Determination of Beta Decay Ground State Feeding of Nuclei of Importance for Reactor Applications
V. Guadilla, J. L. Tain, A. Algora, J. Agramunt, D. Jordan, M. Monserrate, A. Montaner-Pizá, S. E. A. Orrigo, B. Rubio, E. Valencia, J. A. Briz, A. Cucoanes, M.… 展开作者
V. Guadilla, J. L. Tain, A. Algora, J. Agramunt, D. Jordan, M. Monserrate, A. Montaner-Pizá, S. E. A. Orrigo, B. Rubio, E. Valencia, J. A. Briz, A. Cucoanes, M. Estienne, M. Fallot, L. Le Meur, A. Porta, T. Shiba, A. -A. Zakari-Issoufou, J. Äystö, T. Eronen, D. Gorelov, J. Hakala, A. Jokinen, A. Kankainen, V. S. Kolhinen, J. Koponen, I. D. Moore, H. Penttilä, I. Pohjalainen, J. Reinikainen, M. Reponen, S. Rinta-Antila, K. Rytkönen, V. Sonnenschein, A. Voss, L. M. Fraile, V. Vedia, E. Ganioğlu, W. Gelletly, M. Lebois, J. N. Wilson, T. Martinez, E. Nácher, A. A. Sonzogni
In $β$-decay studies the determination of the decay probability to the ground state of the daughter nucleus often suffers from large systematic errors. The difficulty of the measurement is related to the absence of associated delayed $γ$-ray emission. In this work we revisit the $4πγ-β$ method proposed by Greenwood and collaborators in the 1990s, which has the potential to overcome some of the experimental difficulties. Our interest is driven by the need to determine accurately the $β$-intensity distributions of fission products that contribute significantly to the reactor decay heat and to the antineutrinos emitted by reactors. A number of such decays have large ground state branches. The method is relevant for nuclear structure studies as well. Pertinent formulae are revised and extended to the special case of $β$-delayed neutron emitters, and the robustness of the method is demonstrated with synthetic data. We apply it to a number of measured decays that serve as test cases and discuss the features of the method. Finally, we obtain ground state feeding intensities with reduced uncertainty for four relevant decays that will allow future improvements in antineutrino spectrum and decay heat calculations using the summation method.
A conceptual experimental method for providing a new measurement of the underlying beta decay spectra from fission products is presented. The goal is to provide additional information related to the prediction of the antineutrino emission spectra from fission reactors and assist evaluation of the reactor neutrino anomaly.
The nuclear fission process that occurs in the core of nuclear reactors results in unstable, neutron rich fission products that subsequently beta decay and emit electron anti-neutrinos. These reactor neutrinos have served neutrino physics research from the initial discovery of the neutrino to current precision measurements of neutrino mixing angles. The prediction of the absolute flux and energy spectrum of the emitted reactor neutrinos hinges upon a series of seminal papers based on measurements performed in the 1970s and 1980s. The steadily improving reactor neutrino measurement techniques a…
In this review we will present the results of recent beta-decay studies using the total absorption technique that cover topics of interest for applications, nuclear structure and astrophysics. The decays studied were selected primarily because they have a large impact on the prediction of a) the decay heat in reactors, important for the safety of present and future reactors and b) the reactor electron antineutrino spectrum, of interest for particle/nuclear physics and reactor monitoring. For these studies the total absorption technique was chosen, since it is the only method that allows one to…
In the search for an electron antineutrino detection method with sensitivity below the 1.8 MeV threshold for the inverse beta decay reaction, beta decay counting experiments with ca. 3 kBq 22Na and 60Co sources were conducted at unit #1 (2.775 GW_th) of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in South Africa. The setup consisted of one NaI crystal to measure de-excitation and annihilation photons associated with beta decay. Its volume and well shape were chosen to use coincidence summing in order to differentiate between electron capture and beta+ emission in 22Na. The setup was shielded from the re…
Recent measurements of the positron energy spectrum obtained from inverse beta decay interactions of reactor electron antineutrinos show an excess in the 4 to 6 MeV region relative to current predictions. First-principle calculations of fission and beta decay processes within a typical pressurized water reactor core identify prominent fission daughter isotopes as a possible origin for this excess. These calculations also predict percent-level substructure in the antineutrino spectrum due to Coulomb effects in beta decay. Precise measurement of this substructure can constrain nuclear reactor ph…
The antineutrino spectra measured in recent experiments at reactors are inconsistent with calculations based on the conversion of integral beta spectra recorded at the ILL reactor. $^{92}$Rb makes the dominant contribution to the reactor spectrum in the 5-8 MeV range but its decay properties are in question. We have studied $^{92}$Rb decay with total absorption spectroscopy. Previously unobserved beta feeding was seen in the 4.5-5.5 region and the GS to GS feeding was found to be 87.5(25)%. The impact on the reactor antineutrino spectra calculated with the summation method is shown and discuss…
A measurement of the 20Na beta-delayed alpha spectrum with a high-granularity set-up has allowed the decay scheme to be revised on several points. Three new transitions of low intensity are found at low alpha-particle energy. An R-matrix fit of the complete spectrum gives an improved description of the decay and indicates feeding to the broad 2^+ alpha-cluster state close to 9 MeV.
We analyze within a nuclear database framework the shoulder observed in the antineutrino spectra in current reactor experiments. We find that the ENDF/B-VII.1 database predicts that the antineutrino shoulder arises from an analogous shoulder in the aggregate fission beta spectra. In contrast, the JEFF-3.1.1 database does not predict a shoulder for two out of three of the modern reactor neutrino experiments, and the shoulder that is predicted by JEFF-3.1.1 arises from $^{238}$U. We consider several possible origins of the shoulder, and find possible explanations. For example, there could be a p…
Theory of inverse beta decay for reactor antineutrinos
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；China Center of Advanced Science and Technology（中国高等科学技术中心）
The large quantities of antineutrinos produced through the decay of fission fragments in nuclear reactors provide an opportunity to study the properties of these particles and investigate their use in reactor monitoring. The reactor antineutrino spectra are measured using specialized, large area detectors that detect antineutrinos through inverse beta decay, electron elastic scattering, or coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering; although, inverse beta decay is the only demonstrated method so far. Reactor monitoring takes advantage of the differences in the antineutrino yield and spectra …
The beta decays of $^{86}$Br and $^{91}$Rb have been studied using the total absorption spectroscopy technique. The radioactive nuclei were produced at the IGISOL facility in Jyväskylä and further purified using the JYFLTRAP. $^{86}$Br and $^{91}$Rb are considered to be major contributors to the decay heat in reactors. In addition $^{91}$Rb was used as a normalization point in direct measurements of mean gamma energies released in the beta decay of fission products by Rudstam {\it et al.} assuming that this decay was well known from high-resolution measurements. Our results show that both deca…
Study of $\boldsymbolβ$ Decay Shape Factors in First-Forbidden Transitions with $\boldsymbol{ΔI^π= 0^-}$ for Reactor Antineutrino Spectra Predictions
Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universitat de València（瓦伦西亚大学与西班牙国家研究委员会粒子物理研究所）；HUN-REN Institute for Nuclear Research (ATOMKI)（匈牙利研究与创新网络原子核研究所）；SUBATECH, CNRS/IN2P3, IMT Atlantique, Nantes Université（南特大学IMT大西洋学院欧洲亚原子物理与天体物理中心）；Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw（华沙大学物理系）；Department of Physics, University of Surrey（萨里大学物理系）
Geo-reactor models suggest the existence of natural nuclear reactors at different deep-earth locations with loosely defined output power. Reactor fission products undergo beta decay with the emission of electron antineutrinos, which routinely escape the earth. Neutrino mixing distorts the energy spectrum of the electron antineutrinos. Characteristics of the distorted spectrum observed at the earth's surface could specify the location of a geo-reactor, discriminating the models and facilitating more precise power measurement. The existence of a geo-reactor with known position could enable a pre…
This paper describes the data acquisition system used for data readout from a segmented detector of reactor antineutrinos with active shielding. Theoretical approach to the data acquisition is described and two possible solutions using QDCs and digitizers are discussed. Also described are the results of the DAQ performance during routine data taking operation of DANSS. DANSS (Detector of the reactor AntiNeutrino based on Solid Scintillator) is a project aiming to measure a spectrum of reactor antineutrinos using inverse beta decay (IBD) in a plastic scintillator. The detector is located close …
We report on the investigation of the population mechanism for the 454-KeV level in 71Cu. This level was identified for the first time in a recent Coulomb excitation measurement with a radioactive beam of 71Cu. The selective nature of the Coulomb-excitation process as well as nuclear-structure considerations constrain the possible spin values for the newly observed state to Ipi=1/2-. A re-examination of the data set obtained in a beta-decay study at the LISOL separator revealed that this state is also populated in the decay of 71Ni, most probably by direct feeding from a newly identified 1/2- …
The WWR-M reactor of PNPI offers a unique opportunity to prepare a source for ultracold neutrons (UCN) in an environment of high neutron flux (about 3*10^12 n/cm^2/s) at still acceptable radiation heat release (about 4*10^-3 W/g). It can be realized within the reactor thermal column situated close to the reactor core. With its large diameter of 1 m, this channel allows to install a 15 cm thick bismuth shielding, a graphite premoderator (300 dm^3 at 20 K), and a superfluid helium converter (35 dm^3). At a temperature of 1.2 K it is possible to remove the heat release power of about 20 W. Using …
We investigate the recent Daya Bay results on the changes in the antineutrino flux and spectrum with the burnup of the reactor fuel. We find that the discrepancy between current model predictions and the Daya Bay results can be traced to the original measured $^{235}$U/$^{239}$Pu ratio of the fission beta spectra that were used as a base for the expected antineutrino fluxes. An analysis of the antineutrino spectra that is based on a summation over all fission fragment beta-decays, using nuclear database input, explains all of the features seen in the Daya Bay evolution data. However, this summ…
Positron spectrum from inverse beta decay reaction on proton was measured in 1988-1990 as a result of neutrino exploration experiment. The measured spectrum has the largest statistics and lowest energy threshold between other neutrino experiments made that time at nuclear reactors. On base of the positron spectrum the standard antineutrino spectrum for typical reactor fuel composition was restored. In presented analysis the partial spectra forming this standard spectrum were extracted using specific method. They could be used for neutrino experiments data analysis made at any fuel composition …
Excited states in 17C were investigated through the measurement of beta?-delayed neutrons and gamma rays emitted in the ? decay of 17B. In the measurement, three negative-parity states and two inconclusive states, were identified in 17C above the neutron threshold energy, and seven gamma-lines were identified in a beta?-delayed multiple neutron emission of the 17B ? decay. From these transitions, the beta?-decay scheme of 17B was determined. In the present work, the fibeta-NMR technique is combined with the ?-delayed particle measurements using a fragmentation-induced spin-polarized 17B beam. …
In addition to the common 3-body decay of the neutron $n\rightarrow p e^-\overline{ν_e}$ there should exist an effective 2-body subset with the electron and proton forming a Hydrogen bound state with well defined total momentum, total spin and magnetic quantum numbers. The atomic spectroscopic analysis of this bound system can reveal details about the underlying weak interaction as it mirrors the helicity distributions of all outgoing particles. Thus, it is unique in the information it carries, and an experiment unravelling this information is an analogue to the Goldhaber experiment performed …
The detailed understanding of the antineutrino emission from research reactors is mandatory for any high sensitivity experiments either for fundamental or applied neutrino physics, as well as a good control of the gamma and neutron backgrounds induced by the reactor operation. In this article, the antineutrino emission associated to a thermal research reactor: the OSIRIS reactor located in Saclay, France, is computed in a first part. The calculation is performed with the summation method, which sums all the contributions of the beta decay branches of the fission products, coupled for the first…
In an experiment performed at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyvaskyla, the beta-decay half-life of 62Ga has been studied with high precision using the IGISOL technique. A half-life of T1/2 = 116.09(17)ms was measured. Using beta-gamma coincidences, the gamma intensity of the 954keV transition and an upper limit of the beta-decay feeding of the 0+_2 state have been extracted. The present experimental results are compared to previous measurements and their impact on our understanding of the weak interaction is discussed.
We investigate the decay of 87Br, 88Br and 94Rb using total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy. These important fission products are beta-delayed neutron emitters. Our data show considerable gamma-intensity, so far unobserved in high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy, from states at high excitation energy. We also find significant differences with the beta intensity that can be deduced from existing measurements of the beta spectrum. We evaluate the impact of the present data on reactor decay heat using summation calculations. Although the effect is relatively small it helps to reduce the discr…
In this paper we study the effect of, well-known, higher order corrections to the allowed beta decay spectrum on the determination of anti-neutrino spectra resulting from the decays of fission fragments. In particular, we try to estimate the associated theory errors and find that induced currents like weak magnetism may ultimately limit our ability to improve the current accuracy and under certain circumstance could even largely increase the theoretical errors. We also perform a critical evaluation of the errors associated with our method to extract the anti-neutrino spectrum using synthetic b…
We present results from global fits to the available reactor antineutrino dataset, as of Fall 2019, to determine the global preference for a fourth, sterile neutrino. We have separately considered experiments that measure the integrated inverse-beta decay (IBD) rate from those that measure the energy spectrum of IBD events at one or more locations. The software used is the newly developed GLoBESfit tool set which is based on the publicly available GLoBES framework and will be released as open-source software.
The recent agreement to transfer nuclear submarine reactors and technology from two nuclear-weapon states to a non-nuclear-weapon state (AUKUS deal) highlights an unsolved problem in international safeguards: how to safeguard naval reactor fuel while it is on-board an operational nuclear submarine. Proposals to extend existing safeguards technologies and practices are complicated by the need for civilian international inspectors to gain access to the interior of the submarine and the reactor compartment, which raises national security concerns. In this paper we show that implementing safeguard…
Even after the discovery of neutrino flavour oscillations, based on data from atmospheric, solar, reactor, and accelerator experiments, many characteristics of the neutrino remain unknown. Only the neutrino square-mass differences and the mixing angle values have been estimated, while the value of each mass eigenstate still hasn't. Its nature (massive Majorana or Dirac particle) is still escaping. Neutrinoless double beta decay ($0ν$-DBD) experimental discovery could be the ultimate answer to some delicate questions of elementary particle and nuclear physics. The Majorana description of neutri…
The beta+ decay of very neutron deficient 43Cr has been studied by means of an imaging time projection chamber which allowed recording tracks of charged particles. Events of beta-delayed emission of one-, two-, and three protons were clearly identified. The absolute branching ratios for these channels were determined to be 81(4)%, 7.1(4)%, and 0.08(3)%, respectively. The 43Cr is thus established as the second case in which the beta-3p decay occurs. Although the feeding to the proton-bound states in 43V is expected to be negligible, the large branching ratio of 12(4)% for decays without proton …
Beta-delayed neutron emission is important for nuclear structure and astrophysics as well as for reactor applications. Significant advances in nuclear experimental techniques in the past two decades have led to a wealth of new measurements that remain to be incorporated in the databases. We report on a coordinated effort to compile and evaluate all the available beta-delayed neutron emission data. The different measurement techniques have been assessed and the data have been compared with semi-microscopic and microscopic-macroscopic models. The new microscopic database has been tested against …
We deployed a small, 80kg, antineutrino detector based on solid plastic scintillator, called MiniCHANDLER for nearly three months at a distance of 25m from a 2.9GW thermal power reactor core at the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station. We report the detection of an antineutrino signal resulting from inverse beta decay at 5.5 sigma significance with no overburden and minimal shielding. This result also demonstrates that 3D segmentation can be used to significantly improve the signal to noise ratio, in this case by a factor of 4. In addition, this measurement represents an observation of the po…
We identify a new, flux-dependent correction to the antineutrino spectrum as produced in nuclear reactors. The abundance of certain nuclides, whose decay chains produce antineutrinos above the threshold for inverse beta decay, has a nonlinear dependence on the neutron flux, unlike the vast majority of antineutrino producing nuclides, whose decay rate is directly related to the fission rate. We have identified four of these so-called nonlinear nuclides and determined that they result in an antineutrino excess at low-energies below 3.2MeV, dependent on the reactor thermal neutron flux. We develo…
We report new calculations of reactor antineutrino spectra including the latest information from nuclear databases and a detailed error budget. The first part of this work is the so-called ab initio approach where the total antineutrino spectrum is built from the sum of all beta-branches of all fission products predicted by an evolution code. Systematic effects and missing information in nuclear databases lead to final relative uncertainties in the 10 to 20% range. A prediction of the antineutrino spectrum associated with the fission of 238U is given based on this ab initio method. For the dom…
Potential applications of neutrino detection to nuclear security have been discussed since the 1970s. Recent years have seen great progress in detector technologies based on inverse beta decay, with the demonstration of ton-scale surface-level detectors capable of high quality neutrino spectrum measurements. At the same time coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering has been experimentally confirmed in 2017 with neutrinos from stopped pion decay and there is a number of experiments aimed at seeing this reaction with reactor neutrinos. The large cross section and threshold-less nature of thi…
We report a reanalysis of the reactor antineutrino energy spectra based on the new relative measurements of the ratio $R=\!^{e}S_5/^{e}S_9$ between cumulative $β$ spectra from $^{235}$U and $^{239}$Pu, performed at a research reactor in National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute (KI). A discrepancy with the $β$ spectra measured at Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) was observed, indicating a steady excess of the ILL ratio by the factor of $1.054\pm0.002$. We find a value of the ratio between inverse beta decay cross section per fission for $^{235}$U and $^{239}$Pu: $(^5σ_f/^9σ_f)_{KI} = 1.45 \pm 0…
The potential of elastic antineutrino-electron scattering in a Gd-doped water Cherenkov detector to determine the direction of a nuclear reactor antineutrino flux was investigated using the recently proposed WATCHMAN antineutrino experiment as a baseline model. The expected scattering rate was determined assuming a 13-km standoff from a 3.758-GWt light water nuclear reactor and the detector response was modeled using a Geant4-based simulation package. Background was estimated via independent simulations and by scaling published measurements from similar detectors. Background contributions were…
In this paper we present results of a long-term observation of the decay of 22Na in the presence of a nuclear fission reactor. The measurements were made outside the containment wall of and underneath the Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town, South Africa. Antineutrino fluxes ranged from ~5*10^11 to 1.6*10^13 cm^-2 s^-1 during this period. We show that the coincidence summing technique provides a sensitive tool to measure a change in the total decay constant as well as the branching ratio between EC and beta+ decay of 22Na to the first excited state in 22Ne. We observe a relative change …
We calculate the Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) antineutrino spectrum generated by nuclear reactors using the summation method to understand deviations from the smooth Huber-Mueller model due to the decay of individual fission products, showing that plotting the ratio of two adjacent spectra points can effectively reveal these deviations. We obtained that for binning energies of 0.1 MeV or lower, abrupt changes in the spectra due to the jagged nature of the individual antineutrino spectra could be observed for highly precise experiments. Surprisingly, our calculations also reveal a peak-like feature…
One of the most puzzling questions in neutrino physics is the origin of the excess at 5 MeV in the reactor antineutrino spectrum. In this paper, we explore the excess via the reaction $^{13}$C$(\overlineν, \overlineν^\prime n)^{12}$C$^*$ in organic scintillator detectors. The de-excitation of $^{12}$C$^*$ yields a prompt $4.4$ MeV photon, while the thermalization of the product neutron causes proton recoils, which in turn yield an additional prompt energy contribution with finite width. Together, these effects can mimic an inverse beta decay event with around 5 MeV energy. We consider several …
Predictions of antineutrino fluxes produced by fission isotopes in a nuclear reactor have recently received increased scrutiny due to observed differences in predicted and measured inverse beta decay (IBD) yields, referred to as the 'reactor antineutrino flux anomaly.' In this paper, global fits are applied to existing IBD yield measurements to produce constraints on antineutrino production by individual plutonium and uranium fission isotopes. We find that fits including measurements from highly 235U-enriched cores and fits including Daya Bay's new fuel evolution result produce discrepant best…
Reactor neutrino experiments have seen major improvements in precision in recent years. With the experimental uncertainties becoming lower than those from theory, carefully considering all sources of $\overlineν_{e}$ is important when making theoretical predictions. One source of $\overlineν_{e}$ that is often neglected arises from the irradiation of the nonfuel materials in reactors. The $\overlineν_{e}$ rates and energies from these sources vary widely based on the reactor type, configuration, and sampling stage during the reactor cycle and have to be carefully considered for each experiment…
In this paper, we study the impact of the inclusion of the recently measured beta decay properties of the $^{102;104;105;106;107}$Tc, $^{105}$Mo, and $^{101}$Nb nuclei in an updated calculation of the antineutrino energy spectra of the four fissible isotopes $^{235, 238}$U, and $^{239,241}$Pu. These actinides are the main contributors to the fission processes in Pressurized Water Reactors. The beta feeding probabilities of the above-mentioned Tc, Mo and Nb isotopes have been found to play a major role in the $γ$ component of the decay heat of $^{239}$Pu, solving a large part of the $γ$ discrep…
The Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, PROSPECT, is designed to make a precise measurement of the antineutrino spectrum from a highly-enriched uranium reactor and probe eV-scale sterile neutrinos by searching for neutrino oscillations over meter-long distances. PROSPECT is conceived as a 2-phase experiment utilizing segmented $^6$Li-doped liquid scintillator detectors for both efficient detection of reactor antineutrinos through the inverse beta decay reaction and excellent background discrimination. PROSPECT Phase I consists of a movable 3-ton antineutrino detector at dist…
