Abstract: Liquid scintillators are a common choice for neutrino physics experiments, but their capabilities to perform background rejection by scintillation pulse shape discrimination is generally limited in large detectors. This paper describes a novel approach for a pulse shape based event classification developed in the context of the Double Chooz reactor antineutrino experiment. Unlike previous implementations, this method uses the Fourier power spectra of the scintillation pulse shapes to obtain event-wise information. A classification variable built from spectral information was able to achieve an unprecedented performance, despite the lack of optimization at the detector design level. Several examples of event classification are provided, ranging from differentiation between the detector volumes and an efficient rejection of instrumental light noise, to some sensitivity to the particle type, such as stopping muons, ortho-positronium formation, alpha particles as well as electrons and positrons. In combination with other techniques the method is expected to allow for a versatile and more efficient background rejection in the future, especially if detector optimization is taken into account at the design level.

Abstract: We present a search for signatures of neutrino mixing of electron anti-neutrinos with additional hypothetical sterile neutrino flavors using the Double Chooz experiment. The search is based on data from 5 years of operation of Double Chooz, including 2 years in the two-detector configuration. The analysis is based on a profile likelihood, i.e. comparing the data to the model prediction of disappearance in a data-to-data comparison of the two respective detectors. The analysis is optimized for a model of three active and one sterile neutrino. It is sensitive in the typical mass range 5 x 10(-3) eV(2) less than or similar to Delta m(41)(2) less than or similar to 3 x 10(-1) eV(2) for mixing angles downto sin(2) 2 theta(14) greater than or similar to 0.02. No significant disappearance additionally to the conventional disappearance related to theta(13) is observed and correspondingly exclusion bounds on the sterile mixing parameter theta(14) as a function of Delta m(41)(2) are obtained.

Abstract: Neutrinos were assumed to be massless particles until the discovery of the neutrino oscillation process. This phenomenon indicates that the neutrinos have non-zero masses and the mass eigenstates (nu(1), nu(2), nu(3)) are mixtures of their flavour eigenstates (nu(e), nu(mu), nu(tau)). The oscillations between different flavour eigenstates are described by three mixing angles (theta(12), theta(23), theta(13)), two differences of the squared neutrino masses of the nu(2)/nu(1) and nu(3)/nu(1) pairs and a charge conjugation parity symmetry violating phase delta(CP). The Double Chooz experiment, located near the Chooz Electricite de France reactors, measures the oscillation parameter theta(13) using reactor neutrinos. Here, the Double Chooz collaboration reports the measurement of the mixing angle theta(13) with the new total neutron capture detection technique from the full data set, yielding sin(2)(2 theta(13)) = 0.105 +/- 0.014. This measurement exploits the multidetector configuration, the isoflux baseline and data recorded when the reactors were switched off. In addition to the neutrino mixing angle measurement, Double Chooz provides a precise measurement of the reactor neutrino flux, given by the mean cross-section per fission <sigma(f)& rang; = (5.71 +/- 0.06) x 10(-43) cm(2) per fission, and reports an empirical model of the distortion in the reactor neutrino spectrum. The Double Chooz collaboration reports the neutrino oscillation parameter theta(13) from a measurement of the disappearance of reactor anti-electron neutrinos with the total neutron capture technique.