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

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 ${}^{239}\mathrm{Pu}$ and ${}^{241}\mathrm{Pu}$ in the LEU reactor data, the Inverse-Beta-Decay (IBD) yields and their correlations of the fissionable isotopes ${}^{235}\mathrm{U}$, ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}$, 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.

Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures. With more discussions and references added, accepted for publication at Physical Review D