Search for very-short-baseline oscillations of reactor antineutrinos with the SoLid detector

In this paper we report the first scientific result based on antineutrinos emitted from the BR2 reactor at SCK CEN. The SoLid experiment uses a novel type of highly granular detector whose basic detection unit combines two scintillators, polyvinyl toluene (PVT) and <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mmultiscripts><a:mrow><a:mi>Li</a:mi></a:mrow><a:mprescripts/><a:none/><a:mrow><a:mn>6</a:mn></a:mrow></a:mmultiscripts><a:mi mathvariant="normal">F</a:mi><a:mo>:</a:mo><a:mi>ZnS</a:mi><a:mo stretchy="false">(</a:mo><a:mi>Ag</a:mi><a:mo stretchy="false">)</a:mo></a:mrow></a:math>, to measure antineutrinos via their inverse-<f:math xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><f:mi>β</f:mi></f:math>-decay products. An advantage of PVT is its highly linear response as a function of deposited particle energy. The full-scale detector comprises 12 800 voxels and operates over a very short 6.3–8.9 m baseline from the reactor core. The detector segmentation and its three-dimensional imaging capabilities facilitate the extraction of the positron energy from the rest of the visible energy, allowing the latter to be utilized for signal-background discrimination. We present a result obtained from 280 reactor-on days (55 MW mean power) and 172 reactor-off days, respectively, of live data taking. A total of <h:math xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><h:mrow><h:mn>29</h:mn><h:mtext> </h:mtext><h:mn>479</h:mn><h:mo>±</h:mo><h:mn>603</h:mn></h:mrow></h:math> (stat) antineutrino candidates have been selected, corresponding to an average rate of 105 events per day and a signal-to-background ratio of 0.27. A search for disappearance of antineutrinos to a sterile state has been conducted using complementary model-dependent frequentist and Bayesian fits, providing constraints on the allowed region of the reactor antineutrino anomaly.

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Journal
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Published
2025-04-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.072005
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Neutrino Physics Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.87

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article

Search for very-short-baseline oscillations of reactor antineutrinos with the SoLid detector

M. Settimo, Daniel J. Saunders, L. Manzanillas, N. Van Remortel et al.
1 citations
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
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article

Search for very-short-baseline oscillations of reactor antineutrinos with the SoLid detector

M. Settimo, Daniel J. Saunders, L. Manzanillas, N. Van Remortel, Leonidas Kalousis, L. Arnold, Y. Amhis, P. Crochet, D. Durand, P Van Mulders, F. Yermia, D. Ryckbosch, R. Keloth, Susan E. Manley, M. Fallot, M. Yeresko, A. Vacheret, J. D’Hondt, L. Simard, A. Weber, S. Gallego, I. Bolognino, A. De Roeck, D. Cussans, C. Moortgat, I. Piñera, H. Rejeb Sfar, S. Vercaemer, G. Vandierendonck, S. Kalcheva, M. Bongrand, V. Pestel, L. Ghys, D. Henaff, D. Galbinski, L. Koch, L. Giot, B. Guillon, D. M. Newbold, B. Viaud, S. Hayashida, W. Worby Beaumont, R. Schwemmer, N. Ryder, I. Michiels, S. Van Dyck, N. Roy, Kathleen Graves, M. Labare, D. Boursette, J. Mermans, V. Buridon, M. Verstraeten, B. Hosseini, S. Monteil, B. Coupé, G. Lehaut, Y. Abreu, H. Chanal, K. Petridis
article en
1 citations

Abstract

In this paper we report the first scientific result based on antineutrinos emitted from the BR2 reactor at SCK CEN. The SoLid experiment uses a novel type of highly granular detector whose basic detection unit combines two scintillators, polyvinyl toluene (PVT) and <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mmultiscripts><a:mrow><a:mi>Li</a:mi></a:mrow><a:mprescripts/><a:none/><a:mrow><a:mn>6</a:mn></a:mrow></a:mmultiscripts><a:mi mathvariant="normal">F</a:mi><a:mo>:</a:mo><a:mi>ZnS</a:mi><a:mo stretchy="false">(</a:mo><a:mi>Ag</a:mi><a:mo stretchy="false">)</a:mo></a:mrow></a:math>, to measure antineutrinos via their inverse-<f:math xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><f:mi>β</f:mi></f:math>-decay products. An advantage of PVT is its highly linear response as a function of deposited particle energy. The full-scale detector comprises 12 800 voxels and operates over a very short 6.3–8.9 m baseline from the reactor core. The detector segmentation and its three-dimensional imaging capabilities facilitate the extraction of the positron energy from the rest of the visible energy, allowing the latter to be utilized for signal-background discrimination. We present a result obtained from 280 reactor-on days (55 MW mean power) and 172 reactor-off days, respectively, of live data taking. A total of <h:math xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><h:mrow><h:mn>29</h:mn><h:mtext> </h:mtext><h:mn>479</h:mn><h:mo>±</h:mo><h:mn>603</h:mn></h:mrow></h:math> (stat) antineutrino candidates have been selected, corresponding to an average rate of 105 events per day and a signal-to-background ratio of 0.27. A search for disappearance of antineutrinos to a sterile state has been conducted using complementary model-dependent frequentist and Bayesian fits, providing constraints on the allowed region of the reactor antineutrino anomaly.

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.Vol. 111(7)
Université Paris-Sud (FR), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (GB), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE), University of Antwerp (BE), Royal Military Academy (BE), King's College - North Carolina (US), King's College London (GB), Institut Universitaire de France (FR), École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Caen (FR), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE), Université Clermont Auvergne (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), Ghent University (BE), University of Bristol (GB), University of Oxford (GB), Normandie Université (FR), Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et des Technologies Associées (FR), Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Caen (FR), Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (BE), Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (FR), Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (FR), Imperial College London (GB), The University of Adelaide (AU), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CH), Université de Caen Normandie (FR)
Merton College, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, European Commission, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Vlaamse regering, Herculesstichting, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Science and Technology Facilities Council, European Research Council, Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules, High Energy Physics
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Neutrino Physics Research
1.87
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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