[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Colloquium today at 14:00

[TRIUMF Seminars]

Date/Time: Thu 2016-05-19 at 14:00

Location:  Auditorium          

Speaker:   Elizabeth Ricard-McCutchan (Brookhaven)

Title:     Following Fission Fragments : Nuclear Data for Neutrino Physics

Abstract: The fission of a heavy nucleus in a reactor produces more than 800 different radioactive fission fragments which then decay back to stability emitting electromagnetic energy, electrons, neutrons and antineutrinos. Given a sufficiently good data base, the absolute yield and spectral shape of each type of radiation can be calculated. This has many important consequences. For example, in fundamental physics, an estimated antineutrino flux is currently being used to understand properties of neutrino oscillations and to search for physics beyond the standard model.  The same flux can be monitored for non-proliferation studies, as it is sensitive to the type of actinide being burned. In this talk, I will first highlight some of the database products and services which are available to the public through the National Nuclear Data Center.  Application of these databases to current open questions in reactor-based antineutrino studies will be described. Using updated decay data and fission yield probabilities has enabled us to identify those nuclei with the largest contributions in different energy regions of the antineutrino spectrum, pointing to the need for new measurements.  In addition, systematics of the integrated antineutrino spectrum as a function of A and Z will be described, and the possibility of nuclear data explaining the so-called reactor antineutrino anomaly and an observed excess of antineutrinos around 5-7 MeV will be discussed.  




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