PROSPECT - A Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment at Short Baselines
Abstract
Current models of antineutrino production in nuclear reactors predict detection rates and spectra at odds with the existing body of direct reactor antineutrino measurements. High-resolution antineutrino detectors operated close to compact research reactor cores can produce new precision measurements useful in testing explanations for these observed discrepancies involving underlying nuclear or new physics. Absolute measurement of the 235U-produced antineutrino spectrum can provide additional constraints for evaluating the accuracy of current and future reactor models, while relative measurements of spectral distortion between differing baselines can be used to search for oscillations arising from the existence of eV-scale sterile neutrinos. Such a measurement can be performed in the United States at several highly-enriched uranium fueled research reactors using near-surface segmented liquid scintillator detectors. We describe here the conceptual design and physics potential of the PROSPECT experiment, a U.S.-based, multi-phase experiment with reactor-detector baselines of 7-20 meters capable of addressing these and other physics and detector development goals. Current R&D status and future plans for PROSPECT detector deployment and data-taking at the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1309.7647,
title = {PROSPECT - A Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment at Short Baselines},
author = {J. Ashenfelter and A. B. Balantekin and H. R. Band and G. Barclay and C. Bass and N. S. Bowden and C. D. Bryan and J. J. Cherwinka and R. Chu and T. Classen and D. Davee and D. Dean and G. Deichert and M. Diwan and M. J. Dolinski and J. Dolph and D. A. Dwyer and Y. Efremenko and S. Fan and A. Galindo-Uribarri and K. Gilje and A. Glenn and M. Green and K. Han and S. Hans and K. M. Heeger and B. Heffron and L. Hu and P. Huber and D. E. Jaffe and Y. Kamyshkov and S. Kettell and C. Lane and T. J. Langford and B. R. Littlejohn and D. Martinez and R. D. McKeown and M. P. Mendenhall and S. Morrell and P. Mueller and H. P. Mumm and J. Napolitano and J. S. Nico and D. Norcini and D. Pushin and X. Qian and E. Romero and R. Rosero and B. S. Seilhan and R. Sharma and P. T. Surukuchi and S. J. Thompson and R. L. Varner and B. Viren and W. Wang and B. White and C. White and J. Wilhelmi and C. Williams and R. E. Williams and T. Wise and H. Yao and M. Yeh and N. Zaitseva and C. Zhang and X. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.7647},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
White paper prepared for Snowmass-2013; Updated to reflect experimental status as of January 2015. 18 pages, 12 figures