Measurement of the Electron Antineutrino Oscillation with 1958 Days of Operation at Daya Bay

Abstract

We report a measurement of electron antineutrino oscillation from the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment with nearly 4 million reactor (nu) over bar (e) inverse beta decay candidates observed over 1958 days of data collection. The installation of a flash analog-to-digital converter readout system and a special calibration campaign using different source enclosures reduce uncertainties in the absolute energy calibration to less than 0.5% for visible energies larger than 2 MeV. The uncertainty in the cosmogenic Li-9 and He-8 background is reduced from 45% to 30% in the near detectors. A detailed investigation of the spent nuclear fuel history improves its uncertainty from 100% to 30%. Analysis of the relative (nu) over bar (e) rates and energy spectra among detectors yields sin(2)2 theta(13) = 0.0856 +/- 0.0029 and Delta m(32)(2) = (2.471(-0.070)(+0.068)) x 10(-3) eV(2) assuming the normal hierarchy, and Delta m(32)(2) = -(2.575(-0.070)(+0.068)) x 10(-3) eV(2) assuming the inverted hierarchy.