Abstract
Precise antineutrino measurements are very sensitive to proper background characterization. We present an improved measurement of the C13(α,n)O16 reaction cross section which constitutes significant background for large ν¯ detectors. We greatly improve the precision and accuracy by utilizing a setup that is sensitive to the neutron energies while making measurements of the excited state transitions via secondary γ-ray detection. Our results shows a 54% reduction in the background contributions from the O16(3-,6.13 MeV) state used in the KamLAND analysis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 062501 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 125 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 7 2020 |
Funding
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Award No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 and the National Nuclear Security Administration under the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances program through DOE Cooperative Agreements No. DE-AC05-00OR22725, No. DE-NA0002132, and NSF Grant No. PHY-1404218. Researchers from the University of Notre Dame acknowledge support by the National Science Foundation through Grant No. Phys-0758100, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics through Grants No. Phys-0822648 and No. PHY-1430152 (JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements).