Search for a Light Sterile Neutrino at Daya Bay

Title	Search for a Light Sterile Neutrino at Daya Bay
Author (in group)	Brett Viren, Chao Zhang, David Jaffe, Elizabeth Worcester, Harry Themann, Jiajie Ling, Mary Bishai, Milind Diwan, Robert Hackenburg, Steve Kettell, Xin Qian, Zeynep Isvan
Date	2014/10/01
Publication reference	Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 141802
Preprint number

A search for light sterile neutrino mixing was performed with the first 217 days of data from the Daya Bay Reactor Antineutrino Experiment. The experiment’s unique configuration of multiple baselines from six 2.9 GWth nuclear reactors to six antineutrino detectors deployed in two near (effective baselines 512 m and 561 m) and one far (1579 m) underground experimental halls makes it possible to test for oscillations to a fourth (sterile) neutrino in the 10−3  eV2<|Δm241|<0.3  eV2 range. The relative spectral distortion due to the disappearance of electron antineutrinos was found to be consistent with that of the three-flavor oscillation model. The derived limits on sin22θ14 cover the 10−3  eV2≲|Δm241|≲0.1  eV2 region, which was largely unexplored.