Skip to main content
Log in

Search for sterile neutrinos at reactors

  • Published:
Journal of High Energy Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The sensitivity to the sterile neutrino mixing at very short baseline reactor neutrino experiments is investigated. In the case of conventional (thermal neutron) reactors it is found that the sensitivity is lost for ∆m 2 ≳ 1 eV2 due to smearing of the reactor core size. On the other hand, in the case of an experimental fast neutron reactor Joyo, because of its small size, sensitivity to sin2 2θ 14 can be as good as 0.03 for ∆m 2 ∼ several eV2 with the Bugey-like detector setup.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. LSND collaboration, C. Athanassopoulos et al., Evidence for \( {\bar{\nu }_\mu } \to {\bar{\nu }_e} \) oscillation from the LSND experiment at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 (1996) 3082 [nucl-ex/9605003] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. LSND collaboration, C. Athanassopoulos et al., Evidence for ν μ  → ν e neutrino oscillations from LSND, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 1774 [nucl-ex/9709006] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. LSND collaboration, A. Aguilar et al., Evidence for neutrino oscillations from the observation of \( {\bar{\nu }_e} \) appearance in a \( {\bar{\nu }_\mu } \) beam, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 112007 [hep-ex/0104049] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Particle Data Group collaboration, K. Nakamura et al., Review of particle physics, J. Phys. G 37 (2010) 075021 [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. MiniBooNE collaboration, A.A. Aguilar-Arevalo et al., A search for electron neutrino appearance at them 2 ∼ 1 eV2 scale, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (2007) 231801 [arXiv:0704.1500] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. MiniBooNE collaboration, A.A. Aguilar-Arevalo et al., Event excess in the MiniBooNE search for \( {\bar{\nu }_\mu } \to {\bar{\nu }_e} \) oscillations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 (2010) 181801 [arXiv:1007.1150] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. T.A. Mueller et al., Improved predictions of reactor antineutrino spectra, Phys. Rev. C 83 (2011) 054615 [arXiv:1101.2663] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. P. Huber, On the determination of anti-neutrino spectra from nuclear reactors, Phys. Rev. C 84 (2011) 024617 [arXiv:1106.0687] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. G. Mention et al., The reactor antineutrino anomaly, Phys. Rev. D 83 (2011) 073006 [arXiv:1101.2755] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Y. Kozlov, L. Mikaelyan and V. Sinev, Two detector reactor neutrino oscillation experiment Kr2Det at Krasnoyarsk: status report, Phys. Atom. Nucl. 66 (2003) 469 [Yad. Fiz. 66 (2003) 497] [hep-ph/0109277] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. H. Minakata, H. Sugiyama, O. Yasuda, K. Inoue and F. Suekane, Reactor measurement of θ 13 and its complementarity to long-baseline experiments, Phys. Rev. D 68 (2003) 033017 [Erratum ibid. D 70 (2004) 059901] [hep-ph/0211111] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. P. Huber, M. Lindner, T. Schwetz and W. Winter, Reactor neutrino experiments compared to superbeams, Nucl. Phys. B 665 (2003) 487 [hep-ph/0303232] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. K. Anderson et al., W hite paper report on using nuclear reactors to search for a value of θ 13, hep-ex/0402041 [SPIRES].

  14. F. Ardellier et al., Letter of intent for double-CHOOZ: a search for the mixing angle θ 13, hep-ex/0405032 [SPIRES].

  15. Daya-Bay collaboration, X. Guo et al., A precision measurement of the neutrino mixing angle θ 13 using reactor antineutrinos at Daya Bay, hep-ex/0701029 [SPIRES].

  16. RENO collaboration, J.K. Ahn et al., RENO: an experiment for neutrino oscillation parameter θ 13 using reactor neutrinos at Yonggwang, arXiv:1003.1391 [SPIRES].

  17. O. Yasuda, Measurement of sin2(2θ 13) by reactor experiments and its sensitivity, hep-ph/0403162 [SPIRES].

  18. H. Sugiyama, O. Yasuda, F. Suekane and G.A. Horton-Smith, Systematic limits on sin2(2θ 13) in neutrino oscillation experiments with multi-reactors, Phys. Rev. D 73 (2006) 053008 [hep-ph/0409109] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. H. Sugiyama and O. Yasuda, A formula for the sensitivity to sin2(2θ 13) in reactor experiments with a spectral analysis, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 22 (2007) 3407 [hep-ph/0508090] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. J. Kopp, M. Maltoni and T. Schwetz, Are there sterile neutrinos at the eV scale?, arXiv:1103.4570 [SPIRES].

  21. M. Sorel, J.M. Conrad and M. Shaevitz, A combined analysis of short-baseline neutrino experiments in the (3 + 1) and (3 + 2) sterile neutrino oscillation hypotheses, Phys. Rev. D 70 (2004) 073004 [hep-ph/0305255] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. D.C. Latimer, J. Escamilla and D.J. Ernst, Measuring the mass of a sterile neutrino with a very short baseline reactor experiment, Phys. Rev. C 75 (2007) 042501 [hep-ex/0701004] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. A. de Gouvêa and T. Wytock, Light sterile neutrino effects at θ 13 -sensitive reactor neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 073005 [arXiv:0809.5076] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Y. Declais et al., Search for neutrino oscillations at 15-meters, 40-meters and 95-meters from a nuclear power reactor at Bugey, Nucl. Phys. B 434 (1995) 503 [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Nucifer collaboration, T. Lasserre, Nucifer, in Focused workshop on antineutrino detection for safeguards applications, http://www.e15.physik.tu-muenchen.de/fileadmin/downloads/seminars/1011/SterileNeutrinosWorkshop/lasserre-tumE15-feb2011-nucifer.pdf, IAEA, Vienna Austria February 2009.

  26. C. Rubbia, A proposed search for sterile neutrinos with the ICARUS detector at the CERN-PS, talk at the 14th International Workshop on “Neutrino Telescopes”, http://agenda.infn.it/materialDisplay.py?contribId=34&sessionId=10&materialId=slides&confId=3101, Venice Italy March 15–18 2011.

  27. S.K. Agarwalla, P. Huber and J.M. Link, Constraining sterile neutrinos with a low energy β-beam, JHEP 01 (2010) 071 [arXiv:0907.3145] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. M. Cribier et al., A proposed search for a fourth neutrino with a PBq antineutrino source, arXiv:1107.2335 [SPIRES].

  29. M. Maltoni, T. Schwetz, M.A. Tortola and J.W.F. Valle, Status of global fits to neutrino oscillations, New J. Phys. 6 (2004) 122 [hep-ph/0405172] [SPIRES].

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. N. Okada and O. Yasuda, A sterile neutrino scenario constrained by experiments and cosmology, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 12 (1997) 3669 [hep-ph/9606411] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. S.M. Bilenky, C. Giunti and W. Grimus, Neutrino mass spectrum from the results of neutrino oscillation experiments, Eur. Phys. J. C 1 (1998) 247 [hep-ph/9607372] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. F. Dydak et al., A search for muon-neutrino oscillations in them 2 range 0.3 eV2 to 90 eV2, Phys. Lett. B 134 (1984) 281 [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. M. Maltoni and T. Schwetz, Sterile neutrino oscillations after first MiniBooNE results, Phys. Rev. D 76 (2007) 093005 [arXiv:0705.0107] [SPIRES].

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  34. The experimental fast reactor Joyo homepage, http://www.jaea.go.jp/04/o-arai/joyo/english/index.html, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan.

  35. T. Aoyama et al., Core performance tests for the Joyo MK-III upgrade, Nucl. Eng. Des. 237 (2007) 353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. H. Furuta et al., A study of reactor neutrino monitoring at experimental fast reactor Joyo, arXiv:1108.2910 [SPIRES].

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Osamu Yasuda.

Additional information

ArXiv ePrint: 1107.4766

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yasuda, O. Search for sterile neutrinos at reactors. J. High Energ. Phys. 2011, 36 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2011)036

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2011)036

Keywords

Navigation