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Present and next generation of long-baseline accelerator experiments are bringing the measurement of neutrino oscillations into the precision era with ever-increasing statistics. One of the most challenging aspects of achieving such measurements is developing relevant systematic uncertainties in the modeling of nuclear effects in neutrino-nucleus interactions. To address this problem, state-of-the-art detectors are being developed to extract detailed information about all particles produced in neutrino interactions. To fully profit from these experimental advancements, it is essential to have reliable models of propagation of the outgoing hadrons through nuclear matter able to predict how the energy is distributed between all the final-state observed particles. In this article, we investigate the role of nuclear de-excitation in neutrino-nucleus scattering using two Monte Carlo cascade models: NuWro and INCL coupled with the de-excitation code ABLA. The ablation model ABLA is used here for the first time to model de-excitation in neutrino interactions. As input to ABLA, we develop a consistent simulation of nuclear excitation energy tuned to electron-scattering data. The paper includes the characterization of the leading proton kinematics and of the nuclear cluster production during cascade and de-excitation. The observability of nuclear clusters as vertex activity and their role in a precise neutrino energy reconstruction is quantified., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures

The summation method for the calculation of reactor $\bar{\nu}_e$ fluxes and spectra is methodically revised and improved. For the first time, a complete uncertainty budget accounting for all known effects likely to impact these calculations is proposed. Uncertainties of a few percents at low energies and ranging up to 20% at high energies are obtained on the calculation of a typical reactor $\bar{\nu}_e$ spectrum. Although huge improvements have been achieved over the past decade, the quality and incompleteness of the present day evaluated nuclear decay data still limit the accuracy of the calculations and therefore dominate by far these uncertainties. Pushing the $\beta$-decay modeling of the thousands of branches making a reactor $\bar{\nu}_e$ spectrum to a high level of details comparatively brings modest changes. In particular, including nuclear structure calculations in the evaluation of the non-unique forbidden transitions gives a smaller impact than anticipated in past studies. Finally, this new modeling is challenged against state-of-the-art predictions and measurements. While a good agreement is observed with the most recent Inverse Beta Decay measurements of reactor $\bar{\nu}_e$ fluxes and spectra, it is unable to properly describe the reference aggregate $\beta$ spectra measured at the Institut Laue-Langevin High-Flux reactor in the 80s. This result adds to recent suspicions $\beta$ the reliability of these data and preferentially points toward a misprediction of the $^{235}$U $\bar{\nu}_e$ spectrum., Comment: Reformatted figures. Added supplementary materials

The IFMIF-DONES facility will be dedicated to the irradiation of structural materials planned for the use in future fusion reactors such as DEMO (Demonstration Fusion Power Plant). The potentialities of the IFMIF-DONES facility to complement its principal purpose by other experiments that would open the facility to other communities is addressed in this work. It concerns a study based on simulations to evaluate the neutronic performances of IFMIF-DONES in an hall dedicated to complementary experiments where neutrons can be transported. With the simple beam tube geometry of 4.5~cm entrance diameter studied in this work we have shown that a collimated fast-neutron beam of about 2~10$^{10}$~n/cm$^2$/s is available in the hall. Adding a moderator in the hall with neutron extraction lines would allow to get thermal neutron beams of about ~10$^{6}$-10$^{7}$~n/cm$^2$/s for dedicated experiments. The results show that IFMIF-DONES has the potentialities to be a medium-flux neutron facility for most of the neutron applications.

There is currently a strong interest in Compact Accelerator-based Neutron Source (CANS) as a possible new type of source for neutron scattering experiments. A workshop around the "Neutron scattering instrumentation around CANS" was organized in July 2017 between several European institutes. This report summarizes the main outcome of the discussions. The document is aiming at providing general guidelines for the instrumentation around CANS. Detailed technical discussions are or will be provided in specific publications., Comment: Minutes of the "Neutron Scattering Instrumentation at CANS" workshop, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, Juillet 2018

We aim at building an accelerator based compact neutron source which would provide a thermal neutron flux on the order of 4E12 n.s-1.cm-2.sr-1. Such brilliance would put compact neutron sources on par with existing medium flux neutron research reactors. We performed the first neutron production tests on the IPHI proton accelerator at Saclay. The neutron fluxes were measured using gold foil activation and 3He detectors. The measured fluxes were compared with MCNP and GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations in which the whole experimental setup was modelled. There is a good agreement between the experimental measurements and the Monte-Carlo simulations. The available modelling tools will allow us to optimize the whole Target Moderator Reflector assembly together with the neutron scattering spectrometer geometries., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

There is currently a big effort put into the operation and construction of world class neutron scattering facilities (SNS and SNS-TS2 in the US, J-PARC in Japan, ESS in Europe, CSS in China, PIK in Russia). On the other hand, there exists a network of smaller neutron scattering facilities which play a key role in creating a large neutron scattering community who is able to efficiently use the existing facilities. With the foreseen closure of the ageing nuclear research reactors, especially in Europe there is a risk of seeing a shrinking of the community who would then be able to use efficiently the world class facilities. There is thus a reflection being conducted in several countries for the replacement of smaller research reactors with low energy accelerator based sources. We consider here a reference design for a compact neutron source based on existing accelerator components. We estimate the performances of various types of neutron scattering instruments built around such a source. The results suggest that nowadays state of the art neutron scattering experiments could be successfully performed on such a compact source and that it is thus a viable replacement solution for neutron research reactors., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

The RENO experiment recently reported the disappearance of reactor electron antineutrinos consistent with neutrino oscillations, with a significance of 4.9 standard deviations. The published ratio of observed to expected number of antineutrinos in the far detector is R=0.920 +-0.009(stat.) +-0.014(syst.) and corresponds to sin^2 2theta13 = 0.113 +-0.013(stat.) +-0.019(syst), using a rate-only analysis. In this letter we reanalyze the data and we find a ratio R=0.903 +-0.01(stat.), leading to sin^2 2theta13 = 0.135. Moreover we show that the sin^2 2theta13 measurement still depend of the prompt high energy bound beyond 4 MeV, contrarily to the expectation based on neutrino oscillation.

Several observed anomalies in neutrino oscillation data can be explained by a hypothetical fourth neutrino separated from the three standard neutrinos by a squared mass difference of a few eV^2. We show that this hypothesis can be tested with a PBq (ten kilocurie scale) 144Ce or 106Ru antineutrino beta-source deployed at the center of a large low background liquid scintillator detector. In particular, the compact size of such a source could yield an energy-dependent oscillating pattern in event spatial distribution that would unabiguously determine neutrino mass differences and mixing angles., Comment: 4 pages ; 1 table ; 4 figures - Add energy spectrum shape only analysis + referee comments/suggestions

Today reactor neutrino experiments are at the cutting edge of fundamental research in particle physics. Understanding the neutrino is far from complete, but thanks to the impressive progress in this field over the last 15 years, a few research groups are seriously considering that neutrinos could be useful for society. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) works with its Member States to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies. In a context of international tension and nuclear renaissance, neutrino detectors could help IAEA to enforce the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In this article we discuss a futuristic neutrino application to detect and localize an undeclared nuclear reactor from across borders. The SNIF (Secret Neutrino Interactions Finder) concept proposes to use a few hundred thousand tons neutrino detectors to unveil clandestine fission reactors. Beyond previous studies we provide estimates of all known background sources as a function of the detector's longitude, latitude and depth, and we discuss how they impact the detectability., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables

The MEGAPIE project is one of the key experiments towards the feasibility of Accelerator Driven Systems. On-line operation and post-irradiation analysis will provide the scientific community with unique data on the behavior of a liquid spallation target under realistic irradiation conditions. A good neutronics performance of such a target is of primary importance towards an intense neutron source, where an extended liquid metal loop requires some dedicated verifications related to the delayed neutron activity of the irradiated PbBi. In this paper we report on the experimental characterization of the MEGAPIE neutronics in terms of the prompt neutron (PN) flux inside the target and the delayed neutron (DN) flux on the top of it. For the PN measurements, a complex detector, made of 8 microscopic fission chambers, has been built and installed in the central part of the target to measure the absolute neutron flux and its spatial distribution. Moreover, integral information on the neutron energy distribution as a function of the position along the beam axis could be extracted, providing integral constraints on the neutron production models implemented in transport codes such as MCNPX. For the DN measurement, we used a standard 3He counter and we acquired data during the start-up phase of the target irradiation in order to take sufficient statistics at variable beam power. Experimental results obtained on the PN flux characteristics and their comparison with MCNPX simulations are presented, together with a preliminary analysis of the DN decay time spectrum., Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the Eighth International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Applications and Utilization of Accelerators (AccApp'07), July. 30 to August 2, 2007, Pocatello, Idaho

In the framework of the Neutronic and Nuclear Assessment Task Group of the MEGAPIE experiment we measured the delayed neutron (DN) flux at the top of the target. The measurement was proposed mainly for radioprotection purposes since the DN flux at the top of the target has been estimated to be of the same order of magnitude as the prompt neutron flux. Given the strong model-dependence of DN predictions, the measurement of DN contribution to the total neutron activity at the top of the target was thus desired. Moreover, this measurement is complementary to the DN experiments performed at PNPI (Gatchina) on solid lead and bismuth targets. The DN measurement at MEGAPIE was performed during the start-up phase of the target. In this paper we present a detailed description of the experimental setup and some preliminary results on decay spectra., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (ND 2007), Nice, France, 22-27 Apr 2007