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The PROSPECT physics program

Journal Article · · Journal of Physics. G, Nuclear and Particle Physics
The precision reactor oscillation and spectrum experiment, PROSPECT, is designed to make a precise measurement of the antineutrino spectrum from a highly-enriched uranium reactor and probe eV-scale sterile neutrinos by searching for neutrino oscillations over a distance of several meters. The subject of this paper, PROSPECT, is conceived as a 2-phase experiment utilizing segmented 6Li-doped liquid scintillator detectors for both efficient detection of reactor antineutrinos through the inverse beta decay reaction and excellent background discrimination. PROSPECT Phase I consists of a movable 3 ton antineutrino detector at distances of 7–12 m from the reactor core. It will probe the best-fit point of the νe disappearance experiments at 4σ in 1 year and the favored region of the sterile neutrino parameter space at > 3σ in 3 years. With a second antineutrino detector at 15–19 m from the reactor, Phase II of PROSPECT can probe the entire allowed parameter space below 10 eV2 at 5σ in 3 additional years. Finally, the measurement of the reactor antineutrino spectrum and the search for short-baseline oscillations with PROSPECT will test the origin of the spectral deviations observed in recent θ13 experiments, search for sterile neutrinos, and conclusively address the hypothesis of sterile neutrinos as an explanation of the reactor anomaly.
Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)
Contributing Organization:
The PROSPECT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1341647
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1341950
OSTI ID: 22871383
Report Number(s):
BNL--113366-2016-JA; LLNL-JRNL--680497; KA2201020
Journal Information:
Journal of Physics. G, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Physics. G, Nuclear and Particle Physics Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 43; ISSN 0954-3899
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (22)

Updated global 3+1 analysis of short-baseline neutrino oscillations journal June 2017
Reactor fuel fraction information on the antineutrino anomaly journal October 2017
Employing antineutrino detectors to safeguard future nuclear reactors from diversions journal August 2019
Physics with reactor neutrinos journal February 2019
Short-baseline electron antineutrino disappearance study by using neutrino sources from 13 C + 9 Be reaction journal April 2017
Performance of a full scale prototype detector at the BR2 reactor for the SoLid experiment journal May 2018
Performance of a segmented 6 Li-loaded liquid scintillator detector for the PROSPECT experiment journal June 2018
Determining Reactor Fuel Type from Continuous Antineutrino Monitoring journal September 2017
Revealing fine structure in the antineutrino spectra from a nuclear reactor journal July 2018
Improved determination of the U 235 and Pu 239 reactor antineutrino cross sections per fission journal August 2017
Prospects for improved understanding of isotopic reactor antineutrino fluxes journal January 2018
Impact of fission neutron energies on reactor antineutrino spectra journal April 2018
Evolution of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay journal June 2017
First Search for Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations at HFIR with PROSPECT journal December 2018
Colloquium : Neutrino detectors as tools for nuclear security journal March 2020
First Search for Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations at HFIR with PROSPECT text January 2018
Determining reactor fuel type from continuous antineutrino monitoring text January 2016
Evolution of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay text January 2017
Physics with Reactor Neutrinos text January 2018
Performance of a full scale prototype detector at the BR2 reactor for the SoLid experiment text January 2018
Impact of Fission Neutron Energies on Reactor Antineutrino Spectra text January 2018
First search for short-baseline neutrino oscillations at HFIR with PROSPECT text January 2018

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