Statistical significance of the sterile-neutrino hypothesis in the context of reactor and gallium data

Berryman, Jeffrey M.; Coloma, Pilar; Huber, Patrick; Schwetz, Thomas; Zhou, Albert

doi:10.1007/jhep02(2022)055

Statistical significance of the sterile-neutrino hypothesis in the context of reactor and gallium data

Journal Article · Tue Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02(2022)055· OSTI ID:1976446

Berryman, Jeffrey M. ^[1]; ^[2]; Huber, Patrick ^[3]; Schwetz, Thomas ^[4]; Zhou, Albert ^[4]

University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States); University of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Instituto de Física Teórica UAM-CSIC, Madrid (Spain)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (Germany)

We evaluate the statistical significance of the 3+1 sterile-neutrino hypothesis using $$v_e$$ and $$\bar{v}_e$$ disappearance data from reactor, solar and gallium radioactive source experiments. Concerning the latter, we investigate the implications of the recent BEST results. For reactor data we focus on relative measurements independent of flux predictions. For the problem at hand, the usual χ²-approximation to hypothesis testing based on Wilks’ theorem has been shown in the literature to be inaccurate. We therefore present results based on Monte Carlo simulations, and find that this typically reduces the significance by roughly 1σ with respect to the naïve expectation. We find no significant indication in favor of sterile-neutrino oscillations from reactor data. On the other hand, gallium data (dominated by the BEST result) show more than 5σ of evidence supporting the sterile-neutrino hypothesis, favoring oscillation parameters in agreement with constraints from reactor data. This explanation is, however, in significant tension (~3 σ) with solar neutrino experiments. In order to assess the robustness of the signal for gallium experiments we present a discussion of the impact of cross-section uncertainties on the results.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: University of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: European Union’s Horizon 2020; German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); Heising-Simons Foundation; Karlsruhe School of Elementary and Astroparticle Physics: Science and Technology (KSETA); Marie Sklodowska-Curie; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-00ER41132

OSTI ID:: 1976446

Journal Information:: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 2022; ISSN 1029-8479

Publisher:: Springer NatureCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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