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 multiperiod selection of inverse beta decay neutrino interactions with reduced backgrounds and enhanced statistical power to set limits on electron neutrino disappearance caused by mixing with sterile neutrinos with 0.2-20 eV2 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 eV2 previously unexplored by terrestrial experiments, including all space below 10 eV2 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 5 standard deviations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 151802 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 134 |
| Issue number | 15 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 18 2025 |
Funding
This material is based upon work supported by the following sources: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics under Award No. DE-SC0016357 and No. DE-SC0017660 to Yale University, under Award No. DE-SC0017815 to Drexel University, under Award No. DE-SC0008347 to Illinois Institute of Technology, under Award No. DE-SC0010504 to University of Hawaii, under Contract No. DE-SC0012704 to Brookhaven National Laboratory, and under Work Proposal Number SCW1504 to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344 and by Oak Ridge National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Additional funding for the experiment was provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation under Award No. 2016-117 to Yale University. We further acknowledge support from Yale University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Temple University, University of Hawaii, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LDRD program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We gratefully acknowledge the support and hospitality of the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy.