The Palo Verde reactor neutrino experiment a test for long baseline neutrino oscillations

Abstract

Our collaboration has installed a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona. 12 tons of Gd loaded liquid scintillator, in a segmented detector, are used to search for ν e ↔ ν x oscillations at 740 m distance to three reactors. The anti-neutrino capture on the proton serves as detection reaction. The experiment is expected to reach a sensitivity of Δm 2 > 1.3 · 10 −3 eV 2 and sin 22Θ > 0.1. Our range of sensitivity is tuned to test the ν μ ↔ ν e solution of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly.