Nuclear reactors are one of the most intense, pure, controllable, cost-effective, and well-understood sources of neutrinos. Reactors have played a major role in the study of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon that indicates that neutrinos have mass and that neutrino flavors are quantum mechanical mixtures. Over the past several decades reactors were used in the discovery of neutrinos, were crucial in solving the solar neutrino puzzle, and allowed the determination of the smallest mixing angle $θ_{13}$. In the near future, reactors will help to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to solve the puzzling issue of sterile neutrinos.
Neutrinos produced by nuclear reactors have played a major role in advancing our knowledge of the properties of neutrinos. The first direct detection of the neutrino, confirming its existence, was performed using reactor neutrinos. More recent experiments utilizing reactor neutrinos have also found clear evidence for neutrino oscillation, providing unique input for the determination of neutrino mass and mixing. Ongoing and future reactor neutrino experiments will explore other important issues, including the neutrino mass hierarchy and the search for sterile neutrinos and other new physics bey…
We review the status and the results of reactor neutrino experiments, that toe the cutting edge of neutrino research. Short baseline experiments have provided the measurement of the reactor neutrino spectrum, and are still searching for important phenomena such as the neutrino magnetic moment. They could open the door to the measurement of coherent neutrino scattering in a near future. Middle and long baseline oscillation experiments at Chooz and KamLAND have played a relevant role in neutrino oscillation physics in the last years. It is now widely accepted that a new middle baseline disappear…
The Kamioka Liquid scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND) is sensitive to the neutrino event spectrum from (mainly Japanese) nuclear reactors in both the energy domain and the time domain. While the energy spectrum of KamLAND events allows the determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters, the time spectrum can be used to monitor known and unknown neutrino sources. By using available monthly-binned data on event-by-event energies in KamLAND and on reactor powers in Japan, we perform a likelihood analysis of the neutrino event spectra in energy and time, and find significant indic…
New generation of three reactor neutrino experiments have made definitive measurements of the smallest neutrino mixing angle theta13 in 2012, based on the disappearance of electron antineutrinos. More precise measurements of the mixing angle have been made as well as the squared mass difference between electron neutrinos. A rather large value of theta13 has opened a new window to find the CP violation phase and to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. Future reactor experiments, JUNO and RENO50, are proposed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to make highly precise measurements of t…
Nuclear reactors are strong, pure and well localized sources of electron antineutrinos with energies in the few MeV range. Therefore they provide a suitable environment to study neutrino properties, in particular neutrino oscillation parameters. Recent predictions of the expected antineutrino flux at nuclear reactors are about 6% higher than the average rate measured in different experiments. This discrepancy, known as the reactor antineutrino anomaly, is significant at the 2.5σ level. Several new experiments are searching for the origin of this observed neutrino deficit. One hypothesis to be …
Potential applications of neutrino detection to nuclear security have been discussed since the 1970s. Recent years have seen great progress in detector technologies based on inverse beta decay, with the demonstration of ton-scale surface-level detectors capable of high quality neutrino spectrum measurements. At the same time coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering has been experimentally confirmed in 2017 with neutrinos from stopped pion decay and there is a number of experiments aimed at seeing this reaction with reactor neutrinos. The large cross section and threshold-less nature of thi…
Flux is an important source of uncertainties for a reactor neutrino experiment. It is determined from thermal power measurements, reactor core simulation, and knowledge of neutrino spectra of fuel isotopes. Past reactor neutrino experiments have determined the flux to (2-3)% precision. Precision measurements of mixing angle $θ_{13}$ by reactor neutrino experiments in the coming years will use near-far detector configurations. Most uncertainties from reactor will be canceled out. Understanding of the correlation of uncertainties is required for $θ_{13}$ experiments. Precise determination of rea…
Nuclear reactors are an essential source of neutrinos. In this proceeding, I review the past and current status of the research on neutrino oscillations using reactor neutrinos. I also present a promising idea for positron tagging that will potentially be a game-changer in the field.
Anti-neutrino emission rates from nuclear reactors are determined from thermal power measurements and fission rate calculations. The uncertainties in these quantities for commercial power plants and their impact on the calculated interaction rates in electron anti-neutrino detectors is examined. We discuss reactor-to-reactor correlations between the leading uncertainties and their relevance to reactor anti-neutrino experiments.
We review the current-generation short-baseline reactor neutrino experiments that have firmly established the third neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$ to be non-zero. The relative large value of $θ_{13}$ (around 9$^\circ$) has opened many new and exciting opportunities for future neutrino experiments. Daya Bay experiment with the first measurement of $Δm^2_{ee}$ is aiming for a precision measurement of this atmospheric mass-squared splitting with a comparable precision as $Δm^2_{μμ}$ from accelerator muon neutrino experiments. JUNO, a next-generation reactor neutrino experiment, is targeting to de…
We present the potential sensitivity of a future recoil detector for a first detection of the process of coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS). We use the Chooz reactor complex in France as our luminous source of reactor neutrinos. Leveraging the ability to cleanly separate the rate correlated with the reactor thermal power against (uncorrelated) backgrounds, we show that a 10 kilogram cryogenic bolometric array with 100 eV threshold should be able to extract a CE$ν$NS signal within one year of running.
Rector neutrinos have been a tool to investigate neutrino properties for more than 60 years. The reactor neutrino flux was measured throughout 80s-90s. In the 2000s, reactor neutrino oscillations at large baselines were observed by the KamLAND experiment and later in 2012 at short baselines by the Daya Bay, Double Chooz and RENO experiments. Reactor neutrino experiments have significantly contributed to our current knowledge of oscillation parameters. The detector technology has been majorly improved over decades and we have entered era of precise measurements. The recent absolute measurement …
The sensitivity to New Physics of a low threshold scintillating argon bubble chamber measuring coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering in reactors is reported. Namely, light scalar mediators, sterile neutrino oscillations, unitarity violation, and non-standard interactions are studied. The results indicate that this detector could be able to set stronger constraints than current limits set by the recent COHERENT measurements. Considering the best scenario, a 100 kg detector located 30 m from a 2000 MW$_{th}$ reactor, a sterile neutrino search would cover most of the space parameter allowe…
With the end of Daya Bay experimental operations in December 2020, I review the history, discoveries, measurements and impact of the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment in China.
We report measurement of reactor based electron anti-neutrinos from a prototype array of plastic scintillator bars ( mini-ISMRAN ) located inside Dhruva research reactor hall, BARC. The detector setup took data for 128 days for reactor on (RON) and 51 days for reactor off (ROFF) condition. A detailed analysis procedure is developed to select the anti-neutrino candidate events based on the energy deposition, number of bars hit as well as topological event selection criteria in position and time. Each of these selection criteria are compared with Monte Carlo based simulations and further an embe…
After the neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$ has been precisely measured by the reactor antineutrino experiments, one of the most important open questions left in neutrino physics is the neutrino mass hierarchy. Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is designed to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) without exploring the matter effect. The JUNO site location is optimized to have the best sensitivity for the mass hierarchy determination. JUNO will employ a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector located in a laboratory 700 meters underground. The excellent energy resolution and PMT c…
We review the status and the results of reactor neutrino experiments. Long baseline oscillation experiments at Palo Verde and Chooz have provided limits for the oscillation parameters while the recently proposed Kamland experiment at a baseline of more than 100km is now in the planning stage. We also describe the status of neutrino magnetic moment experiments at reactors.
We show that the combined data from solar neutrino experiments and from the KamLAND reactor neutrino experiment can establish an upper limit on, or detect, potential CPT violation in the neutrino sector of order 10^{-20} GeV to 10^{-21} GeV.
Determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy using a reactor neutrino experiment at $\sim$60 km is analyzed. Such a measurement is challenging due to the finite detector resolution, the absolute energy scale calibration, as well as the degeneracies caused by current experimental uncertainty of $|Δm^2_{32}|$. The standard $χ^2$ method is compared with a proposed Fourier transformation method. In addition, we show that for such a measurement to succeed, one must understand the non-linearity of the detector energy scale at the level of a few tenths of percent.
Reactor neutrinos play a substantial role in the study of the fundamental properties of neutrinos. With current and upcoming precision experiments, it is essential more than ever to understand the reactor neutrino flux and spectrum. However, two discrepancies between prediction and measurement are observed. On the one hand, there is a $\sim6\%$ total measured flux deficit, known as the reactor antineutrino anomaly, consistently seen by several experiments at short baselines. On the other hand, there is an observed excess over prediction for $\barν_e$ energies between 5-7 MeV. We discuss curren…
Recent reactor neutrino experiments observe an anomalous excess around 5 MeV in the prompt energy spectra of positrons following the inverse beta decay reaction. In this note we suggest that this 5 MeV anomaly was already present in a much earlier experiment, which was carried out in the 1980's at three distances from the 2.8 GW nuclear powerplant at Goesgen, Switzerland. In particular we demonstrate with a log-likelihood test performed on the Goesgen data that the no-anomaly hypothesis is disfavored at a level of 3.8 sigma.
Over the last several years, experiments have conclusively demonstrated that neutrinos are massive and that they mix. There is now direct evidence for $ν_e$s from the Sun transforming into other active flavors while en route to the Earth. The disappearance of reactor $\barν_e$s, predicted under the assumption of neutrino oscillation, has also been observed. In this paper, recent results from solar and reactor neutrino experiments and their implications are reviewed. In addition, some of the future experimental endeavors in solar and reactor neutrinos are presented.
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment discovered an unexpectedly large neutrino oscillation related to the mixing angle $θ_{13}$ in 2012. This finding paved the way to the next generation of neutrino oscillation experiments. In this article, we review the history, featured design, and scientific results of Daya Bay. Prospects of the experiment are also described.
Muon induced neutrons and long-lived radioactive isotopes are important background sources for low-energy underground experiments. We study the produced processes and properties of cosmic muon induced backgrounds, show the muon veto system used for rejecting these backgrounds and the methods to estimate residual backgrounds in the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment.
The $\sim 3σ$ discrepancy between the predicted and observed reactor anti-neutrino flux, known as the reactor anti-neutrino anomaly, continues to intrigue. The recent discovery of an unexpected bump in the reactor anti-neutrino spectrum, as well as indications that the flux deficit is different for different fission isotopes seems to disfavour the explanation of the anomaly in terms of sterile neutrino oscillations. We critically review this conclusion in view of all available data on electron (anti)neutrino disappearance. We find that the sterile neutrino hypothesis cannot be rejected based o…
Several observed anomalies in neutrino oscillation data could be explained by a hypothetical fourth neutrino separated from the three standard neutrinos by a squared mass difference of a few 0.1 eV$^2$ or more. This hypothesis can be tested with MCi neutrino electron capture sources ($^{51}$Cr) or kCi antineutrino $β$-source ($^{144}$Ce) deployed inside or next to a large low background neutrino detector. In particular, the compact size of this source coupled with the localization of the interaction vertex lead to an oscillating pattern in event spatial (and possibly energy) distributions that…
We evaluate the statistical significance of the 3+1 sterile-neutrino hypothesis using $ν_e$ and $\barν_e$ disappearance data from reactor, solar and gallium radioactive source experiments. Concerning the latter, we investigate the implications of the recent BEST results. For reactor data we focus on relative measurements independent of flux predictions. For the problem at hand, the usual $χ^2$-approximation to hypothesis testing based on Wilks' theorem has been shown in the literature to be inaccurate. We therefore present results based on Monte Carlo simulations, and find that this typically …
Experiments with reactor neutrinos continue to shed light on our understanding of neutrino oscillations. We review some of the early decisive experiments. We then turn to the recent long baseline oscillation experiments at Palo Verde and Chooz which are leading to the conclusion that the atmospheric neutrino anomaly if attributed to oscillations does not involve an appreciable mixing with the $\barν_e$ . The very long baseline KamLAND experiment is now in the planning stages. Its goal is to help explore the large mixing angle solar solution. A review of the $\barν_e + d$ experiment at Bugey an…
Short distance reactor antineutrino experiments measure an antineutrino spectrum a few percent lower than expected from theoretical predictions. In this work we study the potential of low energy threshold reactor experiments in the context of a light sterile neutrino signal. We discuss the perspectives of the recently detected coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering in future reactor antineutrino experiments. We find that the expectations to improve the current constraints on the mixing with sterile neutrinos are promising. We also analyse the measurements of antineutrino scattering off e…
We consider an alternative explanation for the deficit of nu_e in Ga solar neutrino calibration experiments and of the anti nu_e in short baseline reactor experiments by a model where neutrinos can oscillate into sterile Kaluza-Klein modes that can propagate in compactified sub-micrometer flat extra dimensions. We have analyzed the results of the Gallium radioactive source experiments and 19 reactor experiments with baseline shorter than 100 m, and showed that these data can be fitted into this scenario. The values of the lightest neutrino mass and of the size of the largest extra dimension th…
In this work we present an accurate parameterization of the anti-neutrino flux produced by the isotopes 235U, 239Pu and 241Pu in nuclear reactors. We determine the coefficients of this parameterization, as well as their covariance matrix, by performing a fit to spectra inferred from experimentally measured beta spectra. Subsequently we show that flux shape uncertainties play only a minor role in the KamLAND experiment, however, we find that future reactor neutrino experiments to measure the mixing angle $θ_{13}$ are sensitive to the fine details of the reactor neutrino spectra. Finally, we inv…
Geo-reactor models suggest the existence of natural nuclear reactors at different deep-earth locations with loosely defined output power. Reactor fission products undergo beta decay with the emission of electron antineutrinos, which routinely escape the earth. Neutrino mixing distorts the energy spectrum of the electron antineutrinos. Characteristics of the distorted spectrum observed at the earth's surface could specify the location of a geo-reactor, discriminating the models and facilitating more precise power measurement. The existence of a geo-reactor with known position could enable a pre…
The disappearance of reactor antineutrinos in the Double Chooz experiment is used to investigate the possibility of neutrino-antineutrino oscillations arising due to the breakdown of Lorentz invariance. We find no evidence for this phenomenon and set the first limits on 15 coefficients describing neutrino-antineutrino mixing within the framework of the Standard-Model Extension.
Reactor neutrinos have been an important tool for both discovery and precision measurement in the history of neutrino studies. Since the first generation of reactor neutrino experiments in the 1950s, the detector technology has been greatly advanced. New ideas, new knowledge, and modern software also enhanced the power of the experiments. The current reactor neutrino experiments, Daya Bay, Double Chooz, and RENO have led neutrino physics into the precision era. In this article, we will review these developments and accumulations, address the key issues in designing a state-of-art reactor neutr…
Reactor experiments are well suited to probe the possible loss of coherence of neutrino oscillations due to wave-packets separation. We combine data from the short-baseline experiments Daya Bay and the Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillation (RENO) and from the long baseline reactor experiment KamLAND to obtain the best current limit on the reactor antineutrino wave-packet width, $σ> 2.1 \times 10^{-4}$ nm at 90% CL. We also find that the determination of standard oscillation parameters is robust, i.e., it is mostly insensitive to the presence of hypothetical decoherence effects once one c…
In the past decade, the precise measurement of the lastly known neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$ has enabled the resolution of neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) at medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation (MBRO) experiments. On the other hand, recent calculations of the reactor neutrino flux predict percent-level sub-structures in the $\barν_e$ spectrum due to Coulomb effects in beta decay. Such fine structure in the reactor spectrum could be an important issue for the determination of neutrino MH for the MBRO approach since they could affect the sub-dominant oscillation pattern used to discrimin…
This article reports the optimized experimental requirements to determine neutrino mass hierarchy using electron antineutrinos ($\barν_e$) generated in a nuclear reactor. The features of the neutrino mass hierarchy can be extracted from the $|Δm^{2}_{31}|$ and $|Δm^{2}_{32}|$ oscillations by applying the Fourier sine and cosine transform to the $L/E$ spectrum. To determine the neutrino mass hierarchy above 90\% probability, the requirements on the energy resolution as a function of the baseline are studied at $\sin 2θ_{13}=0.1$. If the energy resolution of the neutrino detector is less than $0…
We discuss a symmetric setup for a reactor neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of two reactors separated by about 1 km, and two symmetrically placed detectors, one close to each reactor. We show that such a configuration allows a determination of $\sin^22θ_{13}$ which is essentially free of systematical errors, if it is possible to separate the contributions of the two reactors in each detector sufficiently. This can be achieved either by considering data when in an alternating way only one reactor is running or by directional sensitivity obtained from the neutron displacement in the de…
The Coulomb enhancement of low energy electrons in nuclear beta decay generates sharp cutoffs in the accompanying antineutrino spectrum at the beta decay endpoint energies. It has been conjectured that these features will interfere with measuring the effect of a neutrino mass hierarchy on an oscillated nuclear reactor antineutrino spectrum. These sawtooth-like features will appear in detailed reactor antineutrino spectra, with characteristic energy scales similar to the oscillation period critical to neutrino mass hierarchy determination near a 53 km baseline. However, these sawtooth-like dist…
We present the bounds on 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing obtained from the first results of the KATRIN experiment. We show that the KATRIN data extend the Mainz and Troitsk bound to smaller values of $Δ{m}^2_{41}$ for large mixing and improves the exclusion of the large-$Δ{m}^2_{41}$ solution of the Huber-Muller reactor antineutrino anomaly. We also show that the combined bound of the Mainz, Troitsk, and KATRIN tritium experiments and the Bugey-3, NEOS, PROSPECT, and DANSS reactor spectral ratio measurements exclude most of the region in the ($\sin^2\!2\vartheta_{ee},Δ{m}^2_{41}$) plane all…
Prospect measurements of neutrino oscillations with reactor neutrinos are reviewed in this document. The following items are described: neutrinos oscillations status, reactor neutrino experimental strategy, impact of uncertainties on the neutrino oscillation sensitivity and, finally, the experiments in the field. This is the synthesis of the talk delivered during the NOW2006 conference at Otranto (Italy) during September 2006.
Neutrino-electron scatterings are purely leptonic processes with robust Standard Model (SM) predictions. Their measurements can therefore provide constraints to physics beyond SM. The $\nuebar$-e data taken at the Kuo-Sheng Reactor Neutrino Laboratory were used to probe two scenarios: Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions (NSI) and Unparticle Physics. New constraints were placed to the NSI parameters ($\el$,$\er$) and ($\etl$,$\etr$) for the Non-Universal and Flavor-Changing channels, respectively, as well as to the coupling constants for scalar ($λ_0$) and vector ($λ_1$) unparticles to the neutr…
Reactor antineutrino experiments have the ability to search for neutrino oscillations independent of reactor flux predictions using a relative measurement of the neutrino flux and spectrum across a range of baselines. The range of accessible oscillation parameters are determined by the baselines of the detector arrangement. We examine the sensitivity of short-baseline experiments with more than one detector and discuss the optimization of a second, far detector. The extended reach in baselines of a 2-detector experiment will improve sensitivity to short-baseline neutrino oscillations while als…
Present results from neutrino experiments at accelerators and nuclear reactors are reviewed with emphasis on neutrino oscillation searches. Future prospects in this field are also discussed.
We present calculations of the magnetic moment contribution to neutrino electron scattering in large extra dimension brane-bulk models (LED) with three bulk neutrinos. We discuss the cases with two and three large extra dimensions of sizes $R$. The calculations are done using reactor flux from Uranium, $^{235}U$ as the neutrino source. We find that if the electron neutrino mass is chosen to be in the range of one eV, the differential cross section for $\barν-e$ scattering for low electron recoil energy can be of the same order as the presently explored values in reactor experiments. Furthermor…
We examine the potential of the future medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation (MBRO) experiments in studying neutrino wave-packet impact. In our study, we treat neutrinos as wave packets and use the corresponding neutrino flavor transition probabilities. The delocalization, separation and spreading of the wave packets lead to decoherence and dispersion effects, which modify the plane-wave neutrino oscillation pattern, by amounts that depend on the energy uncertainties in the initial neutrino wave packets. We find that MBRO experiments could be sensitive to the wave-packet impact, since t…
We present the results of a global neutrino oscillation data analysis within the three-flavour framework. We include latest results from the MINOS long-baseline experiment (including electron neutrino appearance as well as anti-neutrino data), updating all relevant solar (SK II+III), atmospheric (SK I+II+III) and reactor (KamLAND) data. Furthermore, we include a recent re-calculation of the anti-neutrino fluxes emitted from nuclear reactors. These results have important consequences for the analysis of reactor experiments and in particular for the status of the mixing angle $θ_{13}$. In our re…
We propose to search for light $U(1)$ dark photons, $A'$, produced via kinetically mixing with ordinary photons via the Compton-like process, $γe^- \rightarrow A' e^-$, in a nuclear reactor and detected by their interactions with the material in the active volumes of reactor neutrino experiments. We derive 95\% confidence-level upper limits on $ε$, the $A'$-$γ$ mixing parameter, $ε$, for dark-photon masses below 1$\sim$MeV of $ε~< ~1.3\times 10^{-5}$ and $ε~<~2.1\times 10^{-5}$, from NEOS and TEXONO experimental data, respectively. This study demonstrates the applicability of nuclear reactors …
10 years from now medium baseline reactor experiments will attempt to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy from the differences (RL+PV) between the extrema of the Fourier transformed neutrino spectra. Recently Qian et al. have claimed that this goal may be impeded by the strong dependence of the difference parameter RL+PV on the reactor neutrino flux and on slight variations of Delta M^2_32. We demonstrate that this effect results from a spurious dependence of the difference parameter on the very high energy (8+ MeV) tail of the reactor neutrino spectrum. This dependence is spurious because t…
10 years from now reactor neutrino experiments will attempt to determine which neutrino mass eigenstate is the most massive. In this letter we present the results of more than seven million detailed simulations of such experiments, studying the dependence of the probability of successfully determining the mass hierarchy upon the analysis method, the neutrino mass matrix parameters, reactor flux models, geoneutrinos and, in particular, combinations of baselines. We show that a recently reported spurious dependence of the data analysis upon the high energy tail of the reactor spectrum can be rem…
We discuss the physics potential of intermediate $L \sim 20 ÷30$ km baseline experiments at reactor facilities, assuming that the solar neutrino oscillation parameters $Δm^2_{\odot}$ and $θ_{\odot}$ lie in the high-LMA solution region. We show that such an intermediate baseline reactor experiment can determine both $Δm^2_{\odot}$ and $θ_{\odot}$ with a remarkably high precision. We perform also a detailed study of the sensitivity of the indicated experiment to $Δm^2_{\rm atm}$, which drives the dominant atmospheric $ν_μ$ ($\barν_μ$) oscillations, and to $θ$ - the neutrino mixing angle limited …
Exploring the electromagnetic properties of neutrinos at a short-baseline reactor neutrino experiment
Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；School of Physics, Nanjing University（南京大学物理学院）；Kaiping Neutrino Research Center（开平中微子研究中心）；Joint Institute for Nuclear Research（俄罗斯联合核研究所）；Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院核物理研究所）
We present results from global fits to the available reactor antineutrino dataset, as of Fall 2019, to determine the global preference for a fourth, sterile neutrino. We have separately considered experiments that measure the integrated inverse-beta decay (IBD) rate from those that measure the energy spectrum of IBD events at one or more locations. The software used is the newly developed GLoBESfit tool set which is based on the publicly available GLoBES framework and will be released as open-source software.
DANSSino is a simplified pilot version of a solid-state detector of reactor antineutrino (it is being created within the DANSS project and will be installed close to an industrial nuclear power reactor). Numerous tests performed under a 3 GW(th) reactor of the Kalinin NPP at a distance of 11 m from the core demonstrate operability of the chosen design and reveal the main sources of the background. In spite of its small size (20x20x100 ccm), the pilot detector turned out to be quite sensitive to reactor neutrinos, detecting about 70 IBD events per day with the signal-to-background ratio about u…
We explore how well reactor antineutrino experiments can constrain or measure the loss of quantum coherence in neutrino oscillations. We assume that decoherence effects are encoded in the size of the neutrino wave-packet, $σ$. We find that the current experiments Daya Bay and the Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillation (RENO) already constrain $σ>1.0\times 10^{-4}$ nm and estimate that future data from the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) would be sensitive to $σ<2.1\times 10^{-3}$ nm. If the effects of loss of coherence are within the sensitivity of JUNO, we expect $σ$ to …
We discuss reactor antineutrino oscillations with non-standard interactions (NSIs) at the neutrino production and detection processes. The neutrino oscillation probability is calculated with a parametrization of the NSI parameters by splitting them into the averages and differences of the production and detection processes respectively. The average parts induce constant shifts of the neutrino mixing angles from their true values, and the difference parts can generate the energy (and baseline) dependent corrections to the initial mass-squared differences. We stress that only the shifts of mass-…
