MiniBooNE and LSND data: non-standard neutrino interactions in a (3+1) scheme versus (3+2) oscillations

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether non-standard neutrino interactions within a (3+1) sterile neutrino framework can explain anomalies observed in MiniBooNE and LSND data, offering an alternative to pure oscillation models and addressing CP violation.

Contribution

It introduces a (3+1) scheme with NSI to explain experimental anomalies and compares its effectiveness to (3+1) and (3+2) oscillation models.

Findings

NSI at a few percent level are compatible with current bounds.

The NSI model provides a good fit to MiniBooNE and LSND data.

Potential explanation for neutrino-antineutrino discrepancies in MINOS.

Abstract

The recently observed event excess in MiniBooNE anti-neutrino data is in agreement with the LSND evidence for electron anti-neutrino appearance. We propose an explanation of these data in terms of a (3+1) scheme with a sterile neutrino including non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) at neutrino production and detection. The interference between oscillations and NSI provides a source for CP violation which we use to reconcile different results from neutrino and anti-neutrino data. Our best fit results imply NSI at the level of a few percent relative to the standard weak interaction, in agreement with current bounds. We compare the quality of the NSI fit to the one obtained within the (3+1) and (3+2) pure oscillation frameworks. We also briefly comment on using NSI (in an effective two-flavour framework) to address a possible difference in neutrino and anti-neutrino results from the MINOS experiment.