Search for sterile neutrinos in muon neutrino disappearance mode at FNAL

A. Anokhina; A. Bagulya; M. Benettoni; P. Bernardini; R. Brugnera; M. Calabrese; A. Cecchetti; S. Cecchini; M. Chernyavskiy; F. Dal Corso; O. Dalkarov; A. Del Prete; G. De Robertis; M. De Serio; D. Di Ferdinando; S. Dusini; T. Dzhatdoev; R. A. Fini; G. Fiore; A. Garfagnini; M. Guerzoni; B. Klicek; U. Kose; K. Jakovcic; G. Laurenti; I. Lippi; F. Loddo; A. Longhin; M. Malenica; G. Mancarella; G. Mandrioli; A. Margiotta; G. Marsella; N. Mauri; E. Medinaceli; R. Mingazheva; O. Morgunova; M. T. Muciaccia; M. Nessi; D. Orecchini; A. Paoloni; G. Papadia; L. Paparella; L. Pasqualini; A. Pastore; L. Patrizii; N. Polukhina; M. Pozzato; M. Roda; T. Roganova; G. Rosa; Z. Sahnoun; T. Shchedrina; S. Simone; C. Sirignano; G. Sirri; M. Spurio; L. Stanco; N. Starkov; M. Stipcevic; A. Surdo; M. Tenti; V. Togo; M. Vladymyrov

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4569-8

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 23
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4569-8

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Search for sterile neutrinos in muon neutrino disappearance mode at FNAL

A. Anokhina¹, A. Bagulya², M. Benettoni³, P. Bernardini⁴^,5, R. Brugnera³^,6, M. Calabrese⁵, A. Cecchetti⁷, S. Cecchini⁸, M. Chernyavskiy², F. Dal Corso³, O. Dalkarov², A. Del Prete⁵^,9, G. De Robertis¹⁰, M. De Serio¹⁰^,11, D. Di Ferdinando⁸, S. Dusini³, T. Dzhatdoev¹, R. A. Fini¹⁰, G. Fiore⁵, A. Garfagnini³^,6, M. Guerzoni⁸, B. Klicek¹², U. Kose¹³, K. Jakovcic¹², G. Laurenti⁸, I. Lippi³, F. Loddo¹⁰, A. Longhin³, M. Malenica¹², G. Mancarella⁴^,5, G. Mandrioli⁸, A. Margiotta⁸^,14, G. Marsella⁴^,5, N. Mauri⁸, E. Medinaceli³^,6, R. Mingazheva², O. Morgunova¹, M. T. Muciaccia¹¹, M. Nessi¹³, D. Orecchini⁷, A. Paoloni⁷, G. Papadia⁵^,9, L. Paparella¹⁰^,11, L. Pasqualini⁸^,14, A. Pastore¹⁰, L. Patrizii⁸, N. Polukhina²^,15, M. Pozzato⁸, M. Roda³^,6, T. Roganova¹, G. Rosa¹⁶, Z. Sahnoun⁸, T. Shchedrina², S. Simone¹⁰^,11, C. Sirignano³^,6, G. Sirri⁸, M. Spurio⁸^,14, L. Stanco³^*, N. Starkov², M. Stipcevic¹², A. Surdo⁵, M. Tenti¹⁴^,17, V. Togo⁸ and M. Vladymyrov²

¹ Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU SINP), 1(2) Leninskie gory, GSP-1, 119991, Moscow, Russia
² Lebedev Physical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskiy pr., 53, 119991, Moscow, Russia
³ INFN, Sezione di Padova, 35131, Padua, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, dell’Università del Salento, 73100, Lecce, Italy
⁵ INFN, Sezione di Lecce, 73100, Lecce, Italy
⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, dell’Università di Padova, 35131, Padua, Italy
⁷ Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, dell’INFN, 00044, Frascati, RM, Italy
⁸ INFN, Sezione di Bologna, 40127, Bologna, Italy
⁹ Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Innovazione, dell’Università del Salento, 73100, Lecce, Italy
¹⁰ INFN, Sezione di Bari, 70126, Bari, Italy
¹¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, dell’Università di Bari, 70126, Bari, Italy
¹² Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka 54, 10002, Zagreb, Croatia
¹³ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland
¹⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, dell’Università di Bologna, 40127, Bologna, Italy
¹⁵ National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, 115409, Moscow, Russia
¹⁶ INFN, Sezione di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy
¹⁷ NFN-CNAF, 40127, Bologna, Italy

^* e-mail: stanco@pd.infn.it

Received: 26 March 2015
Accepted: 13 December 2016
Published online: 12 January 2017

Abstract

The NESSiE Collaboration has been setup to undertake a conclusive experiment to clarify the muon-neutrino disappearance measurements at short baselines in order to put severe constraints to models with more than the three-standard neutrinos. To this aim the current FNAL-Booster neutrino beam for a Short-Baseline experiment was carefully evaluated by considering the use of magnetic spectrometers at two sites, near and far ones. The detector locations were studied, together with the achievable performances of two OPERA-like spectrometers. The study was constrained by the availability of existing hardware and a time-schedule compatible with the undergoing project of multi-site Liquid–Argon detectors at FNAL. The settled physics case and the kind of proposed experiment on the Booster neutrino beam would definitively clarify the existing tension between the disappearance and the appearance/disappearance at the eV mass scale. In the context of neutrino oscillations the measurement of disappearance is a robust and fast approach to either reject or discover new neutrino states at the eV mass scale. We discuss an experimental program able to extend by more than one order of magnitude (for neutrino disappearance) and by almost one order of magnitude (for antineutrino disappearance) the present range of sensitivity for the mixing angle between standard and sterile neutrinos. These extensions are larger than those achieved in any other proposal presented so far.