Improved short-baseline neutrino oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement with the PROSPECT experiment at HFIR

(PROSPECT Collaboration)

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.032001

Improved short-baseline neutrino oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement with the PROSPECT experiment at HFIR

(PROSPECT Collaboration)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

85 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a detailed report on sterile neutrino oscillation and U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement results from the PROSPECT experiment at the highly enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 96 calendar days of data taken at an average baseline distance of 7.9 m from the center of the 85 MW HFIR core, the PROSPECT detector has observed more than 50,000 interactions of ν¯e produced in beta decays of U235 fission products. New limits on the oscillation of ν¯e to light sterile neutrinos have been set by comparing the detected energy spectra of ten reactor-detector baselines between 6.7 and 9.2 meters. Measured differences in energy spectra between baselines show no statistically significant indication of ν¯e to sterile neutrino oscillation and disfavor the reactor antineutrino anomaly best-fit point at the 2.5σ confidence level. The reported U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement shows excellent agreement with energy spectrum models generated via conversion of the measured U235 beta spectrum, with a χ2/d.o.f. of 31/31. PROSPECT is able to disfavor at 2.4σ confidence level the hypothesis that U235 ν¯e are solely responsible for spectrum discrepancies between model and data obtained at commercial reactor cores. A data-model deviation in PROSPECT similar to that observed by commercial core experiments is preferred with respect to no observed deviation, at a 2.2σ confidence level.

Original language	English
Article number	032001
Journal	Physical Review D
Volume	103
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.032001
State	Published - Feb 3 2021

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the following sources: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics under Awards No. DE-SC0016357 and No. DE-SC0017660 to Yale University, under Award No. DE-SC0017815 to Drexel University, under Award No. DE-SC0008347 to Illinois Institute of Technology, under Award No. DE-SC0016060 to Temple University, under Contract No. DE-SC0012704 to Brookhaven National Laboratory, and under Work Proposal No. SCW1504 to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344 and by Oak Ridge National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Additional funding for the experiment was provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation under Grant No. #2016-117 to Yale University. J. G. is supported through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and A. C. performed work under appointment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation International Safeguards Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administrations Office of International Nuclear Safeguards (NA-241). This work was also supported by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery program under Grant No. #RGPIN-418579, and Province of Ontario. We further acknowledge support from Yale University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Temple University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LDRD program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We gratefully acknowledge the support and hospitality of the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Funders	Funder number
National Nuclear Security Administrations Office of International Nuclear Safeguards	NA-241
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Yale University	DE-SC0017815
Office of Science
High Energy Physics	DE-SC0017660, DE-SC0016357
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	DE-AC52-07NA27344
Oak Ridge National Laboratory	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Drexel University	DE-SC0016060, DE-SC0008347
Temple University	SCW1504, DE-SC0012704
Illinois Institute of Technology
Heising-Simons Foundation	2016-117
UT-Battelle
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada	-418579
Canada First Research Excellence Fund

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10.1103/PhysRevD.103.032001

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@article{0166e0bf6b0c45ddb6834bd180924edd,

title = "Improved short-baseline neutrino oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement with the PROSPECT experiment at HFIR",

abstract = "We present a detailed report on sterile neutrino oscillation and U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement results from the PROSPECT experiment at the highly enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 96 calendar days of data taken at an average baseline distance of 7.9 m from the center of the 85 MW HFIR core, the PROSPECT detector has observed more than 50,000 interactions of ν¯e produced in beta decays of U235 fission products. New limits on the oscillation of ν¯e to light sterile neutrinos have been set by comparing the detected energy spectra of ten reactor-detector baselines between 6.7 and 9.2 meters. Measured differences in energy spectra between baselines show no statistically significant indication of ν¯e to sterile neutrino oscillation and disfavor the reactor antineutrino anomaly best-fit point at the 2.5σ confidence level. The reported U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement shows excellent agreement with energy spectrum models generated via conversion of the measured U235 beta spectrum, with a χ2/d.o.f. of 31/31. PROSPECT is able to disfavor at 2.4σ confidence level the hypothesis that U235 ν¯e are solely responsible for spectrum discrepancies between model and data obtained at commercial reactor cores. A data-model deviation in PROSPECT similar to that observed by commercial core experiments is preferred with respect to no observed deviation, at a 2.2σ confidence level.",

author = "{(PROSPECT Collaboration)} and M. Andriamirado and Balantekin, {A. B.} and Band, {H. R.} and Bass, {C. D.} and Bergeron, {D. E.} and D. Berish and Bowden, {N. S.} and Brodsky, {J. P.} and Bryan, {C. D.} and T. Classen and Conant, {A. J.} and G. Deichert and Diwan, {M. V.} and Dolinski, {M. J.} and A. Erickson and Foust, {B. T.} and Gaison, {J. K.} and A. Galindo-Uribarri and Gilbert, {C. E.} and Goddard, {B. W.} and Hackett, {B. T.} and S. Hans and Hansell, {A. B.} and Heeger, {K. M.} and Jaffe, {D. E.} and X. Ji and Jones, {D. C.} and O. Kyzylova and Lane, {C. E.} and Langford, {T. J.} and J. Larosa and Littlejohn, {B. R.} and X. Lu and J. Maricic and Mendenhall, {M. P.} and Meyer, {A. M.} and R. Milincic and I. Mitchell and Mueller, {P. E.} and Mumm, {H. P.} and J. Napolitano and C. Nave and R. Neilson and Nikkel, {J. A.} and D. Norcini and S. Nour and Palomino, {J. L.} and Pushin, {D. A.} and X. Qian and E. Romero-Romero",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the {"}https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/{"}Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.",

year = "2021",

month = feb,

day = "3",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevD.103.032001",

language = "English",

volume = "103",

journal = "Physical Review D",

issn = "2470-0010",

publisher = "American Physical Society",

number = "3",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Improved short-baseline neutrino oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement with the PROSPECT experiment at HFIR

AU - (PROSPECT Collaboration)

AU - Andriamirado, M.

AU - Balantekin, A. B.

AU - Band, H. R.

AU - Bass, C. D.

AU - Bergeron, D. E.

AU - Berish, D.

AU - Bowden, N. S.

AU - Brodsky, J. P.

AU - Bryan, C. D.

AU - Classen, T.

AU - Conant, A. J.

AU - Deichert, G.

AU - Diwan, M. V.

AU - Dolinski, M. J.

AU - Erickson, A.

AU - Foust, B. T.

AU - Gaison, J. K.

AU - Galindo-Uribarri, A.

AU - Gilbert, C. E.

AU - Goddard, B. W.

AU - Hackett, B. T.

AU - Hans, S.

AU - Hansell, A. B.

AU - Heeger, K. M.

AU - Jaffe, D. E.

AU - Ji, X.

AU - Jones, D. C.

AU - Kyzylova, O.

AU - Lane, C. E.

AU - Langford, T. J.

AU - Larosa, J.

AU - Littlejohn, B. R.

AU - Lu, X.

AU - Maricic, J.

AU - Mendenhall, M. P.

AU - Meyer, A. M.

AU - Milincic, R.

AU - Mitchell, I.

AU - Mueller, P. E.

AU - Mumm, H. P.

AU - Napolitano, J.

AU - Nave, C.

AU - Neilson, R.

AU - Nikkel, J. A.

AU - Norcini, D.

AU - Nour, S.

AU - Palomino, J. L.

AU - Pushin, D. A.

AU - Qian, X.

AU - Romero-Romero, E.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

PY - 2021/2/3

Y1 - 2021/2/3

N2 - We present a detailed report on sterile neutrino oscillation and U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement results from the PROSPECT experiment at the highly enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 96 calendar days of data taken at an average baseline distance of 7.9 m from the center of the 85 MW HFIR core, the PROSPECT detector has observed more than 50,000 interactions of ν¯e produced in beta decays of U235 fission products. New limits on the oscillation of ν¯e to light sterile neutrinos have been set by comparing the detected energy spectra of ten reactor-detector baselines between 6.7 and 9.2 meters. Measured differences in energy spectra between baselines show no statistically significant indication of ν¯e to sterile neutrino oscillation and disfavor the reactor antineutrino anomaly best-fit point at the 2.5σ confidence level. The reported U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement shows excellent agreement with energy spectrum models generated via conversion of the measured U235 beta spectrum, with a χ2/d.o.f. of 31/31. PROSPECT is able to disfavor at 2.4σ confidence level the hypothesis that U235 ν¯e are solely responsible for spectrum discrepancies between model and data obtained at commercial reactor cores. A data-model deviation in PROSPECT similar to that observed by commercial core experiments is preferred with respect to no observed deviation, at a 2.2σ confidence level.

AB - We present a detailed report on sterile neutrino oscillation and U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement results from the PROSPECT experiment at the highly enriched High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 96 calendar days of data taken at an average baseline distance of 7.9 m from the center of the 85 MW HFIR core, the PROSPECT detector has observed more than 50,000 interactions of ν¯e produced in beta decays of U235 fission products. New limits on the oscillation of ν¯e to light sterile neutrinos have been set by comparing the detected energy spectra of ten reactor-detector baselines between 6.7 and 9.2 meters. Measured differences in energy spectra between baselines show no statistically significant indication of ν¯e to sterile neutrino oscillation and disfavor the reactor antineutrino anomaly best-fit point at the 2.5σ confidence level. The reported U235 ν¯e energy spectrum measurement shows excellent agreement with energy spectrum models generated via conversion of the measured U235 beta spectrum, with a χ2/d.o.f. of 31/31. PROSPECT is able to disfavor at 2.4σ confidence level the hypothesis that U235 ν¯e are solely responsible for spectrum discrepancies between model and data obtained at commercial reactor cores. A data-model deviation in PROSPECT similar to that observed by commercial core experiments is preferred with respect to no observed deviation, at a 2.2σ confidence level.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100890663&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.032001

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.032001

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85100890663

SN - 2470-0010

VL - 103

JO - Physical Review D

JF - Physical Review D

IS - 3

M1 - 032001

ER -

Improved short-baseline neutrino oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement with the PROSPECT experiment at HFIR

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