Improved Determination of the ${}^{235}\text{U}$ and ${}^{239}\text{Pu}$ Reactor Antineutrino Cross Sections per Fission

Abstract

We present the results of a combined fit of the reactor antineutrino rates and the Daya Bay measurement of ${\sigma }_{f,235}$ and ${\sigma }_{f,239}$. The combined fit leads to a better determination of the two cross sections per fission: ${\sigma }_{f,235}=6.29\pm 0.08$ and ${\sigma }_{f,239}=4.24\pm 0.21$ in units of $10^{-43}{\text{cm}}^2/\text{fission}$, with respective uncertainties of about $1.2\%$ and $4.9\%$. Since the respective deviations from the theoretical cross sections per fission are $2.5\sigma$ and $0.7\sigma$, we conclude that, if the reactor antineutrino anomaly is not due to active-sterile neutrino oscillations, it is likely that it can be solved with a revaluation of the ${}^{235}\text{U}$ reactor antineutrino flux. However, the ${}^{238}\text{U}$, ${}^{239}\text{Pu}$, and ${}^{241}\text{Pu}$ fluxes, which have larger uncertainties, could also be significantly different from the theoretical predictions.

4 pages; final version to be published in PRD

References in corpus (10)

• The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly
• Sterile neutrino search at NEOS Experiment
• Updated Global 3+1 Analysis of Short-BaseLine Neutrino Oscillations
• Evolution of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay
• Improved measurements of the neutrino mixing angle ${\theta }_{13}$ with the Double Chooz detector
• Improved Measurement of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay
• The 5 MeV bump - a nuclear whodunit mystery
• Antineutrino monitoring for the Iranian heavy water reactor
• Precise Determination of the U-235 Reactor Antineutrino Cross Section per Fission
• Applications of Nuclear Physics

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Sterile Neutrinos
• Reactor antineutrino anomaly in light of recent flux model refinements
• Model-Independent ${\bar{\nu }}_e$ Short-Baseline Oscillations from Reactor Spectral Ratios
• Fuel-composition dependent reactor antineutrino yield at RENO
• First observation of the competing fission modes in the neutron-deficient sub-lead region
• Reactor Fuel Fraction Information on the Antineutrino Anomaly
• Improved Measurement of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux at Daya Bay
• Diagnosing the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly with Global Antineutrino Flux Data
• Physics with Reactor Neutrinos
• Prospects for Improved Understanding of Isotopic Reactor Antineutrino Fluxes
• Reactor antineutrino flux and anomaly
• A Low Mass Optical Grid for the PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Detector
• Mapping reactor neutrino spectra from TAO to JUNO
• Future searches for light sterile neutrinos at nuclear reactors
• 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