A High Precision Reactor Neutrino Detector for the Double Chooz Experiment

TL;DR

The paper describes the design and technical features of the Double Chooz reactor neutrino detector aimed at precisely measuring the neutrino mixing angle theta-13 with minimal systematic errors.

Contribution

It presents a high-precision reactor neutrino detector design specifically developed for the Double Chooz experiment, emphasizing error reduction techniques.

Findings

Detector construction underway in 2009

Expected sensitivity to sin^22theta-13 of 0.03 at 90% C.L.

Techniques implemented to minimize systematic errors

Abstract

Double Chooz is a reactor neutrino experiment which investigates the last neutrino mixing angle; theta-13. It is necessary to measure reactor neutrino disappearance with precision 1% or better to detect finite value of theta-13. This requirement is the most strict compared to other reactor neutrino experiments performed so far. The Double Chooz experiment makes use of a number of techniques to reduce the possible errors to achieve the sensitivity. The detector is now under construction and it is expected to take first neutrino data in 2009 and to measure sin^22theta-13 with a sensitivity of 0.03 (90%C.L.) In this proceedings, the technical concepts of Double Chooz detector are explained stressing on how it copes with the systematic errors.