Speaker
Description
The artificial source of antineutrinos 144Ce-144Pr is one of the most promising for the sterile neutrino search experiments. We have produced a semiconductor $\beta$-spectrometer with a sensitive region thickness exceeding 9.6 mm that fully absorbs electrons with energy below 3 MeV. It was used for a precise measurement of the $\beta$-spectra of 144Ce-144Pr ground and excited state transitions. The measured spectral shapes correspond to theoretical expectations. This result was used in simulation of scintillator detector experiments with the Monte-Carlo method within GEANT4 for estimation of the sensitivity to sterile neutrino with 144Ce-144Pr antineutrino source and a large scintillation detector. The best sensitivity curves have been obtained for the cylindrical detector geometry for the detector mass of 100 tones. We can estimate that such detector and a source with activity of 100 kCi fully covers the reactor neutrino anomaly at 90% C.L.
Mini-abstract
Precision measurement of 144Ce-144Pr $\beta$-spectrum for sterile neutrino search experiments.