Measurements using a prototype array of plastic scintillator bars for reactor based electron anti-neutrino detection

We report measurement of reactor based electron anti-neutrinos from a prototype array of plastic scintillator bars (mini-ISMRAN) located inside Dhruva research reactor hall, BARC. The detector setup took data for 128 days for reactor on (RON) and 51 days for reactor off (ROFF) condition. A detailed analysis procedure is developed to select the anti-neutrino candidate events based on the energy deposition, number of bars hit as well as topological event selection criteria in position and time. Each of these selection criteria are compared with Monte Carlo based simulations and further an embedding technique is used to estimate the efficiencies from a data driven background study. The obtained anti-neutrino like events in RON condition are 218 ± 50 (stat) ± 37 (sys) after background subtraction. The obtained results are compared with theoretical estimation which yields 214 ± 32 (sys) anti-neutrino events for the RON condition.