Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor
Abstract
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 102Tc. 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.
- Authors:
-
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Hofstra Univ., Hempstead, NY (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1460712
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1461033
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-207832-2018-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9985; TRN: US1901905
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0012704; AC02-98CH10886
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review C
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 98; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9985
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Citation Formats
Sonzogni, Alejandro A., Nino, M., and McCutchan, E. A. Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.98.014323.
Sonzogni, Alejandro A., Nino, M., & McCutchan, E. A. Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.98.014323
Sonzogni, Alejandro A., Nino, M., and McCutchan, E. A. Fri .
"Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.98.014323. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1460712.
@article{osti_1460712,
title = {Revealing Fine Structure in the Antineutrino Spectra from a Nuclear Reactor},
author = {Sonzogni, Alejandro A. and Nino, M. and McCutchan, E. A.},
abstractNote = {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 102Tc. 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.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevC.98.014323},
journal = {Physical Review C},
number = 1,
volume = 98,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Fri Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
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