  The Taishan Antineutrino Observatory (TAO, also known as JUNO-TAO) is a
satellite experiment of the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO). A
ton-level liquid scintillator detector will be placed at about 30 m from a core
of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. The reactor antineutrino spectrum will be
measured with sub-percent energy resolution, to provide a reference spectrum
for future reactor neutrino experiments, and to provide a benchmark measurement
to test nuclear databases. A spherical acrylic vessel containing 2.8 ton
gadolinium-doped liquid scintillator will be viewed by 10 m^2 Silicon
Photomultipliers (SiPMs) of >50% photon detection efficiency with almost full
coverage. The photoelectron yield is about 4500 per MeV, an order higher than
any existing large-scale liquid scintillator detectors. The detector operates
at -50 degree C to lower the dark noise of SiPMs to an acceptable level. The
detector will measure about 2000 reactor antineutrinos per day, and is designed
to be well shielded from cosmogenic backgrounds and ambient radioactivities to
have about 10% background-to-signal ratio. The experiment is expected to start
operation in 2022.
