Precision spectroscopy with reactor anti-neutrinos

Patrick Huber; Thomas Schwetz

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Precision spectroscopy with reactor anti-neutrinos

Patrick Huber, Thomas Schwetz

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Submitted 2 Jul 2004

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim We find that with a 3 month exposure of a one ton detector the isotope fractions and the thermal reactor power can be determined at a few percent accuracy, which may open the possibility of an application for safeguard or non-proliferation objectives.

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What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.03 · states limitation 0.60 · human participants 0.02 · controlled comparison 0.06 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.96 · compares with prior results 0.28 · mentions code or data availability 0.03.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v2. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

In this work we present an accurate parameterization of the anti-neutrino flux produced by the isotopes 235U, 239Pu and 241Pu in nuclear reactors. We determine the coefficients of this parameterization, as well as their covariance matrix, by performing a fit to spectra inferred from experimentally measured beta spectra. Subsequently we show that flux shape uncertainties play only a minor role in the KamLAND experiment, however, we find that future reactor neutrino experiments to measure the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ are sensitive to the fine details of the reactor neutrino spectra. Finally, we investigate the possibility to determine the isotopic composition in nuclear reactors through an anti-neutrino measurement. We find that with a 3 month exposure of a one ton detector the isotope fractions and the thermal reactor power can be determined at a few percent accuracy, which may open the possibility of an application for safeguard or non-proliferation objectives.

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What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	In this work we present an accurate parameterization of the anti-neutrino flux produced by the isotopes 235U, 239Pu and 241Pu in nuclear reactors.	contribution 1.00	0.93	0.07	asserted 1.00
s1	We determine the coefficients of this parameterization, as well as their covariance matrix, by performing a fit to spectra inferred from experimentally measured beta spectra.	method 0.98	0.96	0.04	asserted 1.00
s2	Subsequently we show that flux shape uncertainties play only a minor role in the KamLAND experiment, however, we find that future reactor neutrino experiments to measure the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ are sensitive to the fine details of the reactor neutrino spectra.	result 0.72	0.94	0.22	asserted 1.00
s3	Finally, we investigate the possibility to determine the isotopic composition in nuclear reactors through an anti-neutrino measurement.	contribution 0.99	0.77	0.07	hedged possibility 0.83
s4	We find that with a 3 month exposure of a one ton detector the isotope fractions and the thermal reactor power can be determined at a few percent accuracy, which may open the possibility of an application for safeguard or non-proliferation objectives.	result 0.90	0.95	0.40	asserted 0.66

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: method or tool 0.75 · evidence from analysis of existing data 0.95.

What was examined, and what was not

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Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

In this work we present an accurate parameterization of the anti-neutrino flux produced by the isotopes 235U, 239Pu and 241Pu in nuclear reactors. We determine the coefficients of this parameterization, as well as their covariance matrix, by performing a fit to spectra inferred from experimentally measured beta spectra. Subsequently we show that flux shape uncertainties play only a minor role in the KamLAND experiment, however, we find that future reactor neutrino experiments to measure the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ are sensitive to the fine details of the reactor neutrino spectra. Finally, we investigate the possibility to determine the isotopic composition in nuclear reactors through an anti-neutrino measurement. We find that with a 3 month exposure of a one ton detector the isotope fractions and the thermal reactor power can be determined at a few percent accuracy, which may open the possibility of an application for safeguard or non-proliferation objectives.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

A Plan to Rule out Large Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions After COHERENT Data
hep-ph 2018-04 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

Large non-standard neutrino interactions of the LMA-Dark type remain allowed by COHERENT data provided the mediating boson is lighter than about 48 MeV, and future stopped-pion and reactor experiments can close most o...
On the determination of anti-neutrino spectra from nuclear reactors
hep-ph 2011-06 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

An independent inversion of the ILL reactor beta spectra confirms a 2 to 3 percent upward shift in antineutrino flux and identifies weak magnetism in rare fission products as a theory uncertainty large enough to erase it.
Probing new physics with coherent neutrino scattering off nuclei
hep-ph 2005-08 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

A one-kilogram germanium detector at a reactor, at a 400 eV threshold with no background, would constrain down-quark non-standard neutrino couplings to about 0.003, roughly twice as well as a proposed neutrino factory.
The next-generation liquid-scintillator neutrino observatory LENA
astro-ph.IM 2011-04 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

LENA, a proposed 50 kt liquid-scintillator detector, would deliver a broad low-energy neutrino program and roughly tenfold better proton-decay reach, according to this design study.
Status of global fits to neutrino oscillations
hep-ph 2004-05 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

Combining all 2004 neutrino oscillation data yields best-fit three-flavour parameters with sin^2(theta_13) below about 0.05 at 3 sigma and confirms that four-neutrino schemes cannot accommodate LSND alongside the rest.

Show 1 more citing papers

Three-flavour neutrino oscillation update
hep-ph 2008-08 conditional novelty 3.0 of 10

Global three-flavour neutrino data remain consistent with zero θ13, with sin²θ13 bounded below 0.035 at 90% CL in the 2008 analysis and 0.034 in the 2010 update.

How the literature uses it

11 arXiv papers cite this in 14 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 5 sentences without a confident label

Uses its method or tool 5 papers

The reactor fluxes are parameterized as in Ref. [ref] and the inverse beta-decay cross section is taken from Ref. [ref] .

Neutrino oscillation bounds on quantum decoherence · Reactor experiments: KamLAND, Daya Bay and RENO · 0.82
In performing the fit we follow the description given in Refs. [ref] but we do not include contributions from the error on $Z̅$ and WM since they are correlated between isotopes and do not change the fit appreciably.

On the determination of anti-neutrino spectra from nuclear reactors · Application to $^235$U, $^239$Pu and $^241$Pu · 0.99
[ref] and corresponding to 3 yrs of data taking.

Fuzzy Dark Matter and Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions · Introduction · 1.00

Uses its data or values 2 papers

We use reactor fluxes as parameterized in Ref. [ref] and the inverse beta-decay cross section from Ref. [ref] .

Probing neutrino quantum decoherence at reactor experiments · Current Constraints from RENO and Daya Bay · 0.97
We take the $^235$U flux from [ref] and form factors from [ref] , although the suppression from form factors are negligible since $F(q^2)∼1$ for relevant energies.

A Plan to Rule out Large Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions After COHERENT Data · Reactor: CONUS · 0.99

Cites it as background 1 paper

In fact, practical applications of antineutrino detectors in the nuclear industry have been discussed for a long time, mostly in the context of monitoring power reactors [ref] .

Antineutrino monitoring of spent nuclear fuel · Introduction · 0.87

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