Systematics of Inverse-Beta-Decay antineutrino yields

Grace Farrell, Department of Physics, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251

Elizabeth McCutchan, Department of Nuclear Science and Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton NY 11973

There is currently a great interest in understanding the production of antineutrinos at nuclear reactors, covering a wide range of scientific and applied topics, such as neutrino oscillations, possible existence of additional neutrinos, and nuclear reactors monitoring.  The antineutrinos generated by nuclear reactors are produced by neutron-rich fission products as they decay towards the valley of stability.   These antineutrinos are detected using large water tanks, where the protons in the water molecules can transform into a neutron and positron following an interaction with antineutrinos through the Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) reactions. In this project, we will develop a method to derive a solid estimate of the IBD antineutrino yield from existing data and apply it to cases where experimental data is missing. Antineutrinos, are subatomic particles created from the negative beta decay, are some of the smallest particles known and can pass through anything without being detected. To be able to detected the antineutrinos there would have to be a catalyst to create  a lot of neutrinos which is done by a controlled nuclear explosion, and collect data from the fissions created. A fission is a separation of the nucleus into smaller particles creating smaller nuclei using the anticorrelation between nuclides’ half-lives with its IBD antineutrino yield