First Double-Chooz Results and the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly

TL;DR

This paper examines how short-baseline antineutrino disappearance could affect the measurement of theta_{13} in the Double-Chooz experiment, concluding that the impact is minimal for certain neutrino mass differences.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of the reactor antineutrino anomaly's impact on theta_{13} measurement, clarifying conditions under which the results remain reliable.

Findings

Effects are negligible if Delta m^2_{41} > 3 eV^2

Uncertainties can be significant for smaller Delta m^2_{41} values

Double-Chooz results are accurate under specific oscillation parameters

Abstract

We investigate the possible effects of short-baseline antinu_e disappearance implied by the reactor antineutrino anomaly on the Double-Chooz determination of theta_{13} through the normalization of the initial antineutrino flux with the Bugey-4 measurement. We show that the effects are negligible and the value of theta_{13} obtained by the Double-Chooz collaboration is accurate only if Delta m^2_{41} is larger than about 3 eV^2. For smaller values of Delta m^2_{41} the short-baseline oscillations are not fully averaged at Bugey-4 and the uncertainties due to the reactor antineutrino anomaly can be of the same order of magnitude of the intrinsic Double-Chooz uncertainties.