Reactor antineutrino anomaly

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.073006· OSTI ID:21537700

Mention, G; Fechner, M ^[1]; Lasserre, Th; Cribier, M ^[1]; Mueller, Th A; Lhuillier, D; Letourneau, A ^[2]

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1. CEA, Irfu, SPP, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
2. CEA, Irfu, SPhN, Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

Recently, new reactor antineutrino spectra have been provided for {sup 235}U, {sup 239}Pu, {sup 241}Pu, and {sup 238}U, increasing the mean flux by about 3%. To a good approximation, this reevaluation applies to all reactor neutrino experiments. The synthesis of published experiments at reactor-detector distances <100 m leads to a ratio of observed event rate to predicted rate of 0.976{+-}0.024. With our new flux evaluation, this ratio shifts to 0.943{+-}0.023, leading to a deviation from unity at 98.6% C.L. which we call the reactor antineutrino anomaly. The compatibility of our results with the existence of a fourth nonstandard neutrino state driving neutrino oscillations at short distances is discussed. The combined analysis of reactor data, gallium solar neutrino calibration experiments, and MiniBooNE-{nu} data disfavors the no-oscillation hypothesis at 99.8% C.L. The oscillation parameters are such that |{Delta}m{sub new}{sup 2}|>1.5 eV{sup 2} (95%) and sin{sup 2}(2{theta}{sub new})=0.14{+-}0.08 (95%). Constraints on the {theta}{sub 13} neutrino mixing angle are revised.

• OSTI ID: 21537700
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.073006; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANTINEUTRINOS
APPROXIMATIONS
CALIBRATION
COMPATIBILITY
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
PLUTONIUM 239
PLUTONIUM 241
SOLAR NEUTRINOS
SPECTRA
SYNTHESIS
URANIUM 235
URANIUM 238
WEINBERG ANGLE
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CALCULATION METHODS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FERMIONS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEI
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIATIONS
RADIOISOTOPES
SOLAR PARTICLES
SOLAR RADIATION
SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES
STELLAR RADIATION
URANIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES