No Arabic abstract
New fissile isotopes antineutrino spectra ($^{235}$U, $^{238}$U, $^{239}$Pu and $^{241}$Pu) calculation is presented. On base of summation method the toy model was developed. It was shown that total antineutrino number is conserved in framework of given database on individual fragments yields. The analysis of antineutrino spectrum shape says that any presented antineutrino spectrum should satisfy to the total antineutrino number conservation.
Positron spectrum from inverse beta decay reaction on proton was measured in 1988-1990 as a result of neutrino exploration experiment. The measured spectrum has the largest statistics and lowest energy threshold between other neutrino experiments made that time at nuclear reactors. On base of the positron spectrum the standard antineutrino spectrum for typical reactor fuel composition was restored. In presented analysis the partial spectra forming this standard spectrum were extracted using specific method. They could be used for neutrino experiments data analysis made at any fuel composition of reactor core.
Recently new reactor antineutrino spectra have been provided for 235U, 239Pu, 241Pu and 238U, increasing the mean flux by about 3 percent. To good approximation, this reevaluation applies to all reactor neutrino experiments. The synthesis of published experiments at reactor-detector distances <100 m leads to a ratio of observed event rate to predicted rate of 0.976(0.024). With our new flux evaluation, this ratio shifts to 0.943(0.023), leading to a deviation from unity at 98.6% C.L. which we call the reactor antineutrino anomaly. The compatibility of our results with the existence of a fourth non-standard neutrino state driving neutrino oscillations at short distances is discussed. The combined analysis of reactor data, gallium solar neutrino calibration experiments, and MiniBooNE-neutrino data disfavors the no-oscillation hypothesis at 99.8% C.L. The oscillation parameters are such that |Delta m_{new}^2|>1.5 eV^2 (95%) and sin^2(2theta_{new})=0.14(0.08) (95%). Constraints on the theta13 neutrino mixing angle are revised.
Reactor neutrino experiments have seen major improvements in precision in recent years. With the experimental uncertainties becoming lower than those from theory, carefully considering all sources of $overline{ u}_{e}$ is important when making theoretical predictions. One source of $overline{ u}_{e}$ that is often neglected arises from the irradiation of the nonfuel materials in reactors. The $overline{ u}_{e}$ rates and energies from these sources vary widely based on the reactor type, configuration, and sampling stage during the reactor cycle and have to be carefully considered for each experiment independently. In this article, we present a formalism for selecting the possible $overline{ u}_{e}$ sources arising from the neutron captures on reactor and target materials. We apply this formalism to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the $overline{ u}_{e}$ source for the the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Measurement (PROSPECT) experiment. Overall, we observe that the nonfuel $overline{ u}_{e}$ contributions from HFIR to PROSPECT amount to 1% above the inverse beta decay threshold with a maximum contribution of 9% in the 1.8--2.0~MeV range. Nonfuel contributions can be particularly high for research reactors like HFIR because of the choice of structural and reflector material in addition to the intentional irradiation of target material for isotope production. We show that typical commercial pressurized water reactors fueled with low-enriched uranium will have significantly smaller nonfuel $overline{ u}_{e}$ contribution.
The antineutrino spectra measured in recent experiments at reactors are inconsistent with calculations based on the conversion of integral beta spectra recorded at the ILL reactor. $^{92}$Rb makes the dominant contribution to the reactor spectrum in the 5-8 MeV range but its decay properties are in question. We have studied $^{92}$Rb decay with total absorption spectroscopy. Previously unobserved beta feeding was seen in the 4.5-5.5 region and the GS to GS feeding was found to be 87.5(25)%. The impact on the reactor antineutrino spectra calculated with the summation method is shown and discussed.
With the goal of determining the $theta_{13}$ neutrino oscillation mixing angle, the measurements of reactor antineutrino fluxes at the Double Chooz, RENO and Daya Bay experimental facilities have uncovered a systematic discrepancy between the number of observed events and theoretical expectations. In the emph{ab initio} approach, the total reactor antineutrino spectrum is a weighted sum of spectra resulting from all $beta$ branches of all fission products in the reactor core. At all three facilities a systematic deviation of the number of observed events from the number of predicted events was noticed, i.e., approximately 6% of the predicted neutrinos were not observed. This discrepancy was named the reactor neutrino anomaly. In theoretical studies it is assumed that all the decays are allowed in shape, but a quarter of all transitions are actually forbidden and may have a complex energy dependence that will affect the total reactor antineutrino spectrum. In order to estimate the effect of forbidden transitions, we perform a fully self-consistent calculation of spectra from all contributing transitions and compare the results with a purely allowed approximation.