Search for the eV-Scale Sterile Neutrino at a Very Short Baseline: Status and Perspectives
Keywords:
Sterile neutrinos, Reactor neutrinos, Neutrino oscillation
Abstract
From the discovery of the neutrino to the measurement of θ13, the last unknown neutrino mixing angle,
nuclear reactors have proved to be a fundamental tool to study these particles, of which much remains
to be unveiled. Measurements involving reactor antineutrinos rely on the prediction of their energy spectrum,
a nontrivial exercise involving ad hoc methods and carefully selected assumptions. A discrepancy
between predicted and measured antineutrino fluxes at a few meters distance from reactors arose in 2011,
prompting a series of experimental efforts aimed at studying neutrino oscillation at a baseline that was
never tested before. This so-called reactor antineutrino anomaly can, in fact, be accounted for by invoking
the existence of new sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale that participate in the neutrino mixing, an appealing
hypothesis tying to other anomalies already observed in the neutrino sector, which opens a door
for physics beyond the Standard Model. This article presents an overview of the most recent results of the
projects involved in the search for reactor antineutrino oscillations at a very short baseline, and their implication
in our current understanding of the reactor antineutrino anomaly and the eV-scale sterile neutrino
hypothesis.
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Letters, 125(20):201801, 2020.
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DE Bergeron, D Berish, NS Bowden, JP Brodsky,
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oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement
with the prospect experiment at hfir. Physical Review
D, 103(3):032001, 2021.
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CD Bass, DE Bergeron, D Berish, M Bishai, S Blyth,
NS Bowden, et al. Joint determination of reactor antineutrino
spectra from u 235 and pu 239 fission by daya bay
and prospect. Physical Review Letters, 128(8):081801, 2022.
[23] H Almaz´an, M Andriamirado, AB Balantekin, HR Band,
CD Bass, DE Bergeron, L Bernard, A Blanchet, A Bonhomme,
NS Bowden, et al. Joint measurement of the u
235 antineutrino spectrum by prospect and stereo. Physical
Review Letters, 128(8):081802, 2022.
[24] I Alekseev, V Belov, V Brudanin, M Danilov, V Egorov,
D Filosofov, M Fomina, Z Hons, S Kazartsev, A Kobyakin,
et al. Search for sterile neutrinos at the danss experiment.
Physics Letters B, 787:56–63, 2018.
[25] Mikhail Danilov and Nataliya Skrobova. New results
from the danss experiment. arXiv preprint
arXiv:2112.13413, 2021.
[26] Anatoly Pavlovich Serebrov, Vladimir Grigor’evich
Ivochkin, Rudol’f Mikhailovich Samoilov, Alexey Konstantinovich
Fomin, Aleksandr Olegovich Polyushkin,
VG Zinoviev, Petr Vsevolodovich Neustroev,
Viktor Leont’evich Golovtsov, AV Chernyj,
Oleg Mikhailovich Zherebtsov, et al. First observation
of the oscillation effect in the neutrino-4 experiment
on the search for the sterile neutrino. JETP Letters,
109(4):213–221, 2019.
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of the results of the neutrino-4 experiment on the search
for the sterile neutrino and comparison with results of
other experiments”. JETP Letters, 112(7):452–454, 2020.
[28] C. Giunti, Y.F. Li, C.A. Ternes, and Y.Y. Zhang. Neutrino-
4 anomaly: Oscillations or fluctuations? Physics Letters B,
816:136214, 2021.
[29] M Aker, K Altenm¨ uller, A Beglarian, J Behrens, A Berlev,
U Besserer, B Bieringer, K Blaum, F Block, B Bornschein,
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the first four-week science run of katrin. Physical review
letters, 126(9):091803, 2021.
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active-sterile neutrino mixing and the reactor antineutrino
anomaly. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2020(5):1–20, 2020.
[31] FP An, AB Balantekin, HR Band,MBishai, S Blyth, D Cao,
GF Cao, J Cao, YL Chan, JF Chang, et al. Evolution of
the reactor antineutrino flux and spectrum at daya bay.
Physical review letters, 118(25):251801, 2017.
[32] V Kopeikin, M Skorokhvatov, and O Titov. Reevaluating
reactor antineutrino spectra with new measurements of
the ratio between u 235 and pu 239 β spectra. Physical
Review D, 104(7):L071301, 2021.
[33] N Haag, W Gelletly, F von Feilitzsch, L Oberauer,
W Potzel, K Schreckenbach, and AA Sonzogni. Republication
of the data from the bill magnetic spectrometer:
The cumulative β spectra of the fission products of
235u, 239pu, and 241pu. arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.3501,
2014.
[34] A Minotti. Latest results from double chooz. Physics of
Particles and Nuclei, 48(1):47–54, 2017.
[35] Stefan Schoppmann. Status of anomalies and sterile neutrino
searches at nuclear reactors. Universe, 7(10):360, 2021.
[36] Jeffrey M Berryman, Vedran Brdar, and Patrick Huber.
Particle physics origin of the 5 mev bump in the reactor
antineutrino spectrum? Physical Review D, 99(5):055045,
2019.
[37] AC Hayes, JL Friar, GT Garvey, Duligur Ibeling, Gerard
Jungman, T Kawano, and Robert W Mills. Possible origins
and implications of the shoulder in reactor neutrino
spectra. Physical Review D, 92(3):033015, 2015.
[38] Christian Buck, Antoine P Collin, Julia Haser, and Manfred
Lindner. Investigating the spectral anomaly with different
reactor antineutrino experiments. Physics Letters B,
765:159–162, 2017.
[39] A. Letourneau, V. Savu, D. Lhuillier, T. Lasserre, T. Materna,
G. Mention, X. Mougeot, A. Onillon, L. Perisse, and
M. Vivier. Origin of the reactor antineutrino anomalies in
light of a new summation model with parametrized β−
transitions. Phys. Rev. Lett., 130:021801, Jan 2023.
[40] Dong-Liang Fang and B Alex Brown. Effect of firstforbidden
decays on the shape of neutrino spectra. Physical
Review C, 91(2):025503, 2015.
[41] L Hayen, Joel Kostensalo,NSeverijns, and Jouni Suhonen.
First-forbidden transitions in reactor antineutrino spectra.
Physical Review C, 99(3):031301, 2019.
S Blyth, D Cao, GF Cao, J Cao, YL Chan, et al. Measurement
of electron antineutrino oscillation with 1958
days of operation at daya bay. Physical review letters,
121(24):241805, 2018.
[2] H. de Kerret and The Double Chooz Collaboration. Double
chooz θ13 measurement via total neutron capture detection.
Nature Physics, 16(5):558–564, 2020.
[3] CD Shin, Zohaib Atif, G Bak, JH Choi, HI Jang, JS Jang,
SH Jeon, KK Joo, K Ju, DE Jung, et al. Observation of
reactor antineutrino disappearance using delayed neutron
capture on hydrogen at reno. Journal of High Energy
Physics, 2020(4):1–27, 2020.
[4] K Abe, J Amey, C Andreopoulos, M Antonova, S Aoki,
A Ariga, D Autiero, S Ban, M Barbi, GJ Barker, et al. Combined
analysis of neutrino and antineutrino oscillations at
t2k. Physical review letters, 118(15):151801, 2017.
[5] Th A Mueller, D Lhuillier, Muriel Fallot, A Letourneau,
S Cormon, M Fechner, Lydie Giot, Th Lasserre, J Martino,
GMention, et al. Improved predictions of reactor antineutrino
spectra. Physical Review C, 83(5):054615, 2011.
[6] Patrick Huber. Determination of antineutrino spectra
from nuclear reactors. Physical Review C, 84(2):024617,
2011.
[7] Feng Peng An, AB Balantekin, HR Band,MBishai, S Blyth,
I Butorov, D Cao, GF Cao, J Cao, WR Cen, et al. Measurement
of the reactor antineutrino flux and spectrum at daya
bay. Physical review letters, 116(6):061801, 2016.
[8] G Mention, M Fechner, Th Lasserre, Th A Mueller,
D Lhuillier, M Cribier, and A Letourneau. Reactor antineutrino
anomaly. Physical Review D, 83(7):073006, 2011.
[9] Vladislav V Barinov, BT Cleveland, SN Danshin, H Ejiri,
SR Elliott, D Frekers, VN Gavrin, VV Gorbachev, DS Gorbunov,
WC Haxton, et al. Results from the baksan experiment
on sterile transitions (best). Physical review letters,
128(23):232501, 2022.
[10] N Agafonova, Alexander Aleksandrov, A Anokhina,
S Aoki, Akitaka Ariga, Tomoko Ariga, D Autiero,
A Badertscher, A Ben Dhahbi, A Bertolin, et al. Search
for ν μ→ ν e oscillations with the opera experiment in the
cngs beam. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2013(7):1–16,
2013.
[11] YJ Ko, BR Kim, JY Kim, BY Han, CH Jang, Eun Ju Jeon,
KK Joo, HJ Kim, HS Kim, YD Kim, et al. Sterile neutrino
search at the neos experiment. Physical review letters,
118(12):121802, 2017.
[12] I Alekseev, V Belov, V Brudanin, M Danilov, V Egorov,
D Filosofov, M Fomina, Z Hons, S Kazartsev, A Kobyakin,
et al. Danss: Detector of the reactor antineutrino based on
solid scintillator. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(11):P11011,
2016.
[13] AP Serebrov, VG Ivochkin, RM Samoylov, AK Fomin,
VG Zinoviev, PV Neustroev, VL Golovtsov,NVGruzinsky,
VA Solovey, AV Chernyi, et al. Neutrino-4 experiment on
the search for a sterile neutrino at the sm-3 reactor. Journal
of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, 121(4):578–586,
2015.
[14] Y Abreu, Y Amhis, L Arnold, G Barber,WBeaumont, S Binet,
I Bolognino, M Bongrand, J Borg, D Boursette, et al.
Solid: a short baseline reactor neutrino experiment. Journal
of Instrumentation, 16(02):P02025, 2021.
[15] N Allemandou, Helena Almaz´an, P del Amo Sanchez,
L Bernard, C Bernard, A Blanchet, Aur´elie Bonhomme,
G Bosson, O Bourrion, J Bouvier, et al. The stereo experiment.
Journal of Instrumentation, 13(07):P07009, 2018.
[16] J Ashenfelter, AB Balantekin, HR Band, G Barclay,
CD Bass, D Berish, L Bignell, NS Bowden, A Bowes,
JP Brodsky, et al. The prospect physics program. Journal
of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 43(11):113001,
2016.
[17] Youngju Ko, Bo-Young Han, Chang-Hwan Jang, Eun-
Ju Jeon, Kyung-Kwang Joo, Ba-Ro Kim, Hong-Joo Kim,
Hyunsoo Kim, Jinyu Kim, Young-Duk Kim, et al. Neos
experiment. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series, volume
1216, page 012004. IOP Publishing, 2019.
[18] Helena Almaz´an, P del Amo Sanchez, L Bernard,
A Blanchet, A Bonhomme, Christian Buck, J Favier, Julia
Haser, V H´elaine, F Kandzia, et al. Sterile neutrino
constraints from the stereo experiment with 66 days of
reactor-on data. Physical review letters, 121(16):161801,
2018.
[19] Helena Almaz´an, L Bernard, A Blanchet, A Bonhomme,
C Buck, P del Amo Sanchez, I El Atmani, Julia Haser,
F Kandzia, S Kox, et al. Improved sterile neutrino constraints
from the stereo experiment with 179 days of
reactor-on data. Physical Review D, 102(5):052002, 2020.
[20] HAlmaz´an, L Bernard, A Blanchet, A Bonhomme, C Buck,
P del Amo Sanchez, I El Atmani, Julia Haser, L Labit,
J Lamblin, et al. Accurate measurement of the electron antineutrino yield of u 235 fissions from the stereo experiment
with 119 days of reactor-on data. Physical Review
Letters, 125(20):201801, 2020.
[21] Manoa Andriamirado, AB Balantekin, HR Band, CD Bass,
DE Bergeron, D Berish, NS Bowden, JP Brodsky,
CD Bryan, T Classen, et al. Improved short-baseline neutrino
oscillation search and energy spectrum measurement
with the prospect experiment at hfir. Physical Review
D, 103(3):032001, 2021.
[22] FP An, M Andriamirado, AB Balantekin, HR Band,
CD Bass, DE Bergeron, D Berish, M Bishai, S Blyth,
NS Bowden, et al. Joint determination of reactor antineutrino
spectra from u 235 and pu 239 fission by daya bay
and prospect. Physical Review Letters, 128(8):081801, 2022.
[23] H Almaz´an, M Andriamirado, AB Balantekin, HR Band,
CD Bass, DE Bergeron, L Bernard, A Blanchet, A Bonhomme,
NS Bowden, et al. Joint measurement of the u
235 antineutrino spectrum by prospect and stereo. Physical
Review Letters, 128(8):081802, 2022.
[24] I Alekseev, V Belov, V Brudanin, M Danilov, V Egorov,
D Filosofov, M Fomina, Z Hons, S Kazartsev, A Kobyakin,
et al. Search for sterile neutrinos at the danss experiment.
Physics Letters B, 787:56–63, 2018.
[25] Mikhail Danilov and Nataliya Skrobova. New results
from the danss experiment. arXiv preprint
arXiv:2112.13413, 2021.
[26] Anatoly Pavlovich Serebrov, Vladimir Grigor’evich
Ivochkin, Rudol’f Mikhailovich Samoilov, Alexey Konstantinovich
Fomin, Aleksandr Olegovich Polyushkin,
VG Zinoviev, Petr Vsevolodovich Neustroev,
Viktor Leont’evich Golovtsov, AV Chernyj,
Oleg Mikhailovich Zherebtsov, et al. First observation
of the oscillation effect in the neutrino-4 experiment
on the search for the sterile neutrino. JETP Letters,
109(4):213–221, 2019.
[27] M. V. Danilov and N. A. Skrobova. Comment on “analysis
of the results of the neutrino-4 experiment on the search
for the sterile neutrino and comparison with results of
other experiments”. JETP Letters, 112(7):452–454, 2020.
[28] C. Giunti, Y.F. Li, C.A. Ternes, and Y.Y. Zhang. Neutrino-
4 anomaly: Oscillations or fluctuations? Physics Letters B,
816:136214, 2021.
[29] M Aker, K Altenm¨ uller, A Beglarian, J Behrens, A Berlev,
U Besserer, B Bieringer, K Blaum, F Block, B Bornschein,
et al. Bound on 3+ 1 active-sterile neutrino mixing from
the first four-week science run of katrin. Physical review
letters, 126(9):091803, 2021.
[30] C Giunti, YF Li, and YY Zhang. Katrin bound on 3+ 1
active-sterile neutrino mixing and the reactor antineutrino
anomaly. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2020(5):1–20, 2020.
[31] FP An, AB Balantekin, HR Band,MBishai, S Blyth, D Cao,
GF Cao, J Cao, YL Chan, JF Chang, et al. Evolution of
the reactor antineutrino flux and spectrum at daya bay.
Physical review letters, 118(25):251801, 2017.
[32] V Kopeikin, M Skorokhvatov, and O Titov. Reevaluating
reactor antineutrino spectra with new measurements of
the ratio between u 235 and pu 239 β spectra. Physical
Review D, 104(7):L071301, 2021.
[33] N Haag, W Gelletly, F von Feilitzsch, L Oberauer,
W Potzel, K Schreckenbach, and AA Sonzogni. Republication
of the data from the bill magnetic spectrometer:
The cumulative β spectra of the fission products of
235u, 239pu, and 241pu. arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.3501,
2014.
[34] A Minotti. Latest results from double chooz. Physics of
Particles and Nuclei, 48(1):47–54, 2017.
[35] Stefan Schoppmann. Status of anomalies and sterile neutrino
searches at nuclear reactors. Universe, 7(10):360, 2021.
[36] Jeffrey M Berryman, Vedran Brdar, and Patrick Huber.
Particle physics origin of the 5 mev bump in the reactor
antineutrino spectrum? Physical Review D, 99(5):055045,
2019.
[37] AC Hayes, JL Friar, GT Garvey, Duligur Ibeling, Gerard
Jungman, T Kawano, and Robert W Mills. Possible origins
and implications of the shoulder in reactor neutrino
spectra. Physical Review D, 92(3):033015, 2015.
[38] Christian Buck, Antoine P Collin, Julia Haser, and Manfred
Lindner. Investigating the spectral anomaly with different
reactor antineutrino experiments. Physics Letters B,
765:159–162, 2017.
[39] A. Letourneau, V. Savu, D. Lhuillier, T. Lasserre, T. Materna,
G. Mention, X. Mougeot, A. Onillon, L. Perisse, and
M. Vivier. Origin of the reactor antineutrino anomalies in
light of a new summation model with parametrized β−
transitions. Phys. Rev. Lett., 130:021801, Jan 2023.
[40] Dong-Liang Fang and B Alex Brown. Effect of firstforbidden
decays on the shape of neutrino spectra. Physical
Review C, 91(2):025503, 2015.
[41] L Hayen, Joel Kostensalo,NSeverijns, and Jouni Suhonen.
First-forbidden transitions in reactor antineutrino spectra.
Physical Review C, 99(3):031301, 2019.
Published
2023-10-20
Issue
Section
Special Issue on Neutrinos and Dark Matter-2022
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