Joint IIHE / ULB PhysTh seminar: Current status of reactor neutrino fluxes and the implications for the anomaly

by Prof. Anna Catherine Hayes-Sterbenz (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Thursday 12 Mar 2015, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Brussels

Jean Sacton seminar room (1G003) (IIHE)

abstract: In this talk I will discuss the origin of the reactor neutrino anomaly, the physics issues involved, and the uncertainties. Since the suggestion of an anomaly, a second puzzle has arisen with the reactor antineutrino spectra, namely the appearance of a shoulder in the spectra measured at Daya Bay, RENO, and Double Chooz. The shoulder is predicted within some nuclear database analyses, but these nuclear databases lack the accuracy to make definitive predictions. Thus, there is a clear need for new short baseline reactor neutrino experiments. I will examine the expected signals from these different experiments and the effect of differences in the hardness of the neutron spectrum on the expected shape of the antineutrino flux.

Slides HAYES-Brussels.pdf