CONFLUX: A Standardized Framework to Calculate Reactor Antineutrino Flux

Abstract

Nuclear fission reactors are abundant sources of antineutrinos. The flux and spectrum of antineutrinos emitted by a reactor can indicate its activity and composition, suggesting potential applications of neutrino measurements beyond fundamental scientific studies that may be valuable to society. The utility of reactor antineutrinos for applications and fundamental science is dependent on the availability of precise predictions of these emissions. For example, in the last decade, disagreements between reactor antineutrino measurements and models have inspired revision of reactor antineutrino calculations and standard nuclear databases as well as searches for new fundamental particles not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. Past predictions and descriptions of the methods used to generate them are documented to varying degrees in the literature, with different modeling teams incorporating a range of methods, input data, and assumptions. The resulting difficulty in accessing or reproducing past models and reconciling results from differing approaches complicates the future study and application of reactor antineutrinos. The CONFLUX (Calculation Of Neutrino FLUX) software framework is a neutrino prediction tool built with the goal of simplifying, standardizing, and democratizing the process of reactor antineutrino flux calculations. CONFLUX include three primary methods for calculating the antineutrino emissions of nuclear reactors or individual beta decays that incorporate common nuclear data and beta decay theory. The software is prepackaged with the current nuclear database. It includes the capability to predict time-dependent neutrino model, adjust decay information entries, and propagate uncertainties. This paper describes the software structure, details the methods used for flux and spectrum calculations, and talks about potential use cases.