We study the impact of unitarity violation on the sensitivity of the leptonic CP phase, $\textit{δ}$ , considering the next generation of long-baseline neutrino experiments, Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE. By simulating near and far detectors and assuming different scenarios for non-unitarity, we verify how it can affect the sensitivity to measure the $\textit{δ}$ violating phase. We also probe the capability of these experiments to constrain the non-unitarity parameters and how their capability could be improved if the impact of non-unitarity at both near and the far detectors were properly taken into account. We find that the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment is robust in the presence of non-unitarity mixing, achieving a sensitivity above 5$\textit{σ}$ for our all considered cases. On the other hand, DUNE suffers somewhat more impact due to unitarity violation, reaching a sensitivity below 5$\textit{σ}$ for some values of $\textit{δ}$ . However, depending on the scenario adopted for non-unitarity, DUNE demonstrates robustness in the sensitivity to $\textit{δ}$ phase.

Brazil

Ana Trzeciak

Hiroshi Nunokawa

Alexander Quiroga

Impact of unitarity violation on sensitivity of the leptonic CP phase at Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE

Large-scale organic liquid scintillator detectors are highly efficient in the detection of MeV-scale electron antineutrinos. These signal events can be detected through inverse beta decay on protons, which produce a positron accompanied by a neutron. A noteworthy background for antineutrinos coming from nuclear power reactors and from the depths of the Earth (geoneutrinos) is generated by ( $$\alpha ,\,n$$ ) reactions. In organic liquid scintillator detectors, $$\alpha $$ particles emitted from intrinsic contaminants such as $$^{238}$$ U, $$^{232}$$ Th, and $$^{210}$$ Pb/ $$^{210}$$ Po, can be captured on $$^{13}$$ C nuclei, followed by the emission of a MeV-scale neutron. Three distinct interaction mechanisms can produce prompt energy depositions preceding the delayed neutron capture, leading to a pair of events correlated in space and time within the detector. Thus, ( $$\alpha ,\,n$$ ) reactions represent an indistinguishable background in liquid scintillator-based antineutrino detectors, where their expected rate and energy spectrum are typically evaluated via Monte Carlo simulations. This work presents results from the open-source SaG4n software, used to calculate the expected energy depositions from the neutron and any associated de-excitation products. Also simulated is a detailed detector response to these interactions, using a dedicated Geant4-based simulation software from the JUNO experiment. An expected measurable $$^{13}$$ C $$(\alpha ,\,n)^{16}$$ O event rate and reconstructed prompt energy spectrum with associated uncertainties, are presented in the context of JUNO, however, the methods and results are applicable and relevant to other organic liquid scintillator neutrino detectors.

France

Thomas Adam

Germany

Kai Adamowicz

Pakistan

Shakeel Ahmad

Rizwan Ahmed

Italy

Sebastiano Aiello

China

Fengpeng An

United Kingdom

Costas Andreopoulos

Giuseppe Andronico

Russia

Nikolay Anfimov

Vito Antonelli

Tatiana Antoshkina

João Athayde Marcondes de André

Didier Auguste

Weidong Bai

Nikita Balashov

Andrea Barresi

Davide Basilico

Eric Baussan

Marco Beretta

Antonio Bergnoli

Nikita Bessonov

Daniel Bick

Lukas Bieger

Svetlana Biktemerova

Thilo Birkenfeld

Simon Blyth

Anastasia Bolshakova

Mathieu Bongrand

Matteo Borghesi

Dominique Breton

Augusto Brigatti

Riccardo Brugnera

Riccardo Bruno

Marcel Büchner

Antonio Budano

Jose Busto

Anatael Cabrera

Barbara Caccianiga

Hao Cai

Xiao Cai

Yanke Cai

Zhiyan Cai

Stéphane Callier

Steven Calvez

United Arab Emirates

Antonio Cammi

Chuanya Cao

Guofu Cao

Jun Cao

Yaoqi Cao

Rossella Caruso

Cédric Cerna

Vanessa Cerrone

Jinfan Chang

Taiwan

Yun Chang

Thailand

Auttakit Chatrabhuti

Chao Chen

Guoming Chen

Jiahui Chen

Jian Chen

Jing Chen

Junyou Chen

Pingping Chen

Shaomin Chen

Shiqiang Chen

Xin Chen

Yiming Chen

Yixue Chen

Yu Chen

Ze Chen

Zhangming Chen

Zhiyuan Chen

Jie Cheng

Yaping Cheng

Yu Cheng

Alexander Chepurnov

Alexey Chetverikov

Davide Chiesa

Pietro Chimenti

Po-Lin Chou

Ziliang Chu

Artem Chukanov

Gérard Claverie

Catia Clementi

Belgium

Barbara Clerbaux

Claudio Coletta

Selma Conforti Di Lorenzo

Simon Csakli

Chenyang Cui

United States

Olivia Dalager

Christophe Taille

Zhi Deng

Ziyan Deng

Xiaoyu Ding

Xuefeng Ding

Yayun Ding

Bayu Dirgantara

Carsten Dittrich

Sergey Dmitrievsky

David Doerflinger

Dmitry Dolzhikov

Simulation of the background from $$^{13}$$ C $$(\alpha ,\,n)^{16}$$ O reaction in the JUNO scintillator

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

Muhammad Akram

Abid Aleem

Qi An

JINR

Burin Asavapibhop

João Pedro Athayde Marcondes de André

Wander Baldini

Marco Bellato

Iwan Morton-Blake

David Blum

Clément Bordereau

Agustin Campeny

Chi Chan

Zikang Chen

Yu Chin Cheng

Yen-Ting Chin

Marta Colomer Molla

Selma Conforti DiLorenzo

Alberto Coppi

Daniele Corti

Flavio Dal Corso

Jaydeep Datta

Christophe De La Taille

Czechia

Tadeas Dohnal

Potential to identify neutrino mass ordering with reactor antineutrinos at JUNO  

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 $$\tau /B( nn \rightarrow { inv} ) > 1.4 \times 10^{32} \, \textrm{years}$$ .

João André

Iwan Blake

Zelin Chen

Marta Molla

Selma Lorenzo

Flavio Corso

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

Prediction of energy resolution in the JUNO experiment  

Neutrino detectors are among the largest photon detection instruments, built to capture scarce photons upon energy deposition. Many discoveries in neutrino physics, including the neutrino itself, are inseparable from the advances in photon detection technology, particularly in photo-sensors and readout electronics, to yield ever higher precision and richer detection information. The measurement of the energy of neutrinos, referred to as calorimetry, can be achieved in two distinct approaches: photon-counting, where single-photon can be counted digitally, and photon-integration, where multi-photons are aggregated and estimated via analogue signals. The energy is pursued today to reach permille level systematics control precision in ever-vast volumes, exemplified by experiments like JUNO. The unprecedented precision brings to the foreground the systematics due to calorimetric response entanglements in energy, position and time that were negligible in the past, thus driving further innovation in calorimetry. This publication describes a novel articulation that detectors can be endowed with multiple photon detection systems. This multi-calorimetry approach opens the notion of dual-calorimetry detector, consisting of both photon-counting and photon-integration systems, as a cost-effective evolution from the single-calorimetry setups used over several decades for most experiments so far. The dual-calorimetry design exploits unique response synergies between photon-counting and photon-integration systems, including correlations and cancellations in calorimetric responses, to maximise the mitigation of response entanglements, thereby yielding permille-level high-precision calorimetry.

Yang Han

Emmanuel Chauveau

Hanyi Chen

Hervé Kerret

Stefano Dusini

Marco Grassi

Leonard Imbert

Jiajun Li

Roberto Mandujano

Diana Navas-Nicolás

Michel Obolensky

Juan Ochoa-Ricoux

Japan

Guillaume Pronost

Benoit Viaud

Frédéric Yermia

Multi-calorimetry in light-based neutrino detectors

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.