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Title: 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:
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. 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}
}

Journal Article:

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Cited by: 19 works
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: (a) Energy distribution using only the phase space term, (b) energy distribution for electrons including all the correction terms (c) as the middle panel but for antineutrinos.

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Works referenced in this record:

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.