Characterizing the Footprint of Neutrinos: A Comprehensive Study

October 24, 2023

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Endorsed by the US Department of Energy

Neutrinos, some of the natural world's most secretive and least comprehended subatomic particles, rarely interact with matter. This makes precision studies of the neutrino and its antimatter analogue, the antineutrino, pretty tricky. These particles are best studied in the strong neutrino emissions of nuclear reactors. A tool specifically designed for refined analyses of electron antineutrinos from the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) core, named the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment (PROSPECT), has been developed by researchers.

The PROSPECT consortium recently made public the most accurate measurement yet of antineutrinos' energy spectrum resulting from uranium-235 (U-235) fission. This new data enriches scientists' understanding of these particles.

More than 60 contributors from 13 universities and four national laboratories make up the PROSPECT team. They constructed a unique antineutrino detection system and installed it with specialized shielding against background interference at the HFIR research reactor, a DOE Office of Science user facility located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The experiments were primarily focused on antineutrinos produced by the disintegration of U-235. The beta decay of nuclear substances creates these antineutrinos, which are the antimatter particle equivalent of neutrinos.

PROSPECT offers insight into essential neutrino physics and facilitates better comprehension of nuclear processes in fission reactors. The experiment has yielded the most accurate measure of the U-235 antineutrino energy spectrum and has helped establish new restrictions on the source of the apparent inconsistencies between observed data and theoretical models. The results underline the necessity for improved models to describe the generation of antineutrinos from fissionable isotopes. The journal Physical Review Letters published the findings.

Neutrinos' characteristics are of interest to scientists because they allow direct testing of the Standard Model of particle physics, the theory that elucidates how all fundamental particles in the universe interact. Discrepancies between predictions based on this model and experimental data have generated suggestions for physics phenomena that the Standard Model does not explain. Specifically, reactor-based tests detected fewer neutrinos than anticipated and identified inconsistencies in a small part of the energy spectrum.

The PROSPECT collaboration provides an understanding of these discrepancies with a new reference energy spectrum and novel restrictions on the origin of these data-model deviations.

Experiments performed at nuclear reactors have reached critical milestones in neutrino physics, including the initial experimental detection of the particle and the verification that neutrinos change form as they traverse space. HFIR's high-intensity and a compact core of highly enriched U-235 fuel make it an ideal location to further study the association between reactors and new insights into neutrino properties.

Journal Information: Physical Review Letters

Article Source: US Department of Energy