Weak neutral disintegration of the deuteron by reactor antineutrinos

The spectrum of antineutrinos emitted by beta decaying products of ${}_{}{}^{235}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{U}$ in secular equilibrium has been recalculated using more recent experimental decay-scheme data. The new data involve 26 nuclides with $150 \beta$ branches and represent 22% of the total fission yield. The cross section for the reaction ${\overline{\nu }}_e+d\to p+n+{\overline{\nu }}_e$, which proceeds only via the weak neutral current, is shown to be predicted consistently by three theoretical treatments in the literature. The total cross section was calculated by weighting the cross section by the normalized antineutrino spectrum and is 7.4 × ${10}^{-45\mathrm{}}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^2$.