Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2019
Volume 64, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2019; Denver, Colorado
Session H12: Reactor Based Sterile Neutrino Searches |
Hide Abstracts |
|
Sponsoring Units: DNP DPF Chair: Pieter Mumm, National Institute of Standards and Technology Room: Sheraton Plaza Court 1 |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
H12.00001: PROSPECT: Detector Performance and Calibration Timothy M Classen The PROSPECT short-baseline reactor antineutrino experiment has performed measurements of the 235U reactor antineutrino spectrum, and searching for eV-scale sterile neutrinos. The detector was designed specifically to manage the environmental background at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) complex without overburden while maintaining the necessary energy resolution for the physics results. Extensive calibration of the detector has been performed with a variety of sources to characterize and validate the detector performance. The detector calibration, performance, and background rejection capabilities will be discussed. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
H12.00002: The HUNTER Sterile Neutrino Search Experiment Charles Jeff Martoff, Eric R. Hudson, Paul Hamilton, Peter F. Smith, Christian Schneider, Andrew L Renshaw, Peter Daniel Meyers, Basu R Lamichhane, Francesco Granato, Xunzhen Yu, Eddie Chang, Frank C Malatino The HUNTER experiment (Heavy Unseen Neutrinos from Total Energy-momentum Reconstruction) is a search for sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range. The neutrino missing mass will be reconstructed from 131-Cs electron capture decays occurring in a magneto-optically trapped sample. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
H12.00003: The CHANDLER antineutrino detector TULASI P SUBEDI CHANDLER is a detector technology based on solid plastic scintillator to detect reactor antineutrinos. A prototype detector, called MiniCHANDLER was deployed at a nuclear reactor for four and a half months, which detected an antineutrino signal with minimal shielding. This talk will describe the technology, the data analysis and results from this deployment. In addition, we will discuss improvements envisioned for the full-scale detector and possible applications of this technology. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
H12.00004: Validating Inverse Beta Decay Response of PROSPECT with an AmBe correlated neutron source Ian A Mitchell The Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, PROSPECT, at Oak Ridge National Lab is designed to search for short-range oscillations and measure the spectrum of antineutrinos from a nearly pure U235 core. To achieve this goal, careful characterization of the detector and any systematic effects from its components and composition must be carried out and compensated for, particularly given the high background level from the detector’s surface position. To assist with this effort, an AmBe source has recently been procured and deployed within the PROSPECT detector to serve as a neutron, gamma, and combined neutron-gamma source, allowing a variety of calibrations to be carried out with one source and providing a good analog to IBD events for validating predicted IBD efficiency. We present analysis results from a recent deployment in the PROSPECT detector. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
H12.00005: Uncertainty Quantification in the Summation Method for Nuclear Reactor Antineutrinos Alejandro A. Sonzogni, Elizabeth A. McCutchan The summation method was first used by P. Vogel and collaborators in 1981 to calculate the antineutrino spectra generated by 235,238U and 239,241Pu to predict the antineutrino spectrum generated by a nuclear reactor. That pioneering work used the fission yield and decay data from ENDF/B-V. We have lately used the ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.1.1 libraries with the same purpose, of particular interest now given the significant current number of nuclear reactor antineutrino experiments worldwide. Uncertainty quantification is a noteworthy aspect of the calculation, which we have addressed by developing cumulative fission yield covariance matrices using the independent fission yield correlations from the GEF code, coupled with the evaluated libraries yield uncertainties and the ENDF/B-VIII.0 decay branching ratios. Additionally, beta-minus decay intensity correlations were also included. A comparison of the summation IBD antineutrino yields with those obtained from the conversion method as well as from the Daya Bay fuel evolution measurements will be presented. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
H12.00006: Test of Decay Rate Parameter Variation due to Antineutrino Interactions Shih-Chieh Liu, David S Koltick, Haoyu Wang, Jonathan M Nistor, Jordan Heim, Thomas E Ward, Shih-Chieh Liu High precision measurements of a weak interaction decay were conducted to search for possible variation of the decay rate parameter caused by an antineutrino flux. The experiment searched for variation of the 54Mn electron capture decay rate parameter to a level of precision of 1 part in ∼ 105 by comparing the difference between the decay rate in the presence of an antineutrino flux ∼ 3×1012 cm-2sec-1 and no flux measurements. The experiment is located 6.5 meters from the reactor core of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) in Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A measurement to this level of precision requires a detailed understanding of both systematic and statistical errors. Otherwise, systematic errors in the measurement may mimic fundamental interactions. The measured variation in the 54Mn decay rate parameter is found to be δλ/λ=(0.034±1.38)×10-5. This measurement in the presence of the HFIR flux is equivalent to a cross-section of σ=(0.097±1.24)×10-25cm2. These results are consistent with no measurable decay rate parameter variation due to an antineutrino flux. The cross-section upper limit obtained in this null or no observable effect experiment is ∼ 104 times more sensitive than past experiments reporting positive results in 54Mn. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
H12.00007: High-precision gamma-ray spectroscopic study of the main contributor to the reactor antineutrino spectrum: 92Rb Elizabeth McCutchan, August C Gula, Lemise Saleh, S. Padgett, Nicholas David Scielzo, Karolina Kolos, Michael P Carpenter, Jason A Clark, Christopher J Lister, Scott T Marley, A.J. Mitchell, Eric B Norman, Guy Savard, Alejandro A Sonzogni, Shaofei Zhu Two intriguing and unresolved puzzles surround recent measurements and calculations of reactor antineutrino spectra: a deficient in the total number of measured antineutrinos and an excess of antineutrinos for energies from 5-7 MeV. While these observations could point to new physics, a full understanding requires a solid basis of the underlying nuclear physics, namely the beta-decay properties of fission fragments used as inputs to calculate the spectrum. At higher energies in the spectrum, one nucleus, 92Rb, contributes more than 20% to the predicted spectrum. 92Rb was last studied in the 1970’s using primitive detector systems, and thus, revisiting its decay properties is timely. Using the CARIBU facility at Argonne National Lab, we performed a new measurement of the beta-decay of 92Rb. Decays of 92Rb were studied with the SATURN array consisting of 5 HPGe Clover detectors and a large plastic scintillator. The results of the analysis will be presented, including a significantly revised decay scheme. The impact on reactor antineutrino calculations will also be discussed. |
|
Sunday, April 14, 2019 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
H12.00008: Measurement of the U-235 antineutrino energy spectrum with PROSPECT Benjamin Foust PROSPECT is a short-baseline experiment observing reactor antineutrinos from the 85MW highly-enriched uranium High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Positioned 7.9m from HFIR, the segmented liquid scintillator detector was designed to search for eV-scale sterile neutrino oscillations and make a precision measurement of the U-235 antineutrino energy spectrum. Using 40 days of reactor-on data, PROSPECT has detected >31,000 antineutrinos, resulting in the world-leading measurement of the U-235 spectrum. PROSPECT disfavors U-235 as the sole isotope responsible for the spectral discrepancy observed by nuclear power reactor experiments at ~3σ. |
Follow Us
|
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2023 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
1 Research Road, Ridge, NY 11961-2701
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700