Model-Independent Determination of Isotopic Cross Sections per Fission for Reactor Antineutrinos

TL;DR

This paper presents a model-independent method to determine reactor isotopic cross sections per fission using global antineutrino data, achieving high accuracy and addressing previous anomalies.

Contribution

It introduces a data-driven approach that combines various reactor data to accurately determine isotopic cross sections without relying on specific models.

Findings

Achieves better than 1% accuracy in expected reactor IBD yields.

Provides an anomaly-free model for reactor isotopic cross sections.

Utilizes a global fit approach incorporating multiple reactor data sources.

Abstract

Model-independent reactor isotopic cross sections per fission are determined by global fits of the reactor antineutrino data from High-Enriched Uranium (HEU) reactor rates, Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) reactor rates, and reactor fuel evolution data. Taking account of the implicit quasi-linear relationship between the fission fractions of $^{239}\rm{Pu}$ and $^{241}\rm{Pu}$ in the LEU reactor data, the Inverse-Beta-Decay (IBD) yields and their correlations of the fissionable isotopes $^{235}\rm{U}$, $^{238}\rm{U}$, and Pu's are obtained. The data-driven isotopic IBD yields provide an anomaly-free model for the reactor isotopic cross sections per fission, where better than 1\% accuracy of the expected reactor IBD yields can be achieved for future experiments.