Observation of energy and baseline dependent reactor antineutrino disappearance in the RENO experiment

Abstract

The RENO experiment has analyzed about 500 live days of data to observe an energy dependent disappearance of reactor (nu) over bar (e) by comparing their prompt signal spectra measured in two identical near and far detectors. In the period between August of 2011 and January of 2013, the far (near) detector observed 31 541 (290 775) electron antineutrino candidate events with a background fraction of 4.9% (2.8%). The measured prompt spectra show an excess of reactor (nu) over bar (e) around 5 MeV relative to the prediction from a most commonly used model. A clear energy and baseline dependent disappearance of reactor (nu) over bar (e) is observed in the deficit of the observed number of (nu) over bar (e). Based on the measured far-to-near ratio of prompt spectra, we obtain sin(2) 2 theta(13) = 0.082 +/- 0.009(stat) +/- 0.006(syst) and vertical bar Delta m(ee)(2)vertical bar = [2.62(-0.23)(+0.21)(stat)(-0.13)(+0.12)(syst)] x 10(-3) eV(2).