1208.1551 (X. Qian et al.)

Mass Hierarchy Resolution in Reactor Anti-neutrino Experiments:
Parameter Degeneracies and Detector Energy Response    [PDF]

X. Qian, D. A. Dwyer, R. D. McKeown, P. Vogel, W. Wang, C. Zhang

Determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy using a reactor neutrino experiment at $\sim$60 km is analyzed. Such a measurement is challenging due to the finite detector resolution, the absolute energy scale calibration, as well as the degeneracies caused by current experimental uncertainty of $|\Delta m^2_{32}|$. The standard $\chi^2$ method is compared with a proposed Fourier transformation method. In addition, we show that for such a measurement to succeed, one must understand the non-linearity of the detector energy scale at the level of a few tenths of percent.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.1551