TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ramalho, M.
AU  - Suhonen, J.
AU  - Kostensalo, J.
AU  - Alcala, G. A.
AU  - Algora, A.
AU  - Fallot, M.
AU  - Porta, A.
AU  - Zakari-Issoufou, A. A.
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022//
TI  - Analysis of the total beta-electron spectrum of( 92)Rb: Implications for the reactor flux anomalies
T2  - Phys. Rev. C
JO  - Physical Review C
SP  - 024315
EP  - 7pp
VL  - 106
IS  - 2
PB  - Amer Physical Soc
AB  - We present here a microscopic nuclear-structure calculation of a beta-electron spectrum including all the beta-decay branches of a high Q-value reactor fission product contributing significantly to the reactor antineutrino energy spectrum. We perform large-scale nuclear shell-model calculations of the total electron spectrum for the beta(-) decay of Rb-92 to states in Sr-92 using a computer cluster. We exploit the beta-branching data of a recent total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy (TAGS) measurement to determine the effective values of the weak axial-vector coupling, g(A), and the weak axial charge, g(A)(gamma(5)). By using the TAGS data we avoid the bias stemming from the pandemonium effect which is a systematic error biasing the usual beta-decay measurements. We take fully into account all the involved allowed and forbidden beta transitions, in particular the first-forbidden nonunique ones which have earlier been shown to be relevant in the context of the reactor-antineutrino flux anomaly and the unexplained spectral shoulder, the "bump," the former one having been interpreted as one of the strongest evidence for the existence of sterile neutrinos. Here we are able to present quantitative evidence for the relevance of forbidden nonunique beta(-) decays in a total beta spectrum of a fission product, in this case( 92)Rb, which is one of the major contributors to the total reactor antineutrino spectral shape. We demonstrate that taking the forbidden spectral shapes fully into consideration leads for Rb-92 to a 2.6%-4.6% reduction in the expected inverse beta-decay rate at the reactor antineutrino telescopes. We also confirm by our calculation of a total beta-electron spectrum that the forbidden transitions can contribute to the formation of the spectral bump in the reactor-antineutrino flux profile.
SN  - 2469-9985
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024315
DO  - 10.1103/PhysRevC.106.024315
LA  - English
N1  - WOS:000889134200002
ID  - Ramalho_etal2022
ER  -