Sterile Neutrino Searches

In the first part of the thesis we explore the sensitivity to sterile neutrinos by using a novel kaon tagging technology: ENUBET, the proposed experiment could decisively test indications from the experiments Neutrino-4 and IceCube. In the second part of the thesis we discuss the current status of sterile neutrino searches at nuclear reactors, we present a study with the optimization of a green field, two baseline reactor experiment with respect to the sensitivity for electron anti-neutrino disappearance in search of a light sterile neutrino at both research and commercial reactors. We find that a total of 5 tons of detectors deployed at a commercial reactor with a closest approach of 25 m can probe the mixing angle sin²2θ down to ∼ 5 × 10⁻³ around ∆m² ∼ 1 eV² . The same detector mass deployed at a research reactor can be sensitive up to ∆m² ∼ 20 − 30 eV² assuming a closest approach of 3 m and excellent energy resolution, such as that projected for TAO. We also find that lithium doping of the reactor could be effective in increasing the sensitivity for higher ∆m² values.