Towards a Robust Exclusion of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies

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Hauptverfasser: Rodrigues, Ohana Benevides, Hostert, Matheus, Kelly, Kevin J., Littlejohn, Bryce, Machado, Pedro A. N., Safa, Ibrahim, Zhou, Tao
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Rodrigues, Ohana Benevides
Hostert, Matheus
Kelly, Kevin J.
Littlejohn, Bryce
Machado, Pedro A. N.
Safa, Ibrahim
Zhou, Tao
author_facet Rodrigues, Ohana Benevides
Hostert, Matheus
Kelly, Kevin J.
Littlejohn, Bryce
Machado, Pedro A. N.
Safa, Ibrahim
Zhou, Tao
contents The sterile neutrino interpretation of the LSND and MiniBooNE neutrino anomalies is currently being tested at three Liquid Argon detectors: MicroBooNE, SBND, and ICARUS. It has been argued that a degeneracy between $ν_μ\to ν_e$ and $ν_e \to ν_e$ oscillations significantly degrades their sensitivity to sterile neutrinos. Through an independent study, we show two methods to eliminate this concern. First, we resolve this degeneracy by including external constraints on $ν_e$ disappearance from the PROSPECT reactor experiment. Second, by properly analyzing the full three-dimensional parameter space, we demonstrate that the stronger-than-sensitivity exclusion from MicroBooNE alone already covers the entire 2$σ$ preferred regions of MiniBooNE at the level of $2-3σ$. We show that upcoming searches at SBND and ICARUS can improve on this beyond the $4σ$ level, thereby providing a rigorous test of short-baseline anomalies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_13594
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards a Robust Exclusion of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies
Rodrigues, Ohana Benevides
Hostert, Matheus
Kelly, Kevin J.
Littlejohn, Bryce
Machado, Pedro A. N.
Safa, Ibrahim
Zhou, Tao
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
The sterile neutrino interpretation of the LSND and MiniBooNE neutrino anomalies is currently being tested at three Liquid Argon detectors: MicroBooNE, SBND, and ICARUS. It has been argued that a degeneracy between $ν_μ\to ν_e$ and $ν_e \to ν_e$ oscillations significantly degrades their sensitivity to sterile neutrinos. Through an independent study, we show two methods to eliminate this concern. First, we resolve this degeneracy by including external constraints on $ν_e$ disappearance from the PROSPECT reactor experiment. Second, by properly analyzing the full three-dimensional parameter space, we demonstrate that the stronger-than-sensitivity exclusion from MicroBooNE alone already covers the entire 2$σ$ preferred regions of MiniBooNE at the level of $2-3σ$. We show that upcoming searches at SBND and ICARUS can improve on this beyond the $4σ$ level, thereby providing a rigorous test of short-baseline anomalies.
title Towards a Robust Exclusion of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13594