Broad Sterile Neutrinos & the Reactor/Gallium Tension
Published in Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP), 2024
Significant evidence exists for the apparent disappearance of electron-type neutrinos in radioactive source experiments. Yet, interpreted within the standard ‘3+1 sterile neutrino scenario’, precision short-baseline measurements of electron antineutrinos from nuclear reactors strongly disagree with these results. Recently, it has been demonstrated that allowing for a finite wavepacket size for the reactor neutrinos can ameliorate such a tension, however the smallness of the required wavepackets is a subject of intense debate.
In this work, we demonstrate that a ‘broad’ sterile neutrino may relax this tension in much the same way. Such a phenomenological possibility can arise in plausible hidden sector scenarios, such as a clockwork-style sector, for which we provide a concrete microscopic model.
arXiv: 2311.06352
DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2024)096
Report Numbers: CERN-TH-2023-195, MI-HET-818
Recommended citation: Hannah Banks, Kevin J. Kelly, Matthew McCullough, Tao Zhou. (2024). "Broad Sterile Neutrinos & the Reactor/Gallium Tension." JHEP. 04 (2024) 096.
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