WIDG Seminar: Danielle Norcini, Yale, “First results from the PROSPECT reactor neutrino experiment”

Experiments at nuclear reactors have played a key role in determining the properties of the weakly-interacting neutrinos. Results from recent reactor experiments suggest a disagreement between the observed antineutrino flux and energy spectrum when compared to predictions. Beyond the Standard Model sterile neutrinos and corrections to complex nuclear models have been posed to explain the discrepancy. To address this physics, the PROSPECT experiment precisely measures antineutrino energy spectra at multiple, very short baselines (< 10m) from the High Flux Isotope Reactor. This talk details the first sterile neutrino oscillation search and measurement of the uranium-235 antineutrino spectrum from PROSPECT.