Deficit of reactor antineutrinos at distances smaller than 100 m and inverse beta-decay

TL;DR

This paper investigates how adjusting neutron lifetime values affects the reactor antineutrino deficit at short distances, incorporating detailed calculations of inverse beta-decay including various corrections.

Contribution

It provides a refined calculation of the inverse beta-decay process considering neutron lifetime variations and higher-order corrections, offering insights into the reactor antineutrino anomaly.

Findings

Antineutrino deficit increases by approximately 0.734%.

Calculated angular distribution and cross section with corrections.

Analyzed impact of neutron lifetime change on antineutrino measurements.

Abstract

We analyse a change of a deficit of reactor antineutrinos at distances smaller than 100 m by changing the lifetime of the neutron from tau_n = 885.7 s to tau_n = 879.6 s, calculated for the axial coupling constants lambda = - 1.2694 and lambda = - 1.2750, respectively, in order to get a result corresponding the new world average value tau_n = 880.1(1.1) s. We calculate the angular distribution and cross section for the inverse beta-decay, taking into account the contributions of the "weak magnetism" and the neutron recoil to next-to-leading order in the large baryon mass expansion and the radiative corrections of order alpha/\pi ~ 10^(-3), calculated to leading order in the large baryon mass expansion. We obtain an increase of a deficit of reactor antineutrinos in of about 0.734%.