Gallium Anomaly: Critical View from the Global Picture of ${\nu }_e$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_e$ Disappearance

Abstract

The significance of the Gallium Anomaly, from the BEST, GALLEX, and SAGE radioactive source experiments, is quantified using different theoretical calculations of the neutrino detection cross section, and its explanation due to neutrino oscillations is compared with the bounds from the analyses of reactor rate and spectral ratio data, $\beta$-decay data, and solar neutrino data. In the 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing scheme, the Gallium Anomaly is in strong tension with the individual and combined bounds of these data sets. In the combined scenario with all available data, the parameter goodness of fit is below 0.042%, corresponding to a severe tension of 4-5$\sigma$, or stronger. Therefore, we conclude that one should pursue other possible solutions beyond short-baseline oscillations for the Gallium Anomaly. We also present a new global fit of ${\nu }_e$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_e$ disappearance data, showing that there is a 2.6-3.3$\sigma$ preference in favor of short-baseline oscillations, which is driven by an updated analysis of reactor spectral ratio data.

20 pages, 10 figures. With more discussions, version accepted for publication at Journal of High Energy Physics

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• Neutrino oscillation bounds on quantum decoherence
• Implications of the first CONUS+ measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Towards Resolving the Gallium Anomaly
• Solar fusion III: New data and theory for hydrogen-burning stars
• Decoherence effects in reactor and Gallium neutrino oscillation experiments -- a QFT approach
• Probing conventional and new physics at the ESS with coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Improved sensitivities of ESS$\nu$SB from a two-detector fit
• Sterile Neutrinos: Propagation in Matter and Sensitivity to Sterile Mass Ordering
• Search for Hidden Neutrinos at the European Spallation Source: the SHiNESS experiment
• Testing the Gallium Anomaly
• Resonant Production of Light Sterile Neutrinos in Compact Binary Merger Remnants
• Solar Model Independent Constraints on the Sterile Neutrino Interpretation of the Gallium Anomaly
• Sterile sector impacting the correlations and degeneracies among mixing parameters at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
• Testing lepton non-unitarity with the next generation of Germanium-based CE$\nu$NS reactor experiments