194 research outputs found
Deep Learning the Effects of Photon Sensors on the Event Reconstruction Performance in an Antineutrino Detector
We provide a fast approach incorporating the usage of deep learning for
evaluating the effects of photon sensors in an antineutrino detector on the
event reconstruction performance therein. This work is an attempt to harness
the power of deep learning for detector designing and upgrade planning. Using
the Daya Bay detector as a benchmark case and the vertex reconstruction
performance as the objective for the deep neural network, we find that the
photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have different relative importance to the vertex
reconstruction. More importantly, the vertex position resolutions for the Daya
Bay detector follow approximately a multi-exponential relationship with respect
to the number of PMTs and hence, the coverage. This could also assist in
deciding on the merits of installing additional PMTs for future detector plans.
The approach could easily be used with other objectives in place of vertex
reconstruction
Evolution of the Reactor Antineutrino Flux and Spectrum at Daya Bay
The Daya Bay experiment has observed correlations between reactor core fuel
evolution and changes in the reactor antineutrino flux and energy spectrum.
Four antineutrino detectors in two experimental halls were used to identify 2.2
million inverse beta decays (IBDs) over 1230 days spanning multiple fuel cycles
for each of six 2.9 GW reactor cores at the Daya Bay and Ling
Ao nuclear power plants. Using detector data spanning effective Pu
fission fractions, , from 0.25 to 0.35, Daya Bay measures an average
IBD yield, , of
cm/fission and a fuel-dependent variation in the IBD yield,
, of cm/fission.
This observation rejects the hypothesis of a constant antineutrino flux as a
function of the Pu fission fraction at 10 standard deviations. The
variation in IBD yield was found to be energy-dependent, rejecting the
hypothesis of a constant antineutrino energy spectrum at 5.1 standard
deviations. While measurements of the evolution in the IBD spectrum show
general agreement with predictions from recent reactor models, the measured
evolution in total IBD yield disagrees with recent predictions at 3.1.
This discrepancy indicates that an overall deficit in measured flux with
respect to predictions does not result from equal fractional deficits from the
primary fission isotopes U, Pu, U, and Pu.
Based on measured IBD yield variations, yields of and cm/fission have been determined for the two
dominant fission parent isotopes U and Pu. A 7.8% discrepancy
between the observed and predicted U yield suggests that this isotope
may be the primary contributor to the reactor antineutrino anomaly.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
New measurement of via neutron capture on hydrogen at Daya Bay
This article reports an improved independent measurement of neutrino mixing
angle at the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. Electron
antineutrinos were identified by inverse -decays with the emitted
neutron captured by hydrogen, yielding a data-set with principally distinct
uncertainties from that with neutrons captured by gadolinium. With the final
two of eight antineutrino detectors installed, this study used 621 days of data
including the previously reported 217-day data set with six detectors. The
dominant statistical uncertainty was reduced by 49%. Intensive studies of the
cosmogenic muon-induced Li and fast neutron backgrounds and the
neutron-capture energy selection efficiency, resulted in a reduction of the
systematic uncertainty by 26%. The deficit in the detected number of
antineutrinos at the far detectors relative to the expected number based on the
near detectors yielded in the
three-neutrino-oscillation framework. The combination of this result with the
gadolinium-capture result is also reported.Comment: 26 pages, 23 figure
- …