Precise Determination of the U-235 Reactor Antineutrino Cross Section per Fission

Abstract

We investigate which among the reactor antineutrino fluxes from the decays of the fission products of ${}^{235}\text{U}$, ${}^{238}\text{U}$, ${}^{239}\text{Pu}$, and ${}^{241}\text{Pu}$ may be responsible for the reactor antineutrino anomaly if the anomaly is due to a miscalculation of the antineutrino fluxes. We find that it is very likely that at least the calculation of the ${}^{235}\text{U}$ flux must be revised. From the fit of the data we obtain the precise determination ${\sigma }_{f,235}=(6.33\pm 0.08)\times 10^{-43}{\text{cm}}^2/\text{fission}$ of the ${}^{235}\text{U}$ cross section per fission, which is more precise than the calculated value and differs from it by $2.2\sigma$. The cross sections per fission of the other fluxes have large uncertainties and in practice their values are undetermined by the fit.

9 pages. Final version published in Physics Letters B 764 (2017) 145

References in corpus (6)

• The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly
• Light Sterile Neutrinos: A White Paper
• Sterile neutrino search at NEOS Experiment
• Spectral Structure of Electron Antineutrinos from Nuclear Reactors
• The 5 MeV bump - a nuclear whodunit mystery
• Uncertainties analysis of fission fraction for reactor antineutrino experiments

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• Reactor antineutrino anomaly in light of recent flux model refinements
• Sterile Neutrinos or Flux Uncertainties? - Status of the Reactor Anti-Neutrino Anomaly
• The 5 MeV bump - a nuclear whodunit mystery
• Neutrinos in Large Extra Dimensions and Short-Baseline ${\nu }_e$ Appearance
• Diagnosing the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly with Global Antineutrino Flux Data
• Prospects for Improved Understanding of Isotopic Reactor Antineutrino Fluxes
• Joint Measurement of the ${}^{235}$U Antineutrino Spectrum by Prospect and Stereo
• Model-Independent Determination of Isotopic Cross Sections per Fission for Reactor Antineutrinos
• Exploring Current Constraints on Antineutrino Production by ${}^{241}$Pu and Paths Towards the Precision Reactor Flux Era