Joint Determination of Reactor Antineutrino Spectra from U235 and Pu239 Fission by Daya Bay and PROSPECT

• Published in: Physical review letters 2022-02, Vol.128 (8)
• Main Authors: An, F. P., Balantekin, A. B., Bass, C. D., Bergeron, D. E., Bowden, N. S., Chang, J. F., Chen, H. S., Chen, Y., Chen, Y. X., Cherwinka, J. J., Chu, M. C., Dalager, O., Deng, F. S., Dohnal, T., Dolzhikov, D., Dove, J., Gaison, J. K., Galindo-Uribarri, A., Gilbert, C. E., Gonchar, M., Gong, H., Grassi, M., Guo, J. Y., Guo, X. H., Guo, Z., Hans, S., Hor, Y. K., Hu, B. Z., Hu, J. R., Hu, T., Huang, H. X., Jen, K. L., Ji, X. L., Jones, D. C., Kang, L., LaRosa, J., Lee, J., Lee, J. H. C., Lei, R. T., Leitner, R., Li, H. L., Li, S., Li, S. C., Li, W. D., Li, X. Q., Li, Z. B., Link, J. M., Liu, J. C., Lu, C., Lu, X., Luk, K. B., Ma, X. B., Ma, X. Y., Ma, Y. Q., Meng, Y., Meyer, A. M., Naumov, D., Nikkel, J. A., Nour, S., Palomino, J. L., Pan, H. -R., Park, J., Patton, S., Pun, C. S. J., Pushin, D. A., Qian, X., Ren, J., Rosero, R., Roskovec, B., Sun, J. L., Treskov, K., Tull, C. E., Varner, R. L., Venegas-Vargas, D., Vorobel, V., Wang, C. H., Wang, M., Wang, Y. F., Wei, L. H., Wong, H. L. H., Wu, D. R., Wu, F. L., Wu, W. J., Xie, Z. Q., Xing, Z. Z., Yang, Y. Z., Yao, H. F., Ye, M., Yeh, M., Zeng, S., Zhan, L., Zhang, C., Zhang, F. Y., Zhang, X., Zhang, X. T., Zhang, Y. M., Zhang, Y. Y., Zhang, Z. P., Zhang, Z. Y., Zhou, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Neutrino detectors; Neutrino interactions; Neutrinos; NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; Nuclear reactors; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114

A joint determination of the reactor antineutrino spectra resulting from the fission of 235U and 239Pu has been carried out by the Daya Bay and PROSPECT Collaborations. This Letter reports the level of consistency of 235U spectrum measurements from the two experiments and presents new results from a joint analysis of both data sets. Here, the measurements are found to be consistent. The combined analysis reduces the degeneracy between the dominant 235U and 239Pu isotopes and improves the uncertainty of the 235U spectral shape to about 3%. The 235U and 239Pu antineutrino energy spectra are unfolded from the jointly deconvolved reactor spectra using the Wiener-SVD unfolding method, providing a data-based reference for other reactor antineutrino experiments and other applications. This is the first measurement of the 235U and 239Pu spectra based on the combination of experiments at low- and highly enriched uranium reactors.