Version 2
Interpreting Reactor Antineutrino Anomalies with STEREO data

The STEREO collaboration Almazán, H. ; Bernard, L. ; Blanchet, A. ; et al.
Nature 613 (2023) 257-261, 2023.
Inspire Record 2165649 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.132368

Anomalies in past neutrino measurements have led to the discovery that these particles have non-zero mass and oscillate between their three flavors when they propagate. In the 2010's, similar anomalies observed in the antineutrino spectra emitted by nuclear reactors have triggered the hypothesis of the existence of a supplementary neutrino state that would be sterile i.e. not interacting via the weak interaction. The STEREO experiment was designed to study this scientific case that would potentially extend the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Here we present a complete study based on our full set of data with significantly improved sensitivity. Installed at the ILL (Institut Laue Langevin) research reactor, STEREO has accurately measured the antineutrino energy spectrum associated to the fission of 235U. This measurement confirms the anomalies whereas, thanks to the segmentation of the STEREO detector and its very short mean distance to the core (10~m), the same data reject the hypothesis of a light sterile neutrino. Such a direct measurement of the antineutrino energy spectrum suggests instead that biases in the nuclear experimental data used for the predictions are at the origin of the anomalies. Our result supports the neutrino content of the Standard Model and establishes a new reference for the 235U antineutrino energy spectrum. We anticipate that this result will allow to progress towards finer tests of the fundamental properties of neutrinos but also to benchmark models and nuclear data of interest for reactor physics and for observations of astrophysical or geo-neutrinos.

34 data tables

12B prediction used for the control of the energy scale. The three most intense beta decay branches of 12B have been taken into account, covering 99.94% of the total decay rate. The corresponding spectra are given in bins of 50 keV, normalized to their respective branching ratio. The [no rad. corr] notation stands for the fact that we didn't include the radiative corrections in our nominal simulation, as all radiated photons should be absorbed in the STEREO target volume. However the full effect of these corrections is included in the uncertainty of the predicted spectrum. It can be deduced from the comparison with the full calculation of the beta branches given here as well.

12B prediction used for the control of the energy scale. The three most intense beta decay branches of 12B have been taken into account, covering 99.94% of the total decay rate. The corresponding spectra are given in bins of 50 keV, normalized to their respective branching ratio. The [no rad. corr] notation stands for the fact that we didn't include the radiative corrections in our nominal simulation, as all radiated photons should be absorbed in the STEREO target volume. However the full effect of these corrections is included in the uncertainty of the predicted spectrum. It can be deduced from the comparison with the full calculation of the beta branches given here as well.

STEREO IBD Spectrum for phase-II and phase-III. The spectra are given in nu/day and normalized to reactor power in cm2/fission/MeV with 22 250keV-wide measured-energy bins, ranging from 1.625MeV (lower edge of lowest bin) to 7.125 MeV (upper edge of highest bin). The normalized rates (cm2/fission/MeV) are split between U5 and non-U5 components (Aluminium and Off-Equilibrium corrections).

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First antineutrino energy spectrum from $^{235}$U fissions with the STEREO detector at ILL

The STEREO collaboration Almazán, H. ; Bernard, L. ; Blanchet, A. ; et al.
J.Phys.G 48 (2021) 075107, 2021.
Inspire Record 1821378 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.99805

This article reports the measurement of the $^{235}$U-induced antineutrino spectrum shape by the STEREO experiment. 43'000 antineutrinos have been detected at about 10 m from the highly enriched core of the ILL reactor during 118 full days equivalent at nominal power. The measured inverse beta decay spectrum is unfolded to provide a pure $^{235}$U spectrum in antineutrino energy. A careful study of the unfolding procedure, including a cross-validation by an independent framework, has shown that no major biases are introduced by the method. A significant local distortion is found with respect to predictions around $E_\nu \simeq 5.3$ MeV. A gaussian fit of this local excess leads to an amplitude of $A = 12.1 \pm 3.4\%$ (3.5$\sigma$).

7 data tables

Data from Figure 13 – Measured IBD yield spectrum and area-normalized HM-based prediction. Here, error bars inlude only uncorrelated uncertainties, namely statistics, time-evolution systematic, reactor background systematic. This uncorrelated uncertainty is $\sigma_j$ in eqn.(14). The full covariance matrix is provided in another entry.

Total covariance matrix of the measured spectrum, including statistics and all systematic uncertainties. It is denoted $V_\text{pr}$ in eqn.(18).

STEREO Detector Response Matrix, sampled using STEREO's simulation using neutrinos with energy distributed according to HFR's IBD yield prediction. The matrix is given as a 200x22 matrix, with 200 50keV-wide $E_\nu$ bins (centers ranging from 0.05 to 10 MeV) and 22 250keV-wide measured-energy bins corresponding to measured data. The matrix is not normalized; desired normalization (e.g., $\sum_j R_{ij} = e_i$ where $e_i$ is the efficiency) has to be applied before the matrix can be used.

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Version 3
Improved Sterile Neutrino Constraints from the STEREO Experiment with 179 Days of Reactor-On Data

The STEREO collaboration Almazán, H. ; Bernard, L. ; Blanchet, A. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.D 102 (2020) 052002, 2020.
Inspire Record 1770821 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.92323

The STEREO experiment is a very short baseline reactor antineutrino experiment. It is designed to test the hypothesis of light sterile neutrinos being the cause of a deficit of the observed antineutrino interaction rate at short baselines with respect to the predicted rate, known as the reactor antineutrino anomaly. The STEREO experiment measures the antineutrino energy spectrum in six identical detector cells covering baselines between 9 and 11 m from the compact core of the ILL research reactor. In this article, results from 179 days of reactor turned on and 235 days of reactor turned off are reported at a high degree of detail. The current results include improvements in the modelling of detector optical properties and the gamma-cascade after neutron captures by gadolinium, the treatment of backgrounds, and the statistical method of the oscillation analysis. Using a direct comparison between antineutrino spectra of all cells, largely independent of any flux prediction, we find the data compatible with the null oscillation hypothesis. The best-fit point of the reactor antineutrino anomaly is rejected at more than 99.9% C.L.

25 data tables

Data from Figure 30 – Relative comparison between the estimated rates of IBD events $A_{l,i}$ (for cell $l$ and energy bin $i$) and the fitted no-oscillation model $M_{l,i}(0, 0, \vec{\alpha})~\phi_i$ as a function of reconstructed energy $E_\text{rec}$ after a fit to phase-I+II data. Due to less statistics, the highest energy bin is excluded from the oscillation analysis in phase-I. For technical reasons, its value is set equal to zero in this dataset. A graphical presentation can be downloaded at "Resources" for reference.

Data from Figure 30 – Relative comparison between the estimated rates of IBD events $A_{l,i}$ (for cell $l$ and energy bin $i$) and the re-normalised no-oscillation model $\phi_i M_{l,i}(\sin^2(2\theta_{ee}) = 0)$ as a function of reconstructed energy $E_\text{rec}$ after a fit to phase-I+II data. Due to less statistics, the highest energy bin is excluded from the oscillation analysis in phase-I. For technical reasons, its value is set equal to zero in this dataset. A full graphical presentation can be downloaded at "Resources" for reference.

Data from Figure 30 – Relative comparison between the estimated rates of IBD events $A_{l,i}$ (for cell $l$ and energy bin $i$) and the fitted no-oscillation model $M_{l,i}(0, 0, \vec{\alpha})~\phi_i$ as a function of reconstructed energy $E_\text{rec}$ after a fit to phase-I+II data. Due to less statistics, the highest energy bin is excluded from the oscillation analysis in phase-I. For technical reasons, its value is set equal to zero in this dataset. A graphical presentation can be downloaded at "Resources" for reference.

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