The sensitivity to electron antineutrinos from the binary neutron star systems at medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation experiment(s)

Abstract

After gravitational wave (GW) transients were first observed in 2015, searching for the coincident neutrinos has become one of the most important missions at the current neutrino experiments. Particularly, the coincident searches draw more and more attentions after one GW candidate (denoted GW170817) was detected, which was the first sign of a production of a binary neutron star (BNS) merger. However, no candidate neutrinos have been found yet. As a prospective study, this article presents a search for the potential electron antineutrinos (ν¯e) from BNS mergers in future medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation (MBRO) experiment(s). On one hand, we examine the detection sensitivity to the ν¯e signals from BNS mergers at future MBRO experiment(s). On the other hand, we convert the ν¯e signal sensitivity to the ν¯e fluence upper limits and evaluate the furthest detectable distances for BNS mergers based on the evolution models describing the process of neutrino emission. Moreover, we also analyze the improvement of sensitivity and the enhancement of detectable distance with a proposed extra detector at future MBRO experiment(s).