Experimental Determination of the Antineutrino Spectrum of the Fission Products of $^{238}$U

Understand

An experiment was performed at the scientific neutron source FRM II in Garching to determine the cumulative antineutrino spectrum of the fission products of $^{238}$U.

• This was achieved by irradiating target foils of natural uranium with a thermal and a fast neutron beam and recording the emitted $\beta$-spectra with a gamma-suppressing electron-telescope.
• The obtained $\beta$-spectrum of the fission products of $^{235}$U was normalized to the data of the magnetic spectrometer BILL of $^{235}$U.
• This method strongly reduces systematic errors in the $^{238}$U measurement.