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Title: Sterile neutrinos and the global reactor antineutrino dataset
A bstract We present results from global fits to the available reactor antineutrino dataset, as of Fall 2019, to determine the global preference for a fourth, sterile neutrino. We have separately considered experiments that measure the integrated inverse-beta decay (IBD) rate from those that measure the energy spectrum of IBD events at one or more locations. The evidence that we infer from rate measurements varies between ≲ 3 σ and negligible depending on the reactor antineutrino flux model employed. Moreover, we find that spectral ratios ostensibly imply ≳ 3 σ evidence, consistent with previous work, though these measurements are known to be plagued by issues related to statistical interpretation; these results should therefore be viewed cautiously. The software used is the newly developed GLoBESfit tool set which is based on the publicly available GLoBES framework and will be released as open-source software.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2020275 1630782
PAR ID:
10250936
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of High Energy Physics
Volume:
2021
Issue:
1
ISSN:
1029-8479
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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