Sensitivity to oscillation with a sterile fourth generation neutrino from ultra-low threshold neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering

Abstract

We discuss prospects for probing short-range sterile neutrino oscillation using neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering with ultra-low energy ($\sim 10$ eV - 100 eV) recoil threshold cryogenic Ge detectors. The analysis is performed in the context of a specific and contemporary reactor-based experimental proposal, developed in cooperation with the Nuclear Science Center at Texas A\&M University, and references developing technology based upon economical and scalable detector arrays. The baseline of the experiment is substantially shorter than existing measurements, as near as about 2 meters from the reactor core, and is moreover variable, extending continuously up to a range of about 10 meters. This proximity and variety combine to provide extraordinary sensitivity to a wide spectrum of oscillation scales, while facilitating the tidy cancellation of leading systematic uncertainties in the reactor source and environment. With 100~eV sensitivity, for exposures on the order of 200 kg$\cdot$y, we project an estimated sensitivity to first/fourth neutrino oscillation with a mass gap $\Delta m^2\sim 1{\mathrm{eV}}^2$ at an amplitude ${\sin }^{2}2\theta \sim 10^{-1}$, or $\Delta m^2\sim 0.2{\mathrm{eV}}^2$ at unit amplitude. Larger exposures, around 5,000 kg$\cdot$y, together with 10 eV sensitivity are capable of probing more than an additional order of magnitude in amplitude.

4 figures, PRD version, New author added, analysis updated with stat. estimates based on new measurements and simulations

References in corpus (8)

• The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly
• Measurement of the solar neutrino capture rate with gallium metal. III: Results for the 2002--2007 data-taking period
• Statistical Significance of the Gallium Anomaly
• Cosmic neutrino cascades from secret neutrino interactions
• Short-Baseline Active-Sterile Neutrino Oscillations?
• Testing the very-short-baseline neutrino anomalies at the solar sector
• Solar neutrino physics with low-threshold dark matter detectors
• Three Twin Neutrinos: Evidence from LSND and MiniBooNE

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering
• COHERENT constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions
• Neutrino Non-Standard Interactions: A Status Report
• COHERENT constraints to conventional and exotic neutrino physics
• Probing light sterile neutrino signatures at reactor and Spallation Neutron Source neutrino experiments
• Future perspectives for a weak mixing angle measurement in coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering experiments
• Producing a new Fermion in Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering: from Neutrino Mass to Dark Matter
• Probing light mediators at ultra-low threshold energies with coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Novel constraints on neutrino physics beyond the standard model from the CONUS experiment
• Flavor-dependent radiative corrections in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Light Sterile Neutrinos: Status and Perspectives
• Constraining Sterile Neutrino Interpretations of the LSND and MiniBooNE Anomalies with Coherent Neutrino Scattering Experiments
• The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper CCDs: Measuring the weak mixing angle
• New physics from COHERENT data with improved Quenching Factor
• Interplay between nonstandard and nuclear constraints in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments
• Neutrino physics with dark matter detectors
• Astrophysical constraints on non-standard coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering
• The physics potential of a reactor neutrino experiment with Skipper-CCDs: Searching for new physics with light mediators
• Constraining Non-Standard Interactions with Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering at the European Spallation Source
• Probing $L_{\mu }-L_{\tau }$ models with CE$\nu$NS: A new look at the combined COHERENT CsI and Ar data
• Constraining Sterile Neutrino Cosmology with Terrestrial Oscillation Experiments
• CP-Violating and Charged Current Neutrino Non-standard Interactions in CE$\nu$NS
• Recent Progress in Low Energy Neutrino Scattering Physics and Its Implications for the Standard and Beyond the Standard Model Physics
• Coherent elastic nuclear scattering of ${}^{51}$Cr neutrinos
• Constraining scalar leptoquarks using COHERENT data
• Probing conventional and new physics at the ESS with coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Low-energy spectrum of the BULLKID detector array operated on surface
• Extra dimensions with light and heavy neutral leptons: An application to CE$\nu$NS
• LEvEL: Low-Energy Neutrino Experiment at the LHC
• Upgrade of NaI(Tl) crystal encapsulation for the NEON experiment
• Germanium target sensed by phonon-mediated kinetic inductance detectors
• Bounds on new physics with data of the Dresden-II reactor experiment and COHERENT