The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a multi-purpose neutrino experiment, will use 20 kt liquid scintillator (LS). To achieve the physics goal of determining the neutrino mass ordering, 3$\%$ energy resolution at 1 MeV is required. This puts strict requirements on the LS light yield and the transparency. Four LS purification steps have been designed and mid-scale plants have been built at Daya Bay. To examine the performance of the purified LS and find the optimized LS composition, the purified LS was injected to the antineutrino detector 1 in the experimental hall 1 (EH1-AD1) of the Daya Bay neutrino experiment. To pump out the original gadolinium loaded LS and fill the new LS, a LS replacement system has been built in EH1 in 2017. By replacing the Gd-LS with purified water, then replacing the water with purified LS, the replacement system successfully achieved the designed goal. Subsequently, the fluorescence and the wavelength shifter were added to higher concentrations via the replacement system. The data taken at various LS compositions helped JUNO determine the final LS cocktail. Details of the design, the construction, and the operation of the replacement system are reported in this paper.
Nonlinearity of the liquid scintillator energy response is a key to measuring the neutrino energy spectrum in reactor neutrino experiments such as Daya Bay and JUNO. We measured in laboratory the nonlinearity of the Linear Alkyl Benzene based liquid scintillator, which is used in Daya Bay and will be used in JUNO, via Compton scattering process. By tagging the scattered gamma from the liquid scintillator sample simultaneously at seven angles, the instability of the system was largely cancelled. The accurately measured nonlinearity will improve the precision of the $θ_{13}$, $Δm^2$, and reactor…
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.
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.
We describe the design and construction of the low rate neutron calibration sources used in the Daya Bay Reactor Anti-neutrino Experiment. Such sources are free of correlated gamma-neutron emission, which is essential in minimizing induced background in the anti-neutrino detector. The design characteristics have been validated in the Daya Bay anti-neutrino detector.
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.
Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment is dedicated to measuring the last unobserved neutrino mixing angle theta_13. The predicted precision on sin^2(2theta_13) is 0.01 at 90% confidence level. This document briefly reviews the measurement method and detector construction status. The first two anti-neutrino detectors' dry run result is also discussed. The Daya Bay near hall data taking is expected to commence in the summer of 2011 and the data taking of all of the three halls in the summer of 2012.
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment is designed to measure the neutrino mixing angle theta13 to world-leading precision. The experiment deploys identical antineutrino detectors at distances of 400-1900m from six reactors in Daya Bay, China. Each detector incorporates two general-purpose monitoring cameras to ensure their safe construction, transportation and operation. The cameras must meet usage goals while satisfying stringent constraints on radioactivity, materials compatibility, interference and reliability. This article describes the system design, integration, operation and performa…
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured a non-zero value of the neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$ with a significance of 7.7 standard deviations by a rate-only a nalysis. The distortion of neutrino energy spectrum carries additional oscillation information and can improve the sensitivity of $θ_{13}$ as well as measure neutrino mass splitting $Δm^{2}$ . A rate plus shape analysis is performed and the results have been released in August at NuFact 2013. Detector energy non-linearity response study is crucial for the rate plus shape analysis. In this contribution, We present A brief de…
The Daya Bay reactor antineutrino experiment has recently measured the neutrino mixing parameter sin22θ13 by observing electron antineutrino disappearance over kilometer-scale baselines using six antineutrino detectors at near and far distances from reactor cores at the Daya Bay nuclear power complex. Liquid scintillator contained in transparent target vessels is used to detect electron antineutrinos via the inverse beta-decay reaction. The Daya Bay experiment will operate for about five years yielding a precision measurement of sin22θ13. We report on long-term studies of poly(methyl methacryl…
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino experiment is designed to precisely determine the neutrino mixing angle theta13. In this paper, we report a maximum likelihood (ML) method to reconstruct the vertex and energy of events in the anti-neutrino detector, based on a simplified optical model that describes light propagation. We calibrate the key paramters of the optical model with Co60 source, by comparing the predicted charges of the PMTs with the observed charges. With the optimized parameters, the resolution of the vertex reconstruction is about 25cm for Co60 gamma.
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment started running on September 23, 2011. The offline computing environment, consisting of 11 servers at Daya Bay, was built to process onsite data. With current computing ability, onsite data processing is running smoothly. The Performance Quality Monitoring system (PQM) has been developed to monitor the detector performance and data quality. Its main feature is the ability to efficiently process multi-data-stream from three experimental halls. The PQM processes raw data files from the Daya Bay data acquisition system, generates and publishes histograms v…
The Daya Bay experiment consists of functionally identical antineutrino detectors immersed in pools of ultrapure water in three well-separated underground experimental halls near two nuclear reactor complexes. These pools serve both as shields against natural, low-energy radiation, and as water Cherenkov detectors that efficiently detect cosmic muons using arrays of photomultiplier tubes. Each pool is covered by a plane of resistive plate chambers as an additional means of detecting muons. Design, construction, operation, and performance of these muon detectors are described.
The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment announced the discovery of a non-zero value of \sin^22θ_{13} with significance better than 5 σin 2012. The experiment is continuing to improve the precision of \sin^22θ_{13} and explore other physics topics. In this talk, I will show the current oscillation and mass-squared difference results which are based on the combined analysis of the measured rates and energy spectra of antineutrino events, an independent measurement of θ_{13} using IBD events where delayed neutrons are captured on hydrogens, and a search for light sterile neutrinos.
This paper describes in detail the acrylic target vessels used to encapsulate the target and gamma catcher regions in the Daya Bay experiment's first pair of antineutrino detectors. We give an overview of the design, fabrication, shipping, and installation of the acrylic target vessels and their liquid overflow tanks. The acrylic quality assurance program and vessel characterization, which measures all geometric, optical, and material properties relevant to νe detection at Daya Bay are summarized. This paper is the technical reference for the Daya Bay acrylic vessels and can provide guidance i…
We present an evaluation of the background induced by $^{241}$Am-$^{13}$C neutron calibration sources in the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment. As a significant background for electron-antineutrino detection at 0.26$\pm$0.12 per detector per day on average, it has been estimated by a Monte Carlo simulation that was benchmarked by a special calibration data set. This dedicated data set also provided the energy spectrum of the background.
The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment observed electron antineutrino disappearance associated with $θ_{13}$ with a significance better than $5σ$ in 2012. The final two of eight antineutrino detectors were installed in the summer of 2012. Including the 404 days of data collected with the full detector configuration resulted in a 3.6 times increase of statistics over the previous result with the 6-AD configuration. With improvements of the systematic uncertainties and better estimation of backgrounds, Daya Bay has measured $\sin^22θ_{13} = 0.084\pm0.005$ and $|Δm^2_{ee}|=2.42^{+0.10}_{-0.11}\…
The Daya Bay neutrino experiment has recently updated the oscillation analysis results with 621 days of data in 2015, which has 3.6 times more statistics than the previous publication in 2014. The relative $\barν_{e}$ rate and spectrum measurement between the near and far detectors yielded the best fit values of $\sin^{2}2θ_{13}$ = 0.084 $\pm$ 0.005 and $|Δm_{ee}^{2}|$ = (2.42 $\pm$ 0.11) $\times$ 10$^{-3}$ eV$^{2}$. This is currently the most precise measurement of $\sin^{2}2θ_{13}$ in the world. The measurement of $|Δm_{ee}^{2}|$ also has a precision that is comparable to the measurements fr…
We report on the production and characterization of liquid scintillators for the detection of electron antineutrinos by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. One hundred eighty-five tons of gadolinium-loaded (0.1% by mass) liquid scintillator (Gd-LS) and two hundred tons of unloaded liquid scintillator (LS) were successfully produced from a linear-alkylbenzene (LAB) solvent in six months. The scintillator properties, the production and purification systems, and the quality assurance and control (QA/QC) procedures are described.
This presentation describes a measurement of the neutrino mixing parameter, sin^2(2theta_13), from the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. Disappearance of electron antineutrinos at a distance of ~2 km from a set of six reactors, where the reactor flux is constrained by near detectors, has been clearly observed. The result, based on the ratio of observed to expected rate of antineutrinos, using 139 days of data taken between December 24, 2011 and May 11, 2012, is sin^2(2theta_13) = 0.089 +/- 0.010(stat.) +/- 0.005(syst.). Improvements in sensitivity from inclusion of additional data, spectra…
In the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment 960 20-cm-diameter waterproof photomultiplier tubes are used to instrument three water pools as Cherenkov detectors for detecting cosmic-ray muons. Of these 960 photomultiplier tubes, 341 are recycled from the MACRO experiment. A systematic program was undertaken to refurbish them as waterproof assemblies. In the context of passing the water leakage check, a success rate better than 97% was achieved. Details of the design, fabrication, testing, operation, and performance of these waterproofed photomultiplier-tube assemblies are presented.
We developed a highly sensitive, reliable and portable automatic system (H$^{3}$) to monitor the radon concentration of the underground experimental halls of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. H$^{3}$ is able to measure radon concentration with a statistical error less than 10\% in a 1-hour measurement of dehumidified air (R.H. 5\% at 25$^{\circ}$C) with radon concentration as low as 50 Bq/m$^{3}$. This is achieved by using a large radon progeny collection chamber, semiconductor $α$-particle detector with high energy resolution, improved electronics and software. The integrated radon mo…
The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment has observed the disappearance of electron antineutrinos from nuclear reactors at $\sim$kilometer baselines. The relative measurement of the $\barν_e$ rate and spectrum between near and far detectors allows for a precision measurement of the oscillation parameters $\sin^22θ_{13}$ and $|Δ{m}^2_{ee}|$. Two new antineutrino detectors (ADs) were installed in summer 2012, bringing the experiment to the final 8-AD configuration. With 621 days of data, Daya Bay has measured $\sin^22θ_{13} = 0.084 \pm 0.005$ and $|Δ{m}^2_{ee}| = 2.44^{+0.10}_{-0.11} \times 10^{…
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured the neutrino mixing angle θ_{13} to world-leading precision. The experiment uses eight antineutrino detectors filled with 20-tons of gadolinium-doped liquid scintillator to detect antineutrinos emitted from the Daya Bay nuclear power plant through the inverse beta decay reaction. The precision measurement of sin^{2}2θ_{13} relies on the relative antineutrino interaction rates between detectors at near (400 m) and far (roughly 1.8 km) distances from the nuclear reactors. The measured interaction rate in each detector is directly proportional…
In this poster, we present the latest measurement of electron antineutrino disappearance using the fully constructed Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. A total exposure of $6.9 \times 10^5$ GW$_{\mathrm{th}}$ ton days was achieved in November 2013 after 617 day of data taking. The most precise estimates to date of the neutrino mass and mixing parameters $|Δ\mathrm{m}^2_{ee}|$ and $\sin^2 2 θ_{13}$ were obtained with an analysis of the relative antineutrino rates and energy spectra between detectors. The value of the two parameters was found to be $\sin^2 2 θ_{13} = 0.084 \pm 0.005$ and $|Δ\…
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured the last unknown neutrino mixing angle, θ13, to be non-zero at the 7.7σ level. This is the most precise measurement to θ13 to date. To further enhance the understanding of the response of the antineutrino detectors (ADs), a detailed calibration of an AD with the Manual Calibration System (MCS) was undertaken during the summer 2012 shutdown. The MCS is capable of placing a radioactive source with a positional accuracy of 25 mm in R direction, 20 mm in Z axis and 0.5° in Φ direction. A detailed description of the MCS is presented followed by …
Muon reconstruction in the Daya Bay water pools would serve to verify the simulated muon fluxes and offer the possibility of studying cosmic muons in general. This reconstruction is, however, complicated by many optical obstacles and the small coverage of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) as compared to other large water Cherenkov detectors. The PMTs' timing information is useful only in the case of direct, unreflected Cherenkov light. This requires PMTs to be added and removed as an hypothesized muon trajectory is iteratively improved, to account for the changing effects of obstacles and direction…
The Daya Bay Antineutrino Detector gas system is designed to protect the liquid scintillator targets of the antineutrino detectors against degradation and contamination from exposure to ambient laboratory air. The gas system is also used to monitor the leak tightness of the antineutrino detector assembly. The cover gas system constantly flushes the gas volumes above the liquid scintillator with dry nitrogen to minimize oxidation of the scintillator over the five year lifetime of the experiment. This constant flush also prevents the infiltration of radon or other contaminants into these detecti…
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) uses 20k tons of liquid scintillator (LS)to detect neutrinos. The content of radioactive substances in the liquid scintillator will affect theexperimental results. JUNO will use counter current water extraction to reduce the radioactive metalions inside the LS. In this article, The factors that affect the final water extraction like the partitioncoefficient and the factors that affect it, the optimal mass transfer droplet size, the flow rate ratio,theoretical stage and different working mode (LS as continuous phase or dispersed phase) have b…
Providing an early warning of galactic supernova explosions from neutrino signals is important in studying supernova dynamics and neutrino physics. A dedicated supernova trigger system has been designed and installed in the data acquisition system at Daya Bay and integrated into the worldwide Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS). Daya Bay's unique feature of eight identically-designed detectors deployed in three separate experimental halls makes the trigger system naturally robust against cosmogenic backgrounds, enabling a prompt analysis of online triggers and a tight control of the false-a…
The antineutrino detectors in the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment are liquid scintillator detectors designed to detect low energy particles from antineutrino interactions with high efficiency and low backgrounds. Since the antineutrino detector will be installed in a water Cherenkov cosmic ray veto detector and will run for 3 to 5 years, ensuring water tightness is critical to the successful operation of the antineutrino detectors. We choose a special method to seal the detector. Three leak checking methods have been employed to ensure the seal quality. This paper will describe the sealin…
Providing an early warning of a galactic supernova using neutrino signals is of importance in studying both supernova dynamics and neutrino physics. The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment, with a unique feature of multiple liquid scintillator detectors separated in space, is sensitive to the full energy spectrum of supernova burst electron-antineutrinos. By deploying 8 Antineutrino Detectors (ADs) in three different experimental halls, we obtain a more powerful and prompt rejection of muon spallation background than single-detector experiments. A dedicated supernova online trigger system emb…
The Daya Bay experiment measures sin^2 2θ_13 using functionally identical antineutrino detectors located at distances of 300 to 2000 meters from the Daya Bay nuclear power complex. Each detector consists of three nested fluid volumes surrounded by photomultiplier tubes. These volumes are coupled to overflow tanks on top of the detector to allow for thermal expansion of the liquid. Antineutrinos are detected through the inverse beta decay reaction on the proton-rich scintillator target. A precise and continuous measurement of the detector's central target mass is achieved by monitoring the the …
The Daya Bay Reactor Antineutrino Experiment reported the first observation of the non-zero neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$ using the first 55 days of data. It has also provided the most precise measurement of $θ_{13}$ with the extended data to 621 days. Daya Bay will keep running for another 3 years or so. There is about 100 TB raw data produced per year, as well as several copies of reconstruction data with similar volume to the raw data for each copy. The raw data is transferred to Daya Bay onsite and two offsite clusters: IHEP in Beijing and LBNL in California, with a short latency. There i…
We describe the automated calibration system for the antineutrino detectors in the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment. This system consists of 24 identical units instrumented on 8 identical 20-ton liquid scintillator detectors. Each unit is a fully automated robotic system capable of deploying an LED and various radioactive sources into the detector along given vertical axes. Selected results from performance studies of the calibration system are reported.
We describe the design, installation, and operation of a purification system that is able to provide large volumes of high purity ASTM (D1193-91) Type-I water to a high energy physics experiment. The water environment is underground in a lightly sealed system, and this provides significant challenges to maintaining high purity in the storage pools, each of which contains several thousand cubic meters. High purity is dictated by the need for large optical absorption length, which is critical for the operation of the experiment. The system is largely successful, and the water clarity criteria ar…
The Daya Bay reactor experiment has reported the most precise measurement of sin$^{2}2θ_{13}$ and $Δm^{2}_{ee}$ by using a data set with the fully constructed design of 8 antineutrino detectors (ADs). We also report on a new independent measurement of sin$^{2}2θ_{13}$ from neutron capture on hydrogen, which confirms the results using gadolinium caputres. Several other analyses are also performed, including a measurements on the absolute reactor antineutrino flux and a search for light sterile neutrinos. Prospects for new analyses such as searching for CPT/LI violation at Daya Bay are ongoing.
This presentation describes a precision result of the neutrino mixing parameter, $\sin^2 2θ_{13}$, and the first direct measurement of the antineutrino mass-squared difference $\sin^2(Δ_{ee}) \equiv \cos^2 θ_{12} \sin^2 Δ_{31} + \sin^2 θ_{12} \sin^2 Δ_{32}$ from the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. The above results are based on the six detector data-taking from 24 December 2011 to 28 July 2012. By using the observed antineutrino rate and the energy spectrum analysis, the results are $\sin^2 2θ_{13}=0.090^{+0.008}_{-0.009}$ and $| Δm^2_{ee}| = 2.59^{+0.19}_{-0.20} \cdot 10^{-3} $eV$^2$ wi…
The Daya Bay reactor antineutrino experiment is designed to make a precision measurement of the neutrino mixing angle theta13, and recently made the definitive discovery of its nonzero value. It utilizes a set of eight, functionally identical antineutrino detectors to measure the reactor flux and spectrum at baselines of 300 - 2000m from the Daya Bay and Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plants. The Daya Bay antineutrino detectors were built in an above-ground facility and deployed side-by-side at three underground experimental sites near and far from the nuclear reactors. This configuration allows the ex…
With 2.5x the previously reported exposure, the Daya Bay experiment has improved the measurement of the neutrino mixing parameter sin^2(2theta_13) = 0.089+-0.010(stat)+-0.005(syst). Reactor anti-neutrinos were produced by six 2.9 GW(th) commercial power reactors, and measured by six 20-ton target-mass detectors of identical design. A total of 234,217 anti-neutrino candidates were detected in 127 days of exposure. An anti-neutrino rate of 0.944+-0.007(stat)+-0.003(syst) was measured by three detectors at a flux-weighted average distance of 1648 m from the reactors, relative to two detectors at …
To better understand the energy response of the Antineutrino Detector (AD), the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment installed a full Flash ADC readout system on one AD that allowed for simultaneous data taking with the current readout system. This paper presents the design, data acquisition, and simulation of the Flash ADC system, and focuses on the PMT waveform reconstruction algorithms. For liquid scintillator calorimetry, the most critical requirement to waveform reconstruction is linearity. Several common reconstruction methods were tested but the linearity performance was not satisfactor…
The Daya Bay, Double Chooz and RENO experiments recently observed a significant distortion in their detected reactor antineutrino spectra, being at odds with the current predictions. Although such a result suggests to revisit the current reactor antineutrino spectra modeling, an alternative scenario, which could potentially explain this anomaly, is explored in this letter. Using an appropriate statistical method, a study of the Daya Bay experiment energy scale is performed. While still being in agreement with the γ calibration data and Boron 12 measured spectrum, it is shown that a O(1%) devia…
In this article we consider the presence of neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) in the production and detection processes of reactor antineutrinos at the Daya Bay experiment. We report for the first time, the new constraints on the flavor non-universal and flavor universal charged-current NSI parameters, estimated using the currently released 621 days of Daya Bay data. New limits are placed assuming that the new physics effects are just inverse of each other in the production and detection processes. With this special choice of the NSI parameters, we observe a shift in the oscillation amp…
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) antineutrino flux is an important source of uncertainties for a reactor neutrino flux prediction. However, if one want to determine the contribution of spent fuel, many data are needed, such as the amount of spent fuel in the pool, the time after discharged from the reactor core, the burnup of each assembly, and the antineutrino spectrum of the isotopes in the spend fuel. A method to calculate the contribution of SNF is proposed in this study. In this method, reactor simulation code verified by experiment have been used to simulate the fuel depletion by taking into acc…
Neutrons produced by cosmic ray muons are an important background for underground experiments studying neutrino oscillations, neutrinoless double beta decay, dark matter, and other rare-event signals. A measurement of the neutron yield in the three different experimental halls of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment at varying depth is reported. The neutron yield in Daya Bay's liquid scintillator is measured to be $Y_n=(10.26\pm 0.86)\times 10^{-5}$, $(10.22\pm 0.87)\times 10^{-5}$, and $(17.03\pm 1.22)\times 10^{-5}~μ^{-1}~$g$^{-1}~$cm$^2$ at depths of 250, 265, and 860 meters-water-equiv…
A brief overview of the development of neutrino detectors for long-baseline oscillation experiments at accelerators and reactors is presented. Basic principles and main features of detectors of running accelerator experiments T2K and NOvA sensitive to a first level of CP violation and neutrino mass hierarchy, and reactor experiments Daya Bay, RENO and Double Chooz which measured the mixing angle θ_13 are discussed. A variety of different experimental techniques is proposed and developed for the next generation oscillation experiments: a 20 kt scintillator detector for the reactor experiment JU…
A new measurement of the $θ_{13}$ mixing angle has been obtained at the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment via the detection of inverse beta decays tagged by neutron capture on hydrogen. The antineutrino events for hydrogen capture are distinct from those for gadolinium capture with largely different systematic uncertainties, allowing a determination independent of the gadolinium-capture result and an improvement on the precision of $θ_{13}$ measurement. With a 217-day antineutrino data set obtained with six antineutrino detectors and from six 2.9 GW$_{th}$ reactors, the rate deficit observe…
This paper describes the design, construction principles and operations of the distillation and stripping pilot plants tested at the Daya Bay Neutrino Laboratory, with the perspective to adapt this processes, system cleanliness and leak-tightness to the final full scale plants that will be used for the purification of the liquid scintillator used in the JUNO neutrino detector. The main goal of these plants is to remove radio impurities from the liquid scintillator while increasing its optical attenuation length. Purification of liquid scintillator will be performed with a system combining alum…
HSE University（高等经济大学）；Joint Institute for Nuclear Research（联合核研究所）
Large-scale detectors consisting of a liquid scintillator target surrounded by an array of photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) are widely used in the modern neutrino experiments: Borexino, KamLAND, Daya Bay, Double Chooz, RENO, and the upcoming JUNO with its satellite detector TAO. Such apparatuses are able to measure neutrino energy which can be derived from the amount of light and its spatial and temporal distribution over PMT channels. However, achieving a fine energy resolution in large-scale detectors is challenging. In this work, we present machine learning methods for energy reconstruction in…
To maximize the light yield of the liquid scintillator (LS) for the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a 20 t LS sample was produced in a pilot plant at Daya Bay. The optical properties of the new LS in various compositions were studied by replacing the gadolinium-loaded LS in one antineutrino detector. The concentrations of the fluor, PPO, and the wavelength shifter, bis-MSB, were increased in 12 steps from 0.5 g/L and <0.01 mg/L to 4 g/L and 13 mg/L, respectively. The numbers of total detected photoelectrons suggest that, with the optically purified solvent, the bis-MSB concen…
Recently, three successful antineutrino experiments (Daya Bay, Double Chooz, and RENO) measured the neutrino mixing angle theta_{13}; however, significant discrepancies were found, both in the absolute flux and spectral shape. Much effort has been expended investigating the possible reasons for the discrepancies. In this study, Monte Carlo-based sampling was used to evaluate the fission fraction uncertainties. We found that fission cross-section uncertainties are an important source of uncertainty for $^{235}$U, $^{239}$Pu, and $^{241}$Pu, but for $^{238}$U, elastic and inelastic cross-section…
The Daya Bay Experiment consists of eight identically designed detectors located in three underground experimental halls named as EH1, EH2, EH3, with 250, 265 and 860 meters of water equivalent vertical overburden, respectively. Cosmic muon events have been recorded over a two-year period. The underground muon rate is observed to be positively correlated with the effective atmospheric temperature and to follow a seasonal modulation pattern. The correlation coefficient $α$, describing how a variation in the muon rate relates to a variation in the effective atmospheric temperature, is found to b…
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…
This Letter reports the first extraction of individual antineutrino spectra from $^{235}$U and $^{239}$Pu fission and an improved measurement of the prompt energy spectrum of reactor antineutrinos at Daya Bay. The analysis uses $3.5\times 10^6$ inverse beta-decay candidates in four near antineutrino detectors in 1958 days. The individual antineutrino spectra of the two dominant isotopes, $^{235}$U and $^{239}$Pu, are extracted using the evolution of the prompt spectrum as a function of the isotope fission fractions. In the energy window of 4--6~MeV, a 7\% (9\%) excess of events is observed for…
This work reports a precise measurement of the reactor antineutrino flux using 2.2 million inverse beta decay (IBD) events collected with the Daya Bay near detectors in 1230 days. The dominant uncertainty on the neutron detection efficiency is reduced by 56% with respect to the previous measurement through a comprehensive neutron calibration and detailed data and simulation analysis. The new average IBD yield is determined to be $(5.91\pm0.09)\times10^{-43}~\rm{cm}^2/\rm{fission}$ with total uncertainty improved by 29%. The corresponding mean fission fractions from the four main fission isotop…
We report a measurement of electron antineutrino oscillation from the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment with nearly 4 million reactor $\overlineν_{e}$ inverse beta decay candidates observed over 1958 days of data collection. The installation of a Flash-ADC readout system and a special calibration campaign using different source enclosures reduce uncertainties in the absolute energy calibration to less than 0.5% for visible energies larger than 2 MeV. The uncertainty in the cosmogenic $^9$Li and $^8$He background is reduced from 45% to 30% in the near detectors. A detailed investigation of t…
The Daya Bay experiment has observed correlations between reactor core fuel evolution and changes in the reactor antineutrino flux and energy spectrum. Four antineutrino detectors in two experimental halls were used to identify 2.2 million inverse beta decays (IBDs) over 1230 days spanning multiple fuel cycles for each of six 2.9 GW$_{\textrm{th}}$ reactor cores at the Daya Bay and Ling Ao nuclear power plants. Using detector data spanning effective $^{239}$Pu fission fractions, $F_{239}$, from 0.25 to 0.35, Daya Bay measures an average IBD yield, $\barσ_f$, of $(5.90 \pm 0.13) \times 10^{-43}…
Reactor antineutrino experiment are used to study neutrino oscillation, search for signatures of nonstandard neutrino interaction, and monitor reactor operation for safeguard application. Reactor simulation is an important source of uncertainties for a reactor neutrino experiment. Commercial code is used for reactor simulation to evaluate fission fraction in Daya Bay neutrino experiment, but the source code doesn't open to our researcher results from commercial secret. In this study, The open source code DRAGON was improved to calculate the fission rates of the four most important isotopes in …
This article reports an improved independent measurement of neutrino mixing angle $θ_{13}$ at the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. Electron antineutrinos were identified by inverse $β$-decays with the emitted neutron captured by hydrogen, yielding a data-set with principally distinct uncertainties from that with neutrons captured by gadolinium. With the final two of eight antineutrino detectors installed, this study used 621 days of data including the previously reported 217-day data set with six detectors. The dominant statistical uncertainty was reduced by 49%. Intensive studies of the …
The Daya Bay experiment was the first to report simultaneous measurements of reactor antineutrinos at multiple baselines leading to the discovery of $\barν_e$ oscillations over km-baselines. Subsequent data has provided the world's most precise measurement of $\rm{sin}^22θ_{13}$ and the effective mass splitting $Δm_{ee}^2$. The experiment is located in Daya Bay, China where the cluster of six nuclear reactors is among the world's most prolific sources of electron antineutrinos. Multiple antineutrino detectors are deployed in three underground water pools at different distances from the reactor…
