, Maggie K.P. Lee, John K.C. Leung, Jason C.S. Pun, Raymond H.M. Tsang, Heymans H.C. Wong University of Houston Michael Ispiryan, Kwong Lau, Logan Lebanowski, Bill Mayes, Lawrence Pinsky, Guanghua Xu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign S. Ryland Ely, Wah-Kai Ngai, Jen-Chieh Peng University of Science and Technology of China Qi An, Yi Jiang, Hao Liang, Shubin Liu, Wengan Ma, Xiaolian Wang, Jian Wu, Ziping Zhang, Yongzhao Zhou University of Wisconsin A. Baha Balantekin, Karsten M. Heeger, Thomas S. Wise Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Jonathan Link, Leo Piilonen Preprint numbers: BNL-77369-2006-IR LBNL-62137 TUHEP-EX-06-003 I Executive Summary This document describes the design of the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment. Recent discoveries in neutrino physics have shown that the Standard Model of particle physics is incomplete. The observation of neutrino oscillations has unequivocally demonstrated that the masses of neutrinos are nonzero. The small- ness of the neutrino masses (<2 eV) and the two surprisingly large mixing angles measured have thus far provided important clues and constraints to extensions of the Standard Model. The third mixing angle, θ13, is small and has not yet been determined; the current experimental bound 2 2 −3 2 is sin 2θ13 < 0.17 at 90% confidence level (from Chooz) for ∆m31 = 2.5 10 eV . It is important to measure this angle to provide further insight on how to extend the Standard Model.× A precision measurement 2 of sin 2θ13 using nuclear reactors has been recommended by the 2004 APS Multi-divisional Study on the Future of Neutrino Physics as well as a recent Neutrino Scientific Assessment Group (NuSAG) report. We propose to perform a precision measurement of this mixing angle by searching for the disappearance of electron antineutrinos from the nuclear reactor complex in Daya Bay, China. A reactor-based determi- 2 nation of sin 2θ13 will be vital in resolving the neutrino-mass hierarchy and future measurements of CP violation in the lepton sector because this technique cleanly separates θ13 from CP violation and effects of 2 neutrino propagation in the earth. A reactor-based determination of sin 2θ13 will provide important, com- plementary information to that from long-baseline, accelerator-based experiments. The goal of the Daya 2 Bay experiment is to reach a sensitivity of 0.01 or better in sin 2θ13 at 90% confidence level. The Daya Bay Experiment The Day Bay nuclear power complex is one of the most prolific sources of antineutrinos in the world. Currently with two pairs of reactor cores (Daya Bay and Ling Ao), separated by about 1.1 km, the complex generates 11.6 GW of thermal power; this will increase to 17.4 GW by early 2011 when a third pair of reactor cores (Ling Ao II) is put into operation and Daya Bay will be among the five most powerful reactor complexes in the world. The site is located adjacent to mountainous terrain, ideal for siting underground detector laboratories that are well shielded from cosmogenic backgrounds. This site offers an exceptional 2 opportunity for a reactor neutrino experiment optimized to perform a precision determination of sin 2θ13 through a measurement of the relative rates and energy spectrum of reactor antineutrinos at different base- lines. In addition, this project offers a unique and unprecedented opportunity for scientific collaboration involving China, the U.S., and other countries. The basic experimental layout of Daya Bay consists of three underground experimental halls, one far and two near, linked by horizontal tunnels. Figure 0.1 shows the detector module deployment at these sites. Eight identical cylindrical detectors, each consisting of three nested cylindrical zones contained within a stainless steel tank, will be deployed to detect antineutrinos via the inverse beta-decay reaction. To maxi- mize the experimental sensitivity four detectors are deployed in the far hall at the first oscillation maximum. The rate and energy distribution of the antineutrinos from the reactors are monitored with two detectors in each near hall at relatively short baselines from their respective reactor cores, reducing the systematic 2 uncertainty in sin 2θ13 due to uncertainties in the reactor power levels to about 0.1%. This configuration significantly improves the statistical precision over previous experiments (0.2% in three years of running) and enables cross-calibration to verify that the detectors are identical. Each detector will have 20 metric tons of 0.1% Gd-doped liquid scintillator in the inner-most, antineutrino target zone. A second zone, separated from the target and outer buffer zones by transparent acrylic vessels, will be filled with undoped liquid scin- tillator for capturing gamma rays that escape from the target thereby improving the antineutrino detection efficiency. A total of 224 photomultiplier tubes are arranged along the circumference of the stainless steel tank in the outer-most zone, which contains mineral oil to attenuate gamma rays from trace radioactivity in the photomultiplier tube glass and nearby materials including the outer tank. The detector dimensions are II Fig. 0.1. Default configuration of the Daya Bay experiment, optimized for best sensi- 2 tivity in sin 2θ13. Four detector modules are deployed at the far site and two each at each of the near sites. summarized in Table 0.1. Dimensions Inner Acrylic Outer Acrylic Stainless Steel Diameter (mm) 3200 4100 5000 Height (mm) 3200 4100 5000 Wall thickness (mm) 10 15 10 Vessel Weight (ton) 0.6 1.4 20 Liquid Weight (ton) 20 20 40 ∼ ∼ ∼ Table 0.1. Summary of antineutrino detector properties. The liquid weights are for the mass of liquid contained only within that zone. With reflective surfaces at the top and bottom of the detector the energy resolution of the detector is about 12% at 1 MeV. The mountainous terrain provides sufficient overburden to suppress cosmic muon induced backgrounds to less than 1% of the antineutrino signal. The detectors in each experimental hall are shielded by 2.5 m of water from radioactivity and spallation neutrons in the surrounding rock. The detector halls include a muon detector system, consisting of a tracker on top of the water pool and water Cherenkov counters in the water shield, for tagging the residual cosmic muons. With this experimental setup, the signal and background rates at the Daya Bay near hall, Ling Ao near III hall and the far hall are summarized in Table 0.2. Daya Bay Near Ling Ao Near Far Hall Baseline (m) 363 481 from Ling Ao 1985 from Daya Bay 526 from Ling Ao II 1615 from Ling Ao’s Overburden (m) 98 112 350 Radioactivity (Hz) <50 <50 <50 Muon rate (Hz) 36 22 1.2 Antineutrino Signal (events/day) 930 760 90 Accidental Background/Signal (%) <0.2 <0.2 <0.1 Fast neutron Background/Signal (%) 0.1 0.1 0.1 8He+9Li Background/Signal (%) 0.3 0.2 0.2 Table 0.2. Summary of signal and background rates for each detector module at the different experimental sites. Careful construction, filling, calibration and monitoring of the detectors will reduce detector-related systematic uncertainties to a level comparable to or below the statistical uncertainty. Table 0.3 is a summary of systematic uncertainties for the experiment. Source Uncertainty Reactor Power 0.087% (4 cores) 0.13% (6 cores) Detector (per module) 0.38% (baseline) 0.18% (goal) Signal Statistics 0.2% Table 0.3. Summary of uncertainties.