Toward a Robust Confirmation or Refutation of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies

Ohana Benevides Rodrigues; Matheus Hostert; Kevin J. Kelly; Bryce Littlejohn; Pedro A. N. Machado; Ibrahim Safa; Tao Zhou

doi:10.1103/4fn7-svnh

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Toward a Robust Confirmation or Refutation of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies

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Toward a Robust Confirmation or Refutation of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies

Ohana Benevides Rodrigues, Matheus Hostert, Kevin J. Kelly, Bryce Littlejohn, Pedro A. N. Machado, Ibrahim Safa and Tao Zhou

Physical review letters, Vol.135(8), 081801

08/2025

DOI: 10.1103/4fn7-svnh

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Abstract

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 → ν e and ν e → 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 − 3 σ . We show that upcoming searches at SBND and ICARUS can improve on this beyond the 4 σ level, thereby providing a rigorous test of short-baseline anomalies.

Details

Title: Subtitle: Toward a Robust Confirmation or Refutation of the Sterile-Neutrino Explanation of Short-Baseline Anomalies
Creators: Ohana Benevides Rodrigues - Illinois Institute of Technology
Matheus Hostert - Harvard University Press
Kevin J. Kelly - Mitchell Institute
Bryce Littlejohn - Illinois Institute of Technology
Pedro A. N. Machado
Ibrahim Safa - Columbia University
Tao Zhou - Mitchell Institute
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Physical review letters, Vol.135(8), 081801
DOI: 10.1103/4fn7-svnh
ISSN: 0031-9007
eISSN: 1079-7114
Publisher: AMER PHYSICAL SOC
Grant note: U.S. DOE: DE-SC0008347 National Science Foundation: PHY-2210452 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics
We thank Joachim Kopp for comments on this manuscript. The work of M. H. is supported by the Neutrino Theory Network Program Grant No. DE-AC02-07CHI11359 and the U.S. DOE Award No. DE-SC0020250. K. J. K. and T. Z. are supported in part by U.S. DOE Award No. DE-SC0010813. O. B. R. and B. R. L. are supported by U.S. DOE Award No. DE-SC0008347. The work of I. S. was supported by the National Science Foundation Award No. PHY-2310080. This manuscript has been authored by Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC under Contract No. 89243024CSC000002 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics. This work was performed in part at Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. PHY-2210452. This work is not an official MicroBooNE, SBND, or ICARUS result.
Language: English
Date published: 08/2025
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984949268302771

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