The Palo Verde reactor neutrino experiment A test for long baseline neutrino oscillations

Our collaboration has installed a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona. 12 tons of Gd loaded liquid scintillator, in a segmented detector, are used to search for νe ↔ νx oscillations at 740 m distance to three reactors. The anti-neutrino capture on the proton serves as detection reaction. The experiment is expected reach a sensitivity of Δm2 < 1.3 · 10−3eV2 and sin22θ < 0.1. Our range of sensitivity is tuned to test the νμ ↔ νe solution of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly.