The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a multi-purpose neutrino experiment under construction in South China. This paper presents an updated estimate of JUNO’s sensitivity to neutrino mass ordering using the reactor antineutrinos emitted from eight nuclear reactor cores in the Taishan and Yangjiang nuclear power plants. This measurement is planned by studying the fine interference pattern caused by quasi-vacuum oscillations in the oscillated antineutrino spectrum at a baseline of 52.5 km and is completely independent of the CP violating phase and neutrino mixing angle θ $_{23}$. The sensitivity is obtained through a joint analysis of JUNO and Taishan Antineutrino Observatory (TAO) detectors utilizing the best available knowledge to date about the location and overburden of the JUNO experimental site, local and global nuclear reactors, JUNO and TAO detector responses, expected event rates and spectra of signals and backgrounds, and systematic uncertainties of analysis inputs. We find that a 3σ median sensitivity to reject the wrong mass ordering hypothesis can be reached with an exposure of about 6.5 years × 26.6 GW thermal power.

Chile

Angel Abusleme

France

Thomas Adam

Pakistan

Shakeel Ahmad

Rizwan Ahmed

Italy

Sebastiano Aiello

Muhammad Akram

Abid Aleem

China

Fengpeng An

Qi An

Giuseppe Andronico

JINR

Nikolay Anfimov

Vito Antonelli

Tatiana Antoshkina

Thailand

Burin Asavapibhop

João Pedro Athayde Marcondes de André

Didier Auguste

Weidong Bai

Nikita Balashov

Wander Baldini

Andrea Barresi

Davide Basilico

Eric Baussan

Marco Bellato

Marco Beretta

Antonio Bergnoli

Germany

Daniel Bick

Lukas Bieger

Svetlana Biktemerova

Thilo Birkenfeld

Iwan Morton-Blake

David Blum

Simon Blyth

Anastasia Bolshakova

Mathieu Bongrand

Taiwan

Clément Bordereau

Dominique Breton

Augusto Brigatti

Riccardo Brugnera

Riccardo Bruno

Antonio Budano

Jose Busto

Anatael Cabrera

Barbara Caccianiga

Hao Cai

Xiao Cai

Yanke Cai

Zhiyan Cai

Stéphane Callier

Antonio Cammi

Agustin Campeny

Chuanya Cao

Guofu Cao

Jun Cao

Rossella Caruso

Cédric Cerna

Vanessa Cerrone

Chi Chan

Jinfan Chang

Yun Chang

Auttakit Chatrabhuti

Chao Chen

Guoming Chen

Pingping Chen

Shaomin Chen

Yixue Chen

Yu Chen

Zhangming Chen

Zhiyuan Chen

Zikang Chen

Jie Cheng

Yaping Cheng

Yu Chin Cheng

Russia

Alexander Chepurnov

Alexey Chetverikov

Davide Chiesa

Brazil

Pietro Chimenti

Yen-Ting Chin

Ziliang Chu

Artem Chukanov

Gérard Claverie

Catia Clementi

Belgium

Barbara Clerbaux

Marta Colomer Molla

Selma Conforti DiLorenzo

Alberto Coppi

Daniele Corti

Simon Csakli

Flavio Dal Corso

United States

Olivia Dalager

Jaydeep Datta

Christophe De La Taille

Zhi Deng

Ziyan Deng

Xiaoyu Ding

Xuefeng Ding

Yayun Ding

Bayu Dirgantara

Carsten Dittrich

Sergey Dmitrievsky

Czechia

Tadeas Dohnal

Potential to identify neutrino mass ordering with reactor antineutrinos at JUNO  

Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are widely used in particle experiments for photon detection. PMT waveform analysis is crucial for high-precision measurements of the position and energy of incident particles in liquid scintillator (LS) detectors. A key factor contributing to the energy resolution in large liquid scintillator detectors with PMTs is the charge smearing of PMTs. This paper presents a machine-learning-based photon counting method for PMT waveforms and its application to the energy reconstruction, using the JUNO experiment as an example. The results indicate that leveraging the photon counting information from the machine learning model can partially mitigate the impact of PMT charge smearing and lead to a relative 2.0–2.8% improvement on the energy resolution in the energy range of [1, 9] MeV.

Wei Jiang

Guihong Huang

Zhen Liu

Wuming Luo

Liangjian Wen

Jianyi Luo

Machine-learning based photon counting for PMT waveforms and its application to the improvement of the energy resolution in large liquid scintillator detectors

We explore the decay of bound neutrons in the JUNO liquid scintillator detector into invisible particles (e.g., $$n\rightarrow 3 \nu $$ or $$nn \rightarrow 2 \nu $$ ), which do not produce an observable signal. The invisible decay includes two decay modes: $$ n \rightarrow { inv} $$ and $$ nn \rightarrow { inv} $$ . The invisible decays of -shell neutrons in $$^{12}\textrm{C}$$ will leave a highly excited residual nucleus. Subsequently, some de-excitation modes of the excited residual nuclei can produce a time- and space-correlated triple coincidence signal in the JUNO detector. Based on a full Monte Carlo simulation informed with the latest available data, we estimate all backgrounds, including inverse beta decay events of the reactor antineutrino $${\bar{\nu }}_e$$ , natural radioactivity, cosmogenic isotopes and neutral current interactions of atmospheric neutrinos. Pulse shape discrimination and multivariate analysis techniques are employed to further suppress backgrounds. With two years of exposure, JUNO is expected to give an order of magnitude improvement compared to the current best limits. After 10 years of data taking, the JUNO expected sensitivities at a 90% confidence level are $$\tau /B( n \rightarrow { inv} ) > 5.0 \times 10^{31} \, \textrm{years}$$ and $$\tau /B( nn \rightarrow { inv} ) > 1.4 \times 10^{32} \, \textrm{years}$$ .

Kai Adamowicz

João André

Iwan Blake

Steven Calvez

Xin Chen

Yiming Chen

Zelin Chen

Yu Cheng

Po-Lin Chou

Marta Molla

Selma Lorenzo

Chenyang Cui

Flavio Corso

Christophe Taille

JUNO sensitivity to invisible decay modes of neutrons

This paper presents an energy resolution study of the JUNO experiment, incorporating the latest knowledge acquired during the detector construction phase. The determination of neutrino mass ordering in JUNO requires an exceptional energy resolution better than 3% at 1 MeV. To achieve this ambitious goal, significant efforts have been undertaken in the design and production of the key components of the JUNO detector. Various factors affecting the detection of inverse beta decay signals have an impact on the energy resolution, extending beyond the statistical fluctuations of the detected number of photons, such as the properties of the liquid scintillator, performance of photomultiplier tubes, and the energy reconstruction algorithm. To account for these effects, a full JUNO simulation and reconstruction approach is employed. This enables the modeling of all relevant effects and the evaluation of associated inputs to accurately estimate the energy resolution. The results of this study reveal an energy resolution of 2.95% at 1 MeV. Furthermore, this study assesses the contribution of major effects to the overall energy resolution budget. This analysis serves as a reference for interpreting future measurements of energy resolution during JUNO data collection. Moreover, it provides a guideline for comprehending the energy resolution characteristics of liquid scintillator-based detectors.

YuChin Cheng

Selma Conforti Di Lorenzo

Prediction of energy resolution in the JUNO experiment  

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large liquid scintillator detector designed to explore many topics in fundamental physics. In this study, the potential of searching for proton decay in the   $ p\to \bar{\nu} K^+ $   mode with JUNO is investigated. The kaon and its decay particles feature a clear three-fold coincidence signature that results in a high efficiency for identification. Moreover, the excellent energy resolution of JUNO permits suppression of the sizable background caused by other delayed signals. Based on these advantages, the detection efficiency for the proton decay via   $ p\to \bar{\nu} K^+ $   is 36.9% ± 4.9% with a background level of   $ p\to \bar{\nu} K^+ $     $ p\to \bar{\nu} K^+ $   events after 10 years of data collection. The estimated sensitivity based on 200 kton-years of exposure is   $ p\to \bar{\nu} K^+ $   years, which is competitive with the current best limits on the proton lifetime in this channel and complements the use of different detection technologies.

Sylvie Blin

Mario Buscemi

Ilya Butorov

Riccardo Callegari

Po-An Chen

Xurong Chen

Yi-Wen Chen

Zhang Chen

Wilfried Depnering

Marco Diaz

Dmitry Dolzhikov

Georgy Donchenko

Jianmeng Dong

Evgeny Doroshkevich

Marcos Dracos

Frédéric Druillole

Ran Du

Shuxian Du

Stefano Dusini

Martin Dvorak

Finland

Timo Enqvist

Heike Enzmann

Andrea Fabbri

Ulrike Fahrendholz

Donghua Fan

Lei Fan

JUNO sensitivity on proton decay →   Searches  

Main goal of the JUNO experiment is to determine the neutrino mass ordering using a 20 kt liquid-scintillator detector. Its key feature is an excellent energy resolution of at least 3% at 1 MeV, for which its instruments need to meet a certain quality and thus have to be fully characterized. More than 20,000 20-inch PMTs have been received and assessed by JUNO after a detailed testing program which began in 2017 and elapsed for about four years. Based on this mass characterization and a set of specific requirements, a good quality of all accepted PMTs could be ascertained. This paper presents the performed testing procedure with the designed testing systems as well as the statistical characteristics of all 20-inch PMTs intended to be used in the JUNO experiment, covering more than fifteen performance parameters including the photocathode uniformity. This constitutes the largest sample of 20-inch PMTs ever produced and studied in detail to date, i.e. 15,000 of the newly developed 20-inch MCP-PMTs from Northern Night Vision Technology Co. (NNVT) and 5000 of dynode PMTs from Hamamatsu Photonics K. K.(HPK).

Tsagkarakis Alexandros

Mass testing and characterization of 20-inch PMTs for JUNO

JUNO is a multi-purpose neutrino observatory under construction in the south of China. This publication presents new sensitivity estimates for the measurement of the   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $  ,   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $  ,   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $  , and   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $   oscillation parameters using reactor antineutrinos, which is one of the primary physics goals of the experiment. The sensitivities are obtained using the best knowledge available to date on the location and overburden of the experimental site, the nuclear reactors in the surrounding area and beyond, the detector response uncertainties, and the reactor antineutrino spectral shape constraints expected from the TAO satellite detector. It is found that the   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $   and   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $   oscillation parameters will be determined to 0.5% precision or better in six years of data collection. In the same period, the   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $   parameter will be determined to about   $ \Delta m^2_{31} $  % precision for each mass ordering hypothesis. The new precision represents approximately an order of magnitude improvement over existing constraints for these three parameters.

Sub-percent precision measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters with JUNO  

We study damping signatures at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation experiment. These damping signatures are motivated by various new physics models, including quantum decoherence, ν 3 decay, neutrino absorption, and wave packet decoherence. The phenomenological effects of these models can be characterized by exponential damping factors at the probability level. We assess how well JUNO can constrain these damping parameters and how to disentangle these different damping signatures at JUNO. Compared to current experimental limits, JUNO can significantly improve the limits on τ 3/m 3 in the ν 3 decay model, the width of the neutrino wave packet σ  x , and the intrinsic relative dispersion of neutrino momentum σ rel.

Jun Wang

Jiajun Liao

Wei Wang

João Athayde Marcondes de André

Slovakia

Andrej Babic

Jiawei Deng

Damping signatures at JUNO, a medium-baseline reactor neutrino oscillation experiment

JUNO is a massive liquid scintillator detector with a primary scientific goal of determining the neutrino mass ordering by studying the oscillated anti-neutrino flux coming from two nuclear power plants at 53 km distance. The expected signal anti-neutrino interaction rate is only 60 counts per day (cpd), therefore a careful control of the background sources due to radioactivity is critical. In particular, natural radioactivity present in all materials and in the environment represents a serious issue that could impair the sensitivity of the experiment if appropriate countermeasures were not foreseen. In this paper we discuss the background reduction strategies undertaken by the JUNO collaboration to reduce at minimum the impact of natural radioactivity. We describe our efforts for an optimized experimental design, a careful material screening and accurate detector production handling, and a constant control of the expected results through a meticulous Monte Carlo simulation program. We show that all these actions should allow us to keep the background count rate safely below the target value of 10 Hz (i.e. ∼1 cpd accidental background) in the default fiducial volume, above an energy threshold of 0.7 MeV.

Oliviero Cremonesi

Lukas Fajt

Jian Fang

Radioactivity control strategy for the JUNO detector

The OSIRIS detector is a subsystem of the liquid scintillator filling chain of the JUNO reactor neutrino experiment. Its purpose is to validate the radiopurity of the scintillator to assure that all components of the JUNO scintillator system work to specifications and only neutrino-grade scintillator is filled into the JUNO Central Detector. The aspired sensitivity level of  $$10^{-16}\hbox { g/g}$$  <math> <mrow> <msup> <mn>10</mn> <mrow> <mo>-</mo> <mn>16</mn> </mrow> </msup> <mspace width="0.333333em"></mspace> <mtext>g/g</mtext> </mrow> </math>   of  $$^{238}\hbox {U}$$  <math> <mrow> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mn>238</mn> </msup> <mtext>U</mtext> </mrow> </math>   and  $$^{232}\hbox {Th}$$  <math> <mrow> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mn>232</mn> </msup> <mtext>Th</mtext> </mrow> </math>   requires a large ( $$\sim 20\,\hbox {m}^3$$  <math> <mrow> <mo>∼</mo> <mn>20</mn> <mspace width="0.166667em"></mspace> <msup> <mtext>m</mtext> <mn>3</mn> </msup> </mrow> </math>  ) detection volume and ultralow background levels. The present paper reports on the design and major components of the OSIRIS detector, the detector simulation as well as the measuring strategies foreseen and the sensitivity levels to U/Th that can be reached in this setup.

Guangpeng An

Salvatore Costa

The design and sensitivity of JUNO’s scintillator radiopurity pre-detector OSIRIS