Decomposition of fissile isotope antineutrino spectra using convolutional neural network

Recent reactor antineutrino experiments have observed that the neutrino spectrum changes with the reactor core evolution and that the individual fissile isotope antineutrino spectra can be decomposed from the evolving data,providing valuable information for the reactor model and data inconsistent problems.We propose a machine learning method by building a convolutional neural network based on a virtual experiment with a typical short-baseline reactor antineutrino experiment configuration:by utilizing the reactor evolution information,the major fissile isotope spectra are correctly extracted,and the uncertainties are evaluated using the Monte Carlo method.Validation tests show that the method is unbiased and introduces tiny extra uncertainties.

Improvement of Test of Solar Neutrino Coherent Scattering with Torsion Pendulum

A torsion pendulum containing two sapphire crystals and two lead rings is used to test Weber＇s theory of enhanced solar neutrino coherent scattering. Our experiment gives a null result for the diurnal force with a noise level of 3.8 × 10^-14 N, which is 526 times smaller than the predicted value of Weber＇s theory, and directly rules out Weber＇s theory and the experimental result. This experiment also reveals a test of the weak equivalence principle with η （Al2O3, Pb） （0.8 ± 3.1） × 10^-10 for masses falling toward the Sun.

Solving the Solar Neutrino Problem

A new theoretical prediction that a plasma can produce antineutrinos is used to solve the solar neutrino problem. The difference between electron-positron induced fusion, and inertial fusion experiments that have been unsuccessful so far as commercial fusion reactors is also discussed.

Prospects of detecting the reactor v_(e)-Ar coherent elastic scattering with a low-threshold dual-phase argon time projection chamber at Taishan

Background We propose to measure the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering(CEvNS)using a dual-phase liquid argon time projection chamber(TPC)with 200 kg fiducial mass.The detector is expected to be adjacent to the JUNOTAO experiment and to be about 35 m from a reactor core with 4.6 GW thermal power at Taishan.The antineutrino flux is approximately 6×10^(12)cm^(−1)s^(−1) at this location,leading to more than 11,000 coherent scattering events per day in the fiducial mass.Motivation The nuclear recoil energies concentrate in the sub-keV region,corresponding to less than ten ionization electrons in the liquid argon.The key question is how to veto and shield the background in the hall where the vertical overburden is about 5 m.w.e.And what is the signal count rate and the background rate.In addition,what physical parameters can be measured what is the sensitivity.Methods We used the Geant4 to simulate the backgrounds from cosmic ray muons and ambient radioactivity decays.And a veto and shielding design is presented.Then a χ^(2) function is constructed and the sensitivity calculate package built to calculate the sensitivity of physical parameters.Results The detection of several ionization electrons can be achieved in the dual-phase TPC due to the large amplification in the gas region.With a feasible detection threshold of four ionization electrons,the signal rate is 955 per day.The detector is designed to be shielded well from cosmogenic backgrounds and ambient radioactivities to reach a 16%background-tosignal ratio in the energy region of interest.With the large CEvNS sample,the expected sensitivity of measuring the weak mixing angle sin^(2)θ_(w),and of limiting the neutrino magnetic moment are discussed.In addition,a synergy between the reactor antineutrino CEvNS experiment and the dark matter experiment is foreseen.

Improved measurement of the reactor antineutrino flux and spectrum at Daya Bay

A new measurement of the reactor antineutrino flux and energy spectrum by the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment is reported. The antineutrinos were generated by six 2.9 GWth nuclear reactors and detected by eight antineutrino detectors deployed in two near（560 m and 600 m flux-weighted baselines） and one far（1640 m flux-weighted baseline） underground experimental halls. With 621 days of data, more than 1.2 million inverse beta decay（IBD） candidates were detected. The IBD yield in the eight detectors was measured, and the ratio of measured to predicted flux was found to be 0.946±0.020（0.992±0.021） for the Huber＋Mueller（ILL＋Vogel） model. A 2.9σ deviation was found in the measured IBD positron energy spectrum compared to the predictions. In particular, an excess of events in the region of 4–6 MeV was found in the measured spectrum, with a local significance of 4.4σ. A reactor antineutrino spectrum weighted by the IBD cross section is extracted for model-independent predictions.

Leakage tests of the stainless steel vessels of the antineutrino detectors in the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment

The antineutrino detectors for the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment are liquid scintillator detectors designed to detect electron anti-neutrino via inverse beta interactions with high efficiency and low backgrounds.Since the antineutrino detector will be installed and immerged in water Cherenkov detector and will run for 3 to 5 years,water tightness is critical to the successful operation of the antineutrino detectors.A special seal technique was used for this purpose.Three leak checking methods have been employed to ensure the seal quality.This paper describes the sealing method and leakage testing results.

Suppressing ringing caused by large photomultiplier tube signals

We describe here the characteristic features of the ringing we observed following large PMT signals in the Daya Bay reactor antineutrino experiment. We conclude that the ceramic capacitors used in the circuitry of the PMT bases and the HV-signal decouplers are the primary cause for this ringing. We present some possible schemes to reduce the ringing when replacing these ceramic capacitors is not feasible.

Detector control system for Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment is to measure the smallest mixing angle θ13.The experiment contains three major experiment halls,Daya Bay near site,Linao near site and far site,and two major kinds of detectors,antineutrino detector which is to detect the antineutrinos by the inverse beta-decay reaction in Gd-LS,and muon detector which is to study and reject cosmogenic backgrounds.The goal of the detector control system(DCS)is to operate and detect the detectors and keep them running in safety.In consideration of the limited fund of this system and manpower of working on this system,the LabVIEW is chosen to develop the detector control system.The architecture of DCS adopts the distributed data management which is based on client-server model.The server part is to detect and operate parameters from hardware,save data to database and release data to clients,the client is to receive data from the server.The detector control system contains three parts:the hardware part,the local control system and the global control part.The local control system includes high voltage supply system,low voltage supply system,VME crate system,temperature and humidity system,gas pressure system,and so on.

Terrestrial matter effects on reactor antineutrino oscillations at JUNO or RENO-50:how small is small?

We have carefully examined, in both analytical and numerical ways, how small the terrestrial matter effects can be in a given medium-baseline reactor antineutrino oscillation experiment like JUNO or RENO-50. Taking the forthcoming JUNO experiment as an example, we show that the inclusion of terrestrial matter effects may reduce the sensitivity of the neutrino mass ordering measurement by Δχ^2MO≌0.6, and a neglect of such effects may shift the best-fit values of the flavor mixing angle θ12 and the neutrino mass-squared difference Δ21 by about 1σ to 2σ in the future data analysis. In addition, a preliminary estimate indicates that a 2σ sensitivity of establishing the terrestrial matter effects can be achieved for about 10 years of data taking at JUNO with the help of a suitable near detector implementation.

A study of antineutrino spectra from spent nuclear fuel at Daya Bay

The Daya Bay Reactor Antineutrino Experiment is designed to determine the as yet unknown neutrino mixing angle,θ13,by measuring the disappearance of electron antineutrinos from several nuclear reactor cores.The projected sensitivity in sin2（2θ13） of better than 0.01 at a 90% CL should be achieved after three years of data-taking.Antineutrinos emitted from spent nuclear fuel （SNF） distort the soft part of the energy spectrum.In this article,a calculation of the antineutrino spectra from the long-life isotopes in SNF is performed.A non-equilibrium generation of long half-life isotopes during the running time of the reactor is also analyzed.Finally,we show that the antineutrino event rate contribution from SNF,which has been stored in the SNF pool for several years,may be non-negligible.

Sub-percent precision measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters with JUNO

JUNO is a multi-purpose neutrino observatory under construction in the south of China.This publication presents new sensitivity estimates for the measurement of the △m_(31)^(2),△m_(21)^(2),sin^(2)θ_(12),and sin^(2)θ_(13) oscillation parameters using reactor antineutrinos,which is one of the primary physics goals of the experiment.The sensitivities are obtained using the best knowledge available to date on the location and overburden of the experimental site,the nuclear reactors in the surrounding area and beyond,the detector response uncertainties,and the reactor antineutrino spectral shape constraints expected from the TAO satellite detector.It is found that the △m_(21)^(2) and sin^(2)θ_(12) oscillation parameters will be determined to 0.5%precision or better in six years of data collection.In the same period,the △m_(31)^(2) parameter will be determined to about 0.2%precision for each mass ordering hypothesis.The new precision represents approximately an order of magnitude improvement over existing constraints for these three parameters.

Antineutrino energy spectrum unfolding based on the Daya Bay measurement and its applications

The prediction of reactor antineutrino spectra will play a crucial role as reactor experiments enter the precision era.The positron energy spectrum of 3.5 million antineutrino inverse beta decay reactions observed by the Daya Bay experiment,in combination with the fission rates of fissile isotopes in the reactor,is used to extract the positron energy spectra resulting from the fission of specific isotopes.This information can be used to produce a precise,data-based prediction of the antineutrino energy spectrum in other reactor antineutrino experiments with different fission fractions than Daya Bay.The positron energy spectra are unfolded to obtain the antineutrino energy spectra by removing the contribution from detector response with the Wiener-SVD unfolding method.Consistent results are obtained with other unfolding methods.A technique to construct a data-based prediction of the reactor antineutrino energy spectrum is proposed and investigated.Given the reactor fission fractions,the technique can predict the energy spectrum to a 2%precision.In addition,we illustrate how to perform a rigorous comparison between the unfolded antineutrino spectrum and a theoretical model prediction that avoids the input model bias of the unfolding method.