Measuring active-sterile neutrino oscillations with a stopped pion neutrino source

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.72.092001· OSTI ID:20713802

Garvey, G T; Green, A; Green, C; Louis, W C; Mills, G B; McGregor, G; Ray, H; Schirato, R; Water, R.G. van de; White, D H ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

The possible existence of light sterile neutrinos is of great interest in many areas of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Furthermore, should the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab confirm the Liquid Scintillating Neutrino Detector (LSND) oscillation signal, then new measurements are required to identify the mechanism responsible for these oscillations. Possibilities include sterile neutrinos, CP or CPT violation, variable mass neutrinos, Lorentz violation, and extra dimensions. In this paper, we consider an experiment at a stopped pion neutrino source to determine if active-sterile neutrino oscillations with {delta}m{sup 2} greater than 0.1 eV{sup 2} can account for the signal. By exploiting stopped {pi}{sup +} decay to produce a monoenergetic {nu}{sub {mu}} source, and measuring the rate of the neutral current reaction {nu}{sub x}{sup 12}C{yields}{nu}{sub x}{sup 12}C*(15.11) as a function of distance from the source, we show that a convincing test for active-sterile neutrino oscillations can be performed.

• OSTI ID: 20713802
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 72; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY
CP INVARIANCE
CPT THEOREM
FERMILAB
LIQUID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
MUON NEUTRINOS
NEUTRAL CURRENTS
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
NEUTRINO-NUCLEON INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE DECAY
PIONS PLUS
REST MASS