Improved Measurement of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay

TL;DR

This paper reports a precise measurement of the reactor antineutrino flux and spectrum at Daya Bay, revealing a significant excess in the 4-6 MeV energy region and comparing results to theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides the most accurate measurement to date of reactor antineutrino flux and spectrum, including a detailed comparison with existing models and identification of spectral anomalies.

Findings

Measured IBD yield ratio to models: 0.946 and 0.992

Detected a 4.4σ excess in the 4-6 MeV energy region

Observed a 2.9σ deviation in the energy spectrum

Abstract

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~GW$_{\mathrm{th}}$ 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 $0.946\pm0.020$ ($0.992\pm0.021$) for the Huber+Mueller (ILL+Vogel) model. A 2.9~$\sigma$ 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 4.4~$\sigma$. A reactor antineutrino spectrum weighted by the IBD cross section is extracted for model-independent predictions.