Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with KamLAND
This dissertation describes a measurement of the neutrino oscillation parameters m 2 21 , θ 12 and constraints on θ 13 based on a study of reactor antineutrinos at a baseline of ~ 180 km with the KamLAND detector. The data presented here was collected between April 2002 and November 2009, and amounts to a total exposure of 2.64 ± 0.07 × 10 32 proton-years. For this exposure we expect 2140 ± 74(syst) antineutrino candidates from reactors, assuming standard model neutrino behavior, and 350±88(syst) candidates from background. The number observed is 1614. The ratio of background-subtracted candidates observed to expected is (N Obs - N Bkg )/ (N Exp ) = 0.59 ± 0.02(stat) ± 0.045(syst) which confirms reactor neutrino disappearance at greater than 5σ significance. Interpreting this deficit as being due to neutrino oscillation, the best-fit oscillation parameters from a three-flavor analysis are m 2 21 = 7.60 +0.20 -0.19 ×10 -5 eV 2 , θ 12 = 32.5 ± 2.9 degrees and sin 2 θ 13 = 0.025 +0.035 -0.035 , the 95% confidence-level upper limit on sin 2 θ 13 is sin 2 θ 13 < 0.083. Assuming CPT invariance, a combined analysis of KamLAND and solar neutrino data yields best-fit values: m 2 21 = 7.60 +0.20 -0.20 × 10 -5 eV 2 , θ 12 = 33.5 +1.0 -1.1 degrees, and sin 2 θ 13 = 0.013 ± 0.028 or sin 2 θ 13 < 0.06 at the 95% confidence level.