First search for short-baseline neutrino oscillations at HFIR with PROSPECT

Abstract

This Letter reports the first scientific results from the observation of antineutrinos emitted by fission products of ${}^{235}$U at the High Flux Isotope Reactor. PROSPECT, the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, consists of a segmented 4 ton ${}^6$Li-doped liquid scintillator detector covering a baseline range of 7-9 m from the reactor and operating under less than 1 meter water equivalent overburden. Data collected during 33 live-days of reactor operation at a nominal power of 85 MW yields a detection of 25461 $\pm$ 283 (stat.) inverse beta decays. Observation of reactor antineutrinos can be achieved in PROSPECT at 5$\sigma$ statistical significance within two hours of on-surface reactor-on data-taking. A reactor-model independent analysis of the inverse beta decay prompt energy spectrum as a function of baseline constrains significant portions of the previously allowed sterile neutrino oscillation parameter space at 95% confidence level and disfavors the best fit of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly at 2.2$\sigma$ confidence level.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures; v3: Added additional supplemental files

References in corpus (40)

• A Unified Approach to the Classical Statistical Analysis of Small Signals
• First Results from KamLAND: Evidence for Reactor Anti-Neutrino Disappearance
• Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at Daya Bay
• Observation of Reactor Electron Antineutrino Disappearance in the RENO Experiment
• Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations from the Observation of Electron Anti-neutrinos in a Muon Anti-Neutrino Beam
• The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly
• Indication for the disappearance of reactor electron antineutrinos in the Double Chooz experiment
• Improved Predictions of Reactor Antineutrino Spectra
• On the determination of anti-neutrino spectra from nuclear reactors
• Measurement of the solar neutrino capture rate with gallium metal. III: Results for the 2002--2007 data-taking period
• Improved Search for ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\to {\bar{\nu }}_e$ Oscillations in the MiniBooNE Experiment
• Reanalysis of the GALLEX solar neutrino flux and source experiments
• The angular distribution of the reaction ${\bar{\nu }}_e+p\to e^{+}+n$
• Statistical Significance of the Gallium Anomaly
• Sterile neutrino search at NEOS Experiment
• Measurement of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay
• A Combined ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\to {\bar{\nu }}_e$ Oscillation Analysis of the MiniBooNE Excesses
• Search for sterile neutrinos at the DANSS experiment
• 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
• Reactor Neutrino Spectra
• Search for a Light Sterile Neutrino at Daya Bay
• The Possible Origin and Implications of the Shoulder in Reactor Neutrino Spectra
• Sterile Neutrino Constraints from the STEREO Experiment with 66 days of Reactor-on Data
• Online Monitoring of the Osiris Reactor with the Nucifer Neutrino Detector
• New Results from RENO and The 5 MeV Excess
• Sterile Neutrinos or Flux Uncertainties? - Status of the Reactor Anti-Neutrino Anomaly
• Nuclear Reactor Safeguards and Monitoring with Antineutrino Detectors
• The 5 MeV bump - a nuclear whodunit mystery
• A novel segmented-scintillator antineutrino detector
• The PROSPECT Physics Program
• The Gaussian CL${}_s$ Method for Searches of New Physics
• Reactor Fuel Fraction Information on the Antineutrino Anomaly
• Nuclear Security Applications of Antineutrino Detectors: Current Capabilities and Future Prospects
• Background Radiation Measurements at High Power Research Reactors
• Performance of a segmented ${}^6$Li-loaded liquid scintillator detector for the PROSPECT experiment
• Prospects for Improved Understanding of Isotopic Reactor Antineutrino Fluxes
• Impact of Fission Neutron Energies on Reactor Antineutrino Spectra
• Light Collection and Pulse-Shape Discrimination in Elongated Scintillator Cells for the PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Experiment
• Neutrino-4 experiment on search for sterile neutrino with multi-section model of detector

Cited by in corpus (81)

• In the Realm of the Hubble tension $-$ a Review of Solutions
• Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters
• Sterile Neutrinos
• Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project: active neutrino properties and the light sterile case
• The Short-Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab
• Status of Light Sterile Neutrino Searches
• Where Are We With Light Sterile Neutrinos?
• Improved Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Search and Energy Spectrum Measurement with the PROSPECT Experiment at HFIR
• Experiment Neutrino-4 search for sterile neutrino and results of measurements
• Improved Sterile Neutrino Constraints from the STEREO Experiment with 179 Days of Reactor-On Data
• An eV-scale sterile neutrino search using eight years of atmospheric muon neutrino data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• White Paper on New Opportunities at the Next-Generation Neutrino Experiments (Part 1: BSM Neutrino Physics and Dark Matter)
• Neutrino Detectors as Tools for Nuclear Security
• Bounds on light sterile neutrino mass and mixing from cosmology and laboratory searches
• Snowmass White Paper: Beyond the Standard Model effects on Neutrino Flavor
• The PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Experiment
• The gallium anomaly revisited
• Combined Neyman-Pearson Chi-square: An Improved Approximation to the Poisson-likelihood Chi-square
• Sterile neutrino self-interactions: $H_0$ tension and short-baseline anomalies
• Sterile Neutrinos and the Global Reactor Antineutrino Dataset
• Measurement of the Antineutrino Spectrum from ${}^{235}$U Fission at HFIR with PROSPECT
• Limits on Sub-GeV Dark Matter from the PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Experiment
• Search for sterile neutrino oscillation using RENO and NEOS data
• Bound on 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing from the first four-week science run of KATRIN
• Cosmological Dependence of Non-resonantly Produced Sterile Neutrinos
• Diagnosing the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly with Global Antineutrino Flux Data
• Antineutrino Energy Spectrum Unfolding Based on the Daya Bay Measurement and Its Applications
• First antineutrino energy spectrum from ${}^{235}$U fissions with the STEREO detector at ILL
• Reevaluating Reactor Antineutrino Anomalies with Updated Flux Predictions
• Reactor neutrino applications and coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering
• Physics with Reactor Neutrinos
• Visible Sterile Neutrinos as the Earliest Relic Probes of Cosmology
• Light Yield of Perovskite Nanocrystal-Doped Liquid Scintillator
• Accurate Measurement of the Electron Antineutrino Yield of U-235 Fissions from the STEREO Experiment with 119 Days of Reactor-On Data
• Constraining sterile neutrinos by core-collapse supernovae with multiple detectors
• MeV-scale reheating temperature and cosmological production of light sterile neutrinos
• Statistical Significance of Reactor Antineutrino Active-Sterile Oscillations
• The analysis of the results of the Neutrino-4 experiment on search for sterile neutrino and comparison with results of other experiments
• Final Measurement of the U235 Antineutrino Energy Spectrum with the PROSPECT-I Detector at HFIR
• KATRIN bound on 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing and the reactor antineutrino anomaly
• Particle physics origin of the 5 MeV bump in the reactor antineutrino spectrum?
• Constraining Sterile Neutrino Cosmology with Terrestrial Oscillation Experiments
• Pulse Pileup Rejection Methods Using a Two-Component Gaussian Mixture Model for Fast Neutron Detection with Pulse Shape Discriminating Scintillator
• Cosmological Dependence of Resonantly Produced Sterile Neutrinos
• SANDD: A directional antineutrino detector with segmented 6Li-doped pulse-shape-sensitive plastic scintillator
• Borexino results on neutrinos from the Sun and Earth
• Searching for Hidden Neutrons with a Reactor Neutrino Experiment: Constraints from the STEREO Experiment
• PROSPECT-II Physics Opportunities
• Statistical Methods Applied to the Search of Sterile Neutrinos
• Searches for sterile neutrinos at very short baseline reactor experiments
• A Low Mass Optical Grid for the PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Detector
• Neutrino-based tools for nuclear verification and diplomacy in North Korea
• Search for Signatures of Sterile Neutrinos with Double Chooz
• Search for exotic interactions of solar neutrinos in the CDEX-10 experiment
• Active-sterile neutrino mixing constraint using reactor antineutrinos with the ISMRAN set-up
• Review of sterile neutrino searches at very short-baseline reactor experiments
• Light dark bosons in the JUNO-TAO neutrino detector
• Sensitivity to sterile neutrino mixing using reactor antineutrinos
• Constraining the Effective Mass of Majorana Neutrino with Sterile Neutrino Mass for Inverted Ordering Spectrum
• Nu Tools: Exploring Practical Roles for Neutrinos in Nuclear Energy and Security
• Perspectives and Outlook from HEP Window on the Universe
• Light sterile neutrinos and their implications on currently running long-baseline and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments
• Cerium ruthenium low-energy antineutrino measurements for safeguarding military naval reactors
• Monitoring Reactor Anti-Neutrinos Using a Plastic Scintillator Detector in a Mobile Laboratory
• The Radioactive Source Calibration System of the PROSPECT Reactor Antineutrino Detector
• The viability of the 3+1 neutrino model in the supernova neutrino process
• Exploring the new physics phases in 3+1 scenario in neutrino oscillation experiments
• Neutron-Mirror Neutron conversion in Vacuum, Trap, Material and Neutron Star
• Neutrino oscillations: ILL experiment revisited
• Performance of large-scale 6Li-doped pulse-shape discriminating plastic scintillators
• Constraints on new physics with (anti)neutrino-nucleon scattering data
• Baseline and other effects for a sterile neutrino at DUNE
• Short-baseline neutrino oscillations with 3+1 non-unitary mixing
• Sterile neutrino searches with reactor antineutrinos using coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments
• Note on arXiv:2005.05301, 'Preparation of the Neutrino-4 experiment on search for sterile neutrino and the obtained results of measurements'
• Liquid-organic time projection chamber for detecting low energy antineutrinos
• Note on Thermalization of Non-resonantly Produced Sterile Neutrinos
• A prototype reactor-antineutrino detector based on ${}^6$Li-doped pulse-shaping-discriminating plastic scintillator
• Calibration strategy of the PROSPECT-II detector with external and intrinsic sources
• Light sterile neutrinos: the current picture from neutrino oscillations
• Experimental indications of the 3+1 neutrino model with one sterile neutrino