Electron antineutrinos are emitted in the decay chains of the fission products inside a reactor core and could be used for remote monitoring of nuclear reactors. The DANSS detector is placed under the core of the 3.1 GW power reactor at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) and collects up to 5000 antineutrino events per day. DANSS measured changes of the reactor power by antineutrino counting rates over 7 years with 1.0% accuracy in one week periods. The fission fractions of four major isotopes for the reactor power calculations were provided by KNPP. The systematic uncertainty of this measurement is less than 0.8%. It is comparable to the accuracy of conventional methods of the reactor power measurements while it is based on completely different approach. For the first time the 239Pu and 235U fission fractions were reconstructed using antineutrino inverse beta-decay spectrum which is a completely new technique. This method was applied to the data from three reactor fuel campaigns (approximately 1.5 year each). The reconstructed fission fractions in about two-week measurements and the fission fractions provided by KNPP coincide within better than 3% accuracy. This provides confidence in both completely different approaches of the fission fraction determination.

The yields of the inverse beta decay events produced by antineutrinos from a certain nuclear reactor fuel component are used by many experiments to check various model predictions. Yet measurements of the absolute yields feature significant uncertainties coming, mainly, from the understanding of the antineutrino detection efficiency. This work presents a simple novel approach to directly determine the 235U to 239Pu inverse beta decay yield ratio using the fuel evolution analysis. This ratio can be used for a sensitive test of reactor models, while the proposed method, results in smaller systematic uncertainties. The DANSS result on this ratio is one of the most precise among reactor neutrino experiments, yet does not significantly contradict to any previous measurement.

DANSS is a spectrometer for reactor antineutrinos based on plastic scintillator. The sensitive volume of the detector is made of 2500 polystyrene based scintillator plates with wavelength shifting (WLS) fiber readout (strips). We present a study of the light yield of strips during 6.5 years of DANSS continuous running. Overall ageing at the rate 0.55 ± 0.05 (syst.) % per year is observed that is considerably smaller than in other similar experiments. We also observe the WLS fiber attenuation length shortening at the rate 0.26 ± 0.04(stat.) % per year.

The detector DANSS is located under n industrial nuclear reactor at Kalininskaya Nuclear Power Plant. This location provides 50 m.w.e. reduction of the cosmic muon flux in the vertical direction, which places the experiment in an intermediate position between ground and underground experiments in terms of shielding from the cosmic rays. The detector DANSS is located under an industrial nuclear reactor at Kalininskaya Nuclear Power Plant. This location provides 50 m.w.e. reduction of the cosmic muon flux in the vertical direction, which places the experiment in an intermediate position between ground and underground experiments in terms of shielding from the cosmic rays. The detector's sensitive area consists of 2500 plastic scintillator counters, each 100x4x1 cm^3 in size, making in total a 1 m^3 volume, which is surrounded by a muon veto system and multiple layers of passive shielding. The main goal of the DANSS experiment is to study the antineutrino spectra at different distances from the source. For this purpose the detector is placed on a lifting platform, and the data is collected at three positions: 10.9 m, 11.9 m and 12.9 m from the center of the reactor core. The detector is capable of reconstructing muon tracks passing though the sensitive volume. In this work the barometric, height and temperature correlation coefficients are calculated in three areas of the zenith angle θ using the Duperier approach. These results are based on the muon data collected during four years.

The nu GeN experiment is aimed to investigate neutrino properties using antineutrinos from the reactor of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. The experimental setup is located at about 11 meters from the center of the 3.1 GWth reactor core. Scattering of the antineutrinos from the reactor is detected with low energy threshold high purity germanium detector. Passive and active shieldings are used to suppress all kinds of backgrounds coming from surrounding materials and cosmic radiation. The description of the experimental setup together with the first results is presented. The data taken in regimes with reactor on (94.50 days) and reactor off (47.09 days) have been compared. No significant difference between spectra of two datasets is observed, i.e., no positive signals for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering are detected. Under Standard Model assumptions about coherent neutrino scattering an upper limit on a quenching parameter k < 0.26 (90% CL) in germanium has been set.

Abstract The DANSS detector (Alekseev et al. in JINST 11:P11011, 2016) is located directly below a commercial reactor core at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. Such a position provides an overburden about 50 m.w.e. in vertical direction. In terms of the cosmic rays it occupies an intermediate position between surface and underground detectors. The sensitive volume of the detector is a cubic meter of plastic scintillator with fine segmentation and combined PMT and SiPM readout, surrounded by multilayer passive and active shielding. The detector can reconstruct muon tracks passing through its sensitive volume. The main physics goal of the DANSS experiment implies the antineutrino spectra measurements at various distances from the source. This is achieved by means of a lifting platform so that the data is taken in three positions – 10.9, 11.9 and 12.9 meters from the reactor core. The muon data were collected for nearly four calendar years. The overburden parameters $$\langle E_{thr}\cos \theta \rangle $$ ⟨ E thr cos θ ⟩ and $$\langle E_{thr} \rangle $$ ⟨ E thr ⟩ , as well as the temperature and barometric correlation coefficients are evaluated separately for the three detector positions and, in each position, in three ranges of the zenith angle – for nearly vertical muons with $$\cos \theta >0.9$$ cos θ > 0.9 , for nearly horizontal muons with $$\cos \theta <0.36$$ cos θ < 0.36 , and for the whole upper hemisphere.

DANSS is a one cubic meter plastic scintillator detector with a primary goal of sterile neutrino searches at a commercial nuclear reactor. Due to its highly advantageous location, fine segmentation and ability to change the distance to the neutrino production origin, DANSS is ahead of many similar experiments around the world in terms of the counting rate, signal to background ratio and sterile neutrino exclusion regions. Yet a moderate energy resolution of the detector prevents further progress in the physics program. The main challenge of the planned upgrade is to achieve an energy resolution of 12% at 1 MeV. The new design of the main sensitive element — the plastic scintillation strip — is the most important step forward. The strip prototypes were manufactured and tested at the pion beam of the PNPI synchrocyclotron. More than twice higher light output together with fairly flat detector response uniformity, longitudinal timing information and other optimizations will help to reach the upgrade goal. This paper discusses the drawbacks of the current strip version, outlines the new features of the proposed upgrade, describes the beam test procedure and presents the test results reflecting the advantages of the new strip design in comparison with the current version.

DANSS is a highly segmented 1 m3 plastic scintillator detector. The DANSS detector is placed under an industrial 3.1 GWth reactor of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant 350 km NW from Moscow. The distance to the core is varied on-line from 10.7 m to 12.7 m. The reactor building provides about 50 m water-equivalent shielding against the cosmic background. DANSS detects almost 5000 νe per day at the closest position with the cosmic background less than 3%. The inverse beta decay process is used to detect νe. Sterile neutrinos are searched for assuming the 4ν model (3 active and 1 sterile ν). The exclusion area in the Δm142,sin22θ14 plane is obtained using a ratio of positron energy spectra collected at different distances. Therefore results do not depend on the shape and normalization of the reactor νe spectrum nor the detector efficiency. Results are based on 966 thousand antineutrino events collected at three different distances from the reactor core. The excluded area covers a wide range of the sterile neutrino parameters down to sin22θ14 < 0.01 in the most sensitive region.

Measurements of reactor antineutrino play an important role in the efforts at the frontier of the modern physics. The DANSS collaboration presents preliminary results of a one year run with a cubic meter solid state detector placed below 3.1 GW industrial light water reactor. The experiment is sensitive to sterile neutrino in the most interesting region of mixing parameter space. 2500 scintillation strips of the sensitive volume of the detector have multilayer passive shielding of copper, lead and borated polyethylene and active muon veto. Detector position below the reactor gives an advantage of overburden about 50 m of water equivalent providing factor of six in cosmic muon suppression and eliminating fast neutrons.The detector is placed on a vertically movable platform which allows to change the distance to the reactor core center in the range 10.7-12.7 m within a few minutes. The strips are read out individually by SiPMs and in groups of 50 by PMTs. 5000 inverse beta-decay events per day are collected in the fiducial volume, which is 78% of the whole detector, at the position closest to the reactor. Overburden, active veto and good segmentation of the detector result in an excellent signal to background ratio. The talk is dedicated to the data analysis and preliminary results. The experiment status is also presented.

The results of the research in the field of neutrino physics obtained at Kalinin nuclear power plant during 15 years are presented. The investigations were performed in two directions. The first one includes GEMMA I and GEMMA II experiments for the search of the neutrino magnetic moment, where the best result in the world on the value of the upper limit of this quantity was obtained. The second direction is tied with the measurements by a solid scintillator detector DANSS designed for remote on-line diagnostics of nuclear reactor parameters and search for short range neutrino oscillations. DANSS is now installed at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant under the 4-th unit on a movable platform. Measurements of the antineutrino flux demonstrated that the detector is capable to reflect the reactor thermal power with an accuracy of about 1.5% in one day. Investigations of the neutrino flux and their energy spectrum at different distances allowed to study a large fraction of a sterile neutrino parameter space indicated by recent experiments and perform the reanalysis of the reactor neutrino fluxes. Status of the short range oscillation experiment is presented together with some preliminary results based on about 170 days of active data taking during the first year of operation.

A detector of the reactor antineutrino based on a cubic meter of plastic scintillator is installed below 3.1 GW industrial reactor. The detector is placed on a movable platform which allows to change the distance to the reactor core center in the range 10.7-12.7 m. 2500 scintillator strips are read out individually by SiPMs and in groups of 50 by PMTs. In addition to the overburden by the reactor (50 m w.e.) the detector has multilayer passive shielding and active muon veto. Inverse beta-decay count rate of about 5000 events per day in the fiducial volume (78% of the detector) with about 5% of cosmic background has been reached. DANSS is sensitive to sterile neutrino in the most interesting region of mixing parameter space. The article covers the detector status and performance, as well as the first results.

In 2011, the reanalysis of the reactor antineutrinos spectra led to the formulation of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly (RAA) [1], which indicates the discrepancy between measured and expected antineutrino fluxes on short baselines. This discrepancy appears to favor the existence of the fourth "sterile" neutrino with vertical bar Delta m(2)vertical bar > 1 eV(2). To confirm or reject this hypothesis a high sensitive antineutrino detector located close to the reactor is required. In addition to that such a detector could be used to online monitor the isotopic composition of the reactor core and to prevent illegal production and removal of Pu-239, which is the essential part of nuclear weapons.Detector DANSSino [2] already proved that even a compact antineutrino detector (similar to 1m(3)) based on polystyrene is capable of antineutrino detection in the close vicinity of a reactor core (similar to 10 m) with signal to background ratio about one. As a common activity between JINR Dubna and IEAP CTU a new prototype of detector (called S-3) has been proposed and is under construction. The construction design, selected results of Monte Carlo simulations and results of benchmark tests are presented.

The π 0 π 0 production in pp -collisions has been investigated in exclusive and kinematically complete measurements from threshold up to T p = 1.4 GeV . For incident energies T p > 1 GeV , i.e. in the region beyond the Roper excitation, the ΔΔ excitation process takes over. The data are well explained by the t-channel ΔΔ process dominated by pion exchange. There is no low-mass enhancement (ABC effect) in the π 0 π 0 -invariant mass distribution beyond that given by the conventional t-channel ΔΔ process. This is also true for the limiting case, where the protons are in the quasi-bound 2 He state.

The ABC effect, a low-mass enhancement in the invariant ππ mass, is observed in double-pionic fusion reactions leading to a bound nuclear system in the final state. From previous measurements there have been indications that this phenomenon is resctricted to the σ channel of the ππ system. With exclusive measurements of the pp → dπ+π0 reaction at Tp = 1.1 GeV we demonstrate that, indeed, the ABC effect does not occur in the vector-isovector ππ channel (ρ channel) despite the fact that the ΔΔ excitation is oberved to be the dominant reaction process. We also show that this reaction is well described by a t -channel ΔΔ excitation with the subsequent decay into the vector-isovector ππ channel given by the ρ channel operator.

The production of eta mesons at an excess energy of 72 MeV has been studied in the reaction pp -> pp(eta)gamma gamma. It is shown that a simple model with Pp. final states included reproduces observed differential distributions better than the same model restricted to Ss, Sd and Ds final states. The strong influence of the Pp states could be taken as an indication of rho dominance within an one boson exchange model for the excitation of N*(1535).

The two-pion production in pp-collisions has been investigated in exclusive measurements from threshold up to T-p = 1.36 GeV. Total and differential cross sections have been obtained for the channels pn pi(+) pi(0), pp pi(+) pi(-), pp pi(0)pi(0) and also nn pi(+)pi(+). For intermediate incident energies T-p > 1 GeV, i.e. in the region, which is beyond the Roper excitation but at the onset of Delta Delta excitation the total pp pi(0)pi(0) cross section falls behind theoretical predictions by as much as an order of magnitude near 1.2 GeV, whereas the nn pi(+)pi(+) cross section is a factor of five larger than predicted. A model-unconstrained isospin decompostion of the cross section points to a significant contribution of an isospin 3/2 resonance other than the Delta(1232). As a possible candidate the Delta(1600) is discussed.

The two-pion production in pp-collisions has been investigated in exclusive measurements from threshold up to Tp = 1.36 GeV . Total and differential cross sections have been obtained for the channels pnπ+π0, ppπ+π-, ppπ0π0 and also nnπ+π+. For intermediate incident energies Tp > 1 GeV , i.e. in the region, which is beyond the Roper excitation but at the onset of ΔΔ excitation the total ppπ0π0 cross section falls behind theoretical predictions by as much as an order of magnitude near 1.2 GeV, whereas the nnπ+π+ cross section is a factor of five larger than predicted. A model-unconstrained isospin decompostion of the cross section points to a significant contribution of an isospin 3/2 resonance other than the Δ(1232). As a possible candidate the Δ(1600) is discussed.

The ABC effect–an intriguing low-mass enhancement in the ππ invariant mass spectrum–is known from inclusive measurements of two-pion production in nuclear fusion reactions. First exclusive measurements carried out at CELSIUS-WASA for the fusion reactions leading to d or 3He reveal this effect to be a σ-channel phenomenon associated with the formation of a ΔΔ system in the intermediate state and combined with a resonance-like behavior in the total cross-section. Together with the observation that the differential distributions do not change in shape over the resonance region the features fulfill the criteria of an isoscalar s-channel resonance in pn and NNππ systems, if the two emitted nucleons are bound. It obviously is robust enough to survive in nuclei as a dibaryonic resonance configuration. In this context also the phenomenon of NΔ resonances is reexamined.

In most investigations the Roper resonance is sensed only very indirectly via complex partial-wave analyses. We find indications for its excitation in the invariant nπ + mass spectrum of the pp → npπ + reaction at M ≈ 1360MeV with a width of ≈ 150 MeV. The values fit very favorably to the most recent phase shift results as well as to the observations at BES. In the near-threshold two-pion production pp → ppπ 0 π 0, where the Roper excitation and its subsequent decays via the routes N* → Δπ → Nππ and N* → Nσ are the only dominant processes, we find its direct decay into the Nσ channel to be the by far dominating decay process —in favor of a monopole excitation of the Roper resonance.

Whereas in most investigations the Roper resonance is sensed only very indirectly via complex partial wave analyses, we find indications for its excitation in the pp → npπ reaction, where some resonance-like structure is observed in the invariant nπ mass spectrum at M ≈ 1360 MeV with a width of 150 MeV. The values fit very favorably to the most recent phase shift results as well as to the observations at BES. In near-threshold two-pion production pp → ppππ, where the Roper excitation and its subsequent decay into Nππ is the only dominant process, we find its decay into the Nσ channel as the prevailing decay process in favor of Roper’s nature as a monopole excitation