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

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dc.contributor.authorBerryman, Jeffrey M.en
dc.contributor.authorColoma, Pilaren
dc.contributor.authorHuber, Patricken
dc.contributor.authorSchwetz, Thomasen
dc.contributor.authorZhou, Alberten
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-29T14:17:22Zen
dc.date.available2022-07-29T14:17:22Zen
dc.date.issued2022-02-08en
dc.description.abstractWe evaluate the statistical significance of the 3+1 sterile-neutrino hypothesis using nu(e) and (nu) over bar (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 chi(2)-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 1 sigma with respect to the naive 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 5 sigma of evidence supporting the sterile-neutrino hypothesis, favoring oscillation parameters in agreement with constraints from reactor data. This explanation is, however, in significant tension (similar to 3 sigma) 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.en
dc.description.notesWe thank Joachim Kopp and Pedro Machado for providing us the results of their 12C LSND and KARMEN analysis. J.M.B. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation, Grant PHY-1630782, and the Heising-Simons Foundation, Grant 2017-228. J.M.B. further thanks the Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS5) for encouragement and support; the University of Kentucky, where much of this work was completed; and the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington for its kind hospitality and stimulating research environment. This research was supported in part by the INT's U.S. Department of Energy grant No. DE-FG02-00ER41132. Albert Zhou thanks the Doctoral School "Karlsruhe School of Elementary and Astroparticle Physics: Science and Technology (KSETA)" for financial support through the GSSP program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The work of PC is supported by Grant RYC2018-024240-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by "ESF Investing in your future". This project has received support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 860881-HIDDeN. The authors acknowledge use of the HPC facilities at the IFT (Hydra cluster), and support of the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion through the grant "IFT Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2016-0597", as well as from Grant PID2019-108892RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. The work of P.H. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science under award number DE-SC00018327.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation [PHY-1630782]; Heising-Simons Foundation [2017-228]; Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS5); INT's U.S. Department of Energy [DE-FG02-00ER41132]; Doctoral School "Karlsruhe School of Elementary and Astroparticle Physics: Science and Technology (KSETA)" through the GSSP program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); MCIN/AEI [RYC2018-024240-I, PID2019-108892RB-I00]; ESF Investing in your future; European Union [860881-HIDDeN]; Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion through the grant "IFT Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa" [SEV-2016-0597]; U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science [DE-SC00018327]en
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2022)055en
dc.identifier.issn1029-8479en
dc.identifier.issue2en
dc.identifier.other55en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/111403en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSpringeren
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectBeyond Standard Modelen
dc.subjectNeutrino Physicsen
dc.titleStatistical significance of the sterile-neutrino hypothesis in the context of reactor and gallium dataen
dc.title.serialJournal of High Energy Physicsen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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