The Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (INPP) presents Alejandro Sonzogni, of Brookhaven National Lab, on “Nuclear Reactor Antineutrinos, Hard to Detect, but with a Traceable Lineage”, on Tuesday, March 26, at 4 p.m. in Edwards Accelerator Lab, Roger W. Finlay Conference Room.
Alejandro Sonzogni
Abstract: Nuclear reactors are prolific sources of electron antineutrinos, producing about 1021 antineutrinos per second for a typical power reactor. These electron antineutrinos is produced by the beta-minus decay of the more than 800 neutron-rich fission fragments, which are the debris from the main source of energy generation in a reactor, the neutron induced fission of actinide nuclides. Nuclear reactors have been an essential tool to study the weak interaction, from the discovery of antineutrinos to the recent precise measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters. The antineutrino spectrum produced in a nuclear reactor are calculated as the sum of the spectra produced by 235,238U and 239,241Pu, weighted by the respective fission fractions. In this talk, we will present what we have learned using nuclear databases to calculate antineutrino spectra, such as antineutrino yield systematics, main contributors and their signature in both electron and antineutrino spectra, as well as sensitivity studies to identify nuclides with deficient knowledge for future experiments. We would also highlight the need to properly curate nuclear data for future use.
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