Mass hierarchy resolution in reactor anti-neutrino experiments: Parameter degeneracies and detector energy response

Determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy using a reactor neutrino experiment at similar to 60 km is analyzed. Such a measurement is challenging due to the finite detector resolution, the absolute energy scale calibration, and the degeneracies caused by current experimental uncertainty of vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar. The standard chi(2) method is compared with a proposed Fourier transformation method. In addition, we show that for such a measurement to succeed, one must understand the nonlinearity of the detector energy scale at the level of a few tenths of percent. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.87.033005