Abstract
The stereo experiment is searching for a non-standard oscillation in the propagation of anti-neutrinos produced by a nuclear reactor which could be the sign for the existence of a sterile state of eV mass and the origin of the reactor anti-neutrino anomaly. In this paper, results from 66 days of reactor turned on and 138 days of reactor turned off are reported excluding large amplitude oscillations. A special focus is put on the data analysis and studies of correlated backgrounds. In particular the origin of the correlated background measured in reactor turned off periods is discussed. This background mainly originates from neutrons produced by cosmic radiation.
Highlights
IntroductionLaue-Langevin in the search for a non-standard oscillation in the short-range propagation of electron anti-neutrinos
The STEREO experiment has been running sinceNovember 2016 at the high flux reactor of the InstitutLaue-Langevin in the search for a non-standard oscillation in the short-range propagation of electron anti-neutrinos.If observed such an oscillation would be the signature for the existence of sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale
The STEREO experiment is searching for a non-standard oscillation in the propagation of antineutrinos produced by a nuclear reactor which could be the sign for the existence of a sterile state of eV mass and the origin of the reactor anti-neutrino anomaly
Summary
Laue-Langevin in the search for a non-standard oscillation in the short-range propagation of electron anti-neutrinos If observed such an oscillation would be the signature for the existence of sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale. In the present paper we detail the analysis method used in [4], in particular the methodology to separate the anti-neutrino events from the background, and the recent improvements resulting from a better knowledge of the background and its origin thanks to a long reactor turned off period during STEREO phase II These improvements do not impact the results from [4] but are important to extract the absolute anti-neutrino rates and the energy spectrum associated with the fission of 235U to test the shape distortions above 4−5 MeV observed in other reactor anti-neutrino experiments (see [5] and references therein for discussions)
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