학술논문

First Measurement of High-Energy Reactor Antineutrinos at Daya Bay
Document Type
article
Source
Physical Review Letters. 129(4)
Subject
Nuclear and Plasma Physics
Particle and High Energy Physics
Synchrotrons and Accelerators
Physical Sciences
Affordable and Clean Energy
Daya Bay Collaboration
Mathematical Sciences
Engineering
General Physics
Mathematical sciences
Physical sciences
Language
Abstract
This Letter reports the first measurement of high-energy reactor antineutrinos at Daya Bay, with nearly 9000 inverse beta decay candidates in the prompt energy region of 8-12 MeV observed over 1958 days of data collection. A multivariate analysis is used to separate 2500 signal events from background statistically. The hypothesis of no reactor antineutrinos with neutrino energy above 10 MeV is rejected with a significance of 6.2 standard deviations. A 29% antineutrino flux deficit in the prompt energy region of 8-11 MeV is observed compared to a recent model prediction. We provide the unfolded antineutrino spectrum above 7 MeV as a data-based reference for other experiments. This result provides the first direct observation of the production of antineutrinos from several high-Q_{β} isotopes in commercial reactors.