Gallium experiments with artificial neutrino sources as a tool for investigation of transition to sterile states

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experiment using a 51Cr neutrino source within a gallium detector to investigate potential transitions from active to sterile neutrinos, aiming to improve constraints on such phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup with a central neutrino source and a segmented gallium detector to enhance sensitivity to sterile neutrino transitions.

Findings

Potential to set new limits on active-sterile neutrino transitions.

Sensitivity to electron neutrino disappearance at a few percent.

Experimental design to improve constraints on sterile neutrino parameters.

Abstract

We propose to place a very intense source of 51Cr at the center of a 50-tonne target of gallium metal that is divided into two concentric spherical zones and to measure the neutrino capture rate in each zone. This experiment can set limits on transitions from active to sterile neutrinos with Delta m^2 ~ 1 eV^2 with a sensitivity to disappearance of electron neutrinos of a few percent.