e-Article
Final Search for Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations with the PROSPECT-I Detector at HFIR
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Andriamirado, M.; Balantekin, B.; Bass, C. D.; Rodrigues, O. Benevides; Bernard, E. P.; Bowden, N. S.; Bryan, C. D.; Carr, R.; Classen, T.; Conant, A. J.; Deichert, G.; Dolinski, M. J.; Erickson, A.; Galindo-Uribarri, A.; Gokhale, S.; Grant, C.; Hans, S.; Hansell, A. B.; Heeger, K. M.; Heffron, B.; Jaffe, D. E.; Jayakumar, S.; Koblanski, J. R.; Kunkle, P.; Lane, C. E.; Littlejohn, B. R.; Sanchez, A. Lozano; Lu, X.; Machado, F.; Maricic, J.; Mendenhall, M. P.; Meyer, A. M.; Milincic, R.; Mueller, P. E.; Mumm, H.; Neilson, R.; Qian, X.; Roca, C.; Rosero, R.; Surukuchi, P.; Sutanto, F.; Venegas-Vargas, D.; Weatherly, P. B.; Wilhelmi, J.; Yeh, M.; Zhang, C.; Zhang, X.
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Abstract
The PROSPECT experiment is designed to perform precise searches for antineutrino disappearance at short distances (7 - 9~m) from compact nuclear reactor cores. This Letter reports results from a new neutrino oscillation analysis performed using the complete data sample from the PROSPECT-I detector operated at the High Flux Isotope Reactor in 2018. The analysis uses a multi-period selection of inverse beta decay neutrino interactions with reduced backgrounds and enhanced statistical power to set limits on electron-flavor disappearance caused by mixing with sterile neutrinos with 0.2 - 20 eV$^2$ mass splittings. Inverse beta decay positron energy spectra from six different reactor-detector distance ranges are found to be statistically consistent with one another, as would be expected in the absence of sterile neutrino oscillations. The data excludes at 95% confidence level the existence of sterile neutrinos in regions above 3~eV$^2$ previously unexplored by terrestrial experiments, including all space below 10~eV$^2$ suggested by the recently strengthened Gallium Anomaly. The best-fit point of the Neutrino-4 reactor experiment's claimed observation of short-baseline oscillation is ruled out at more than five standard deviations.
Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures
Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures