English

Diagnosing the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly with Global Antineutrino Flux Data

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2019-04-24 v1

Abstract

We have examined the impact of new Daya Bay, Double Chooz, and RENO measurements on global fits of reactor antineutrino flux data to a variety of hypotheses regarding the origin of the reactor antineutrino anomaly. In comparing RENO and Daya Bay measurements of inverse beta decay (IBD) yield versus 239^{239}Pu fission fraction, we find differing levels of precision in measurements of time-integrated yield and yield slope, but similar central values, leading to modestly enhanced isotopic IBD yield measurements in a joint fit of the two datasets. In the absence of sterile neutrino oscillations, global fits to all measurements now provide 3{\sigma} preference for incorrect modeling of specific fission isotopes over common mis-modeling of all beta-converted isotopes. If sterile neutrino oscillations are considered, global IBD yield fits provide no substantial preference between oscillation-including and oscillation-excluding hypotheses: hybrid models containing both sterile neutrino oscillations and incorrect 235^{235}U or 239^{239}Pu flux predictions are favored at only 1-2{\sigma} with respect to models where 235^{235}U, 238^{238}U, and 239^{239}Pu are assumed to be incorrectly predicted.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.01807,
  title  = {Diagnosing the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly with Global Antineutrino Flux Data},
  author = {C. Giunti and Y. F. Li and B. R. Littlejohn and P. T. Surukuchi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.01807},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables