Report of the APS Neutrino Study Reactor Working Group

Abstract

The worldwide program to understand neutrino oscillations and determine the neutrino mixing parameters, CP violating effects, and mass hierarchy will require a broad combination of measurements. The group believes that a key element of this future neutrino program is a multi-detector neutrino experiment (with baselines of {approx} 200 m and {approx} 1.5 km) with a sensitivity of sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} = 0.01. In addition to oscillation physics, the reactor experiment may provide interesting measurements of sin{sup 2} {theta}{sub W} at Q{sup 2} = 0, neutrino couplings, magnetic moments, and mixing with sterile neutrino states. {theta}{sub 13} is one of the twenty-six parameters of the standard model, the best model of electroweak interactions for energies below 100 GeV and, as such, is worthy of a precision measurement independent of other considerations. A reactor experiment of the proposed sensitivity will allow a measurement of {theta}{sub 13} with no ambiguities and significantly better precision than any other proposed experiment, or will set limits indicating the scale of future experiments required to make progress. Figure 1 shows a comparison of the sensitivity of reactor experiments of different scales with accelerator experiments for setting limits on sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} if the mixing angle is very small, or for making a measurement of sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} if the angle is observable. A reactor experiment with a 1% precision may also resolve the degeneracy in the {theta}{sub 23} parameter when combined with long-baseline accelerator experiments. In combination with long-baseline measurements, a reactor experiment may give early indications of CP violation and the mass hierarchy. The combination of the T2K and Nova long-baseline experiments will be able to make significant measurements of these effects if sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} > 0.05 and with enhanced beam rates can improve their reach to the sin{sup 2} 2{theta}{sub 13} > 0.02 level. If {theta}{sub 13} turns out to be smaller than these values, one will need other strategies for getting to the physics. Thus, an unambiguous reactor measurement of {theta}{sub 13} is an important ingredient in planning the strategy for the future neutrino program.