Are There Sterile Neutrinos at the eV Scale?

Journal Article · Fri Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.107.091801· OSTI ID:21611581

Kopp, Joachim ^[1]; Maltoni, Michele ^[2]; Schwetz, Thomas ^[3]

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1. Fermilab, Theoretical Physics Department, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510 (United States)
2. Instituto de Fisica Teorica UAM/CSIC, Calle de Nicolas Cabrera 13-15, E-28049 Madrid (Spain)
3. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, P.O. Box 103980, 69029 Heidelberg (Germany)

New predictions for the antineutrino flux from nuclear reactors suggest that reactor experiments may have measured a deficit in this flux, which can be interpreted in terms of oscillations between the known active neutrinos and new sterile states. We perform a reanalysis of global short-baseline neutrino oscillation data in a framework with one or two sterile neutrinos. While one sterile neutrino is still not sufficient to reconcile the signals suggested by reactor experiments and by the LSND and MiniBooNE experiments with null results from other searches, we find that, with the new reactor flux prediction, the global fit improves considerably when two sterile neutrinos are introduced.

• OSTI ID: 21611581
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.091801; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANTINEUTRINOS
EV RANGE
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER