Improved measurements of the neutrino mixing angle θ_13 with the Double Chooz detector

Abstract

The Double Chooz experiment presents improved measurements of the neutrino mixing angle \(\theta_{13}\) using the data collected in 467.90 live days from a detector positioned at an average distance of 1050 m from two reactor cores at the Chooz nuclear power plant. Several novel techniques have been developed to achieve significant reductions of the backgrounds and systematic uncertainties with respect to previous publications, whereas the efficiency of the \(\overline{\upsilon}_e\) signal has increased. The value of \(\theta_{13}\) is measured to be sin² 2 \(\theta_{13}\) = 0.090 − 0.029 + 0.032 from a fit to the observed energy spectrum. Deviations from the reactor \(\overline{\upsilon}_e\) prediction observed above a prompt signal energy of 4 MeV and possible explanations are also reported. A consistent value of \(\theta_{13}\) is obtained from a fit to the observed rate as a function of the reactor power independently of the spectrum shape and background estimation, demonstrating the robustness of the \(\theta_{13}\) measurement despite the observed distortion.