Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor

Sonzogni, Alejandro A.; Nino, M.; McCutchan, E. A.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.98.014323

Title: Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor

Journal Article · 20 July 2018 · Physical Review C

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.98.014323 · OSTI ID:1460712

Sonzogni, Alejandro A. ^[1]; Nino, M. ^[2]; McCutchan, E. A. ^[1]

Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Hofstra Univ., Hempstead, NY (United States)

Here, we calculate the Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) antineutrino spectrum generated by nuclear reactors using the summation method to understand deviations from the smooth Huber-Mueller model due to the decay of individual fission products, showing that plotting the ratio of two adjacent spectra points can effectively reveal these deviations. We obtain that for binning energies of 0.1 MeV or lower, abrupt changes in the spectra due to the jagged nature of the individual antineutrino spectra could be observed for highly precise experiments. Surprisingly, our calculations also reveal a peak-like feature in the adjacent points ratio plot at 4.5 MeV even with a 0.25 MeV binning interval, which we find is present in the IBD spectrum published by Daya Bay in 2016. We show that this 4.5 MeV feature is caused by the contributions of just four fission products, ⁹⁵Y, ^98,101Nb and ¹⁰²T_c. This would be the first evidence of the decay of a few fission products in the IBD antineutrino spectrum from a nuclear reactor. This result is supported by applying the same numerical technique to measured aggregate electron spectra.

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP) (SC-26)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1460712

Report Number(s):: BNL--207832-2018-JAAM

Journal Information:: Physical Review C, Journal Name: Physical Review C Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 98; ISSN 2469-9985

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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