Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillation

RENO (Reactor Experiment for Neutrino Oscillations) is a short baseline reactor neutrino oscillation experiment in South Korea. The experiment was designed to either measure or set a limit on the neutrino mixing matrix parameter θ₁₃, a parameter responsible for oscillations of electron neutrinos into other neutrino flavours. RENO has two identical detectors, placed at distances of 294 m and 1383 m, that observe electron antineutrinos produced by six reactors at the Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant (the old name: the Yeonggwang Nuclear Power Plant) in Korea.

On 3 April 2012, with some corrections on 8 April, the RENO collaboration announced a 4.9σ observation of θ₁₃ ≠ 0, with

$\sin^2 2 \theta_{13} = 0.113 \pm 0.013({\rm stat.}) \pm 0.019({\rm syst.})$^[1][2]

This measurement confirmed a similar result announced by the Daya Bay Experiment three weeks before and is consistent with earlier, but less significant results by T2K, MINOS and Double Chooz.

RENO released updated results^[3] in December 2013:

$\sin^2 2 \theta_{13} = 0.100 \pm 0.010({\rm stat.}) \pm 0.015({\rm syst.})$

References

1. RENO Collaboration (2012-04-03). "Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at RENO". Physical Review Letters 108 (18): 191802. arXiv:1204.0626. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.108s1802A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.191802.
2. RENO Collaboration (2012-04-04). "Announcement of the First Results from RENO: Observation of the Weakest Neutrino Transformation". Interactions NewsWire.
3. Seon-Hee Seo (for the RENO Collaboration). "New Results from RENO". arXiv:1312.4111 [physics.ins-det].