Precise Determination of the U-235 Reactor Antineutrino Cross Section per Fission

Abstract

We investigate which among the reactor antineutrino fluxes from the decays of the fission products of $^{235}\text{U}$, $^{238}\text{U}$, $^{239}\text{Pu}$, and $^{241}\text{Pu}$ may be responsible for the reactor antineutrino anomaly if the anomaly is due to a miscalculation of the antineutrino fluxes. We find that it is very likely that at least the calculation of the $^{235}\text{U}$ flux must be revised. From the fit of the data we obtain the precise determination $σ_{f,235} = ( 6.33 \pm 0.08 ) \times 10^{-43} \, \text{cm}^2 / \text{fission}$ of the $^{235}\text{U}$ cross section per fission, which is more precise than the calculated value and differs from it by $2.2σ$. The cross sections per fission of the other fluxes have large uncertainties and in practice their values are undetermined by the fit.

9 pages. Final version published in Physics Letters B 764 (2017) 145