Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment

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The experiment studied neutrino oscillations and was designed to measure the mixing angle θ₁₃ using antineutrinos produced by the reactors of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and the Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant. Scientists were also interested in whether neutrinos violate Charge-Parity conservation.

On 8 March 2012, the Daya Bay collaboration announced^[3][4][5] a 5.2σ discovery of θ₁₃ ≠ 0, with

${\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(2\ \theta _{13})=0.092\pm 0.016\,\mathrm {(stat)} \pm 0.005\,\mathrm {(syst)} .}$

This significant result represents a new type of oscillation and is surprisingly large.^[6] It is consistent with earlier, less significant results by T2K, MINOS and Double Chooz. With θ₁₃ so large, NOνA has about a 50% probability of being sensitive to the neutrino mass hierarchy. Experiments may also be able to probe CP violation among neutrinos.

The collaboration produced an updated analysis of their results in 2014,^[7] which used the energy spectrum to improve the bounds on the mixing angle:

${\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(2\ \theta _{13})=0.090_{-0.009}^{+0.008}}$

An independent measurement was also published using events from neutrons captured on hydrogen:^[8]

${\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(2\ \theta _{13})=0.083\pm 0.018}$.

Daya Bay has used its data to search for signals of a light sterile neutrino, resulting in exclusions of some previous unexplored mass regions.^[9]

At the Moriond 2015 physics conference a new best fit for mixing angle and mass difference was presented:^[10]

${\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(2\ \theta _{13})=0.084\pm 0.005,\qquad |\Delta m_{ee}^{2}|=2.44_{-0.11}^{+0.10}\times 10^{-3}{\rm {eV}}^{2}}$

On 21 April 2023 (published), Daya Bay's reports the following precision measurements:

${\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(2\ \theta _{13})=0.0851\pm 0.0024,\qquad \Delta m_{32}^{2}=(2.466\pm 0.060)\times 10^{-3}{\rm {eV}}^{2}}$ for the normal mass ordering or ${\displaystyle \Delta m_{32}^{2}=-(2.571\pm 0.060)\times 10^{-3}{\rm {eV}}^{2}}$, for the inverted mass ordering.^[11] The Daya Bay collaboration suggests, "The reported ${\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(2\ \theta _{13})}$ will likely remain the most precise measurement of ${\displaystyle \theta _{13}}$ in the foreseeable future and be crucial to the investigation of the mass hierarchy and CP violation in neutrino oscillation."

Daya Bay Collaboration measured the anti-neutrino energy spectrum, and found that anti-neutrinos at an energy of around 5 MeV are in excess relative to theoretical expectations. This unexpected disagreement between observation and predictions suggested that the Standard Model of particle physics needs improvement.^[12]

• Neutrino
• Sterile neutrino
• Weak interaction

• "Daya Bay home page".
• "Catching neutrinos in China". Symmetry Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
• "Daya Bay θ₁₃ reactor neutrino experiment & Aberdeen cosmic ray muon-induced neutron experiment". Department of Physics. The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 2007-05-10. Retrieved 2007-04-27.