Calibration strategy of the PROSPECT-II detector with external and intrinsic sources

Published

June 1, 2023

Author(s)

Hans Mumm, Denis E. Bergeron, Mark Tyra, Jerome LaRosa, Svetlana Nour, PROSPECT Collaboration

Abstract

This paper presents an energy scale calibration scheme for an upgraded reactor antineutrino detector in the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment (PROSPECT). The PROSPECT collaboration is preparing the upgraded detector, PROSPECT-II (P-II), to advance capabilities for the investigation of fundamental neutrino physics, fission processes and associated reactor neutrino flux, and nuclear security applications. P-II will expand the statistical power of the original PROSPECT (P-I) dataset by at least an order of magnitude. The new design builds upon previous P-I design and focuses on improving the detector robustness and long-term stability to enable multi-year operation at one or more sites. The new design optimizes the fiducial volume by elimination of dead space previously occupied by internal calibration channels, which in turn necessitates the external deployment. In this paper, we describe an external calibration strategy for P-II. The performance of externally deployed calibration sources is evaluated using P-I data and a well-benchmarked simulation package by varying detector segmentation configurations in the analysis. The proposed external calibration scheme delivers a compatible energy scale model and even achieves comparable performance with the inclusion of an additional AmBe neutron source, in comparison to the previous internal arrangement. Most importantly, the estimated uncertainty contribution from the external energy scale calibration model meets the precision requirements of the P-II experiment.

Citation

Nuclear Instruments & Methods

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

neutrino, external calibration, liquid scintillator, energy scale

Citation

Mumm, H. , Bergeron, D. , Tyra, M. , LaRosa, J. , Nour, S. and COLLABORATION, P. (2023), Calibration strategy of the PROSPECT-II detector with external and intrinsic sources, Nuclear Instruments & Methods, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935748 (Accessed October 28, 2025)