Dissecting Reactor Antineutrino Flux Calculations
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Nuclear Data Center
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Current predictions for the antineutrino yield and spectra from a nuclear reactor rely on the experimental electron spectra from 235 U , 239 Pu , 241 Pu and a numerical method to convert these aggregate electron spectra into their corresponding antineutrino ones. In our present work we investigate quantitatively some of the basic assumptions and approximations used in the conversion method, studying first the compatibility between two recent approaches for calculating electron and antineutrino spectra. We then explore different possibilities for the disagreement between the measured Daya Bay and the Huber-Mueller antineutrino spectra, including the 238 U contribution as well as the effective charge and the allowed shape assumption used in the conversion method. Here, we observe that including a shape correction of about + 6 % MeV - 1 in conversion calculations can better describe the Daya Bay spectrum. Because of a lack of experimental data, this correction cannot be ruled out, concluding that in order to confirm the existence of the reactor neutrino anomaly, or even quantify it, precisely measured electron spectra for about 50 relevant fission products are needed. With the advent of new rare ion facilities, the measurement of shape factors for these nuclides, for many of which precise beta intensity data from TAGS experiments already exist, would be highly desirable.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0012704; AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 1389254
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1390660
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-114289-2017-JA; PRLTAO
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 11; ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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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 |
First-forbidden transitions in the reactor anomaly | text | January 2019 |
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