Description:

The Precision Reactor Oscillation and SPECTrum (PROSPECT) reactor antineutrino experiment is designed to detect eV-scale sterile neutrino oscillation at short baselines. PROSPECT's segmented detector is positioned approximately 7 meters away from the compact research reactor core at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor. During the data collection period, certain photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) experienced current instabilities, which resulted in the previous search for sterile neutrino oscillation being dominated by statistical uncertainties. However, by using new analysis approaches: multi-period dataset combined with single-ended event reconstruction, we successfully recovered and maximized Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) events while reducing background for each period. 

Looking ahead, the collaboration is now in preparation for an upgraded detector design, called PROSPECT-II. This new design is expected to enhance the sensitivity and statistical power, allowing for a broader range of analyses beyond those achieved in PROSPECT-I. 

In the first part of this talk, I will present the final results for sterile neutrino oscillation searches using the PROSPECT-I optimized dataset. In the second part, I will go over the major design features of the PROSPECT-II detector, highlighting improved design elements with respect to the first-generation PROSPECT-I detector and discuss how these improvements will add to the first-generation oscillation results.

Manoa Andriamirado, PhD Student, Illinois Institute of Technology

Host: Adrian Thompson