Advantages of Multiple Detectors for the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy Determination at Reactor Experiments

TL;DR

Using two identical detectors at different baselines in reactor neutrino experiments significantly improves the confidence in determining the neutrino mass hierarchy, especially when accounting for unknown nonlinear energy responses.

Contribution

This study demonstrates that a second detector at a different baseline can mitigate energy response uncertainties, enhancing hierarchy determination in reactor experiments.

Findings

A second detector eliminates the 1 sigma confidence reduction caused by energy response uncertainties.

Optimal site locations for JUNO's near detector are identified at 17 km and 66 km from reactors.

Two identical detectors improve energy resolution and enable additional measurements like CP-violation.

Abstract

We study the advantages of a second identical detector at a medium baseline reactor neutrino experiment. A major obstruction to the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy is the detector's unknown nonlinear energy response, which even under optimistic assumptions reduces the confidence in a hierarchy determination by about 1 sigma at a single detector experiment. Various energy response models are considered at one and two detector experiments with the same total target mass. A second detector at a sufficiently different baseline eliminates this 1 sigma reduction. Considering the unknown energy response, we find the confidence in a hierarchy determination at various candidate detector locations for JUNO and RENO 50. The best site for JUNO's near detector is under ZiLuoShan, 17 km and 66 km from the Yangjiang and Taishan reactor complexes respectively. We briefly describe other advantages, including a more precise determination of theta12 and the possibility of a DAEdALUS-inspired program to measure the CP-violating phase delta using a single pion source about 10 km from one detector and 20 km from the other. Two identical detectors provide a better energy resolution than a single (larger) detector, further increasing the confidence in a hierarchy determination.