Probing the fourth neutrino existence by neutral current oscillometry in the spherical gaseous TPC

TL;DR

This paper proposes using a spherical gaseous TPC to detect potential fourth neutrino oscillations via neutral current interactions, aiming to confirm or refute the Reactor Neutrino Anomaly with high sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel oscillometry method with a gaseous TPC to detect a hypothesized fourth neutrino through neutral current interactions.

Findings

Oscillation length L14 expected shorter than 3m.

Sensitivity to mixing angle theta14 can reach (sin^2(2θ14))=0.1.

Method feasible with modest detector dimensions and good resolution.

Abstract

It is shown that, if the "new neutrino" implied by the Reactor Neutrino Anomaly exists and is in fact characterized by the suggested relatively high mass squared difference and reasonably large mixing angle, it should clearly reveal itself in the oscillometry measurements. For a judicious neutrino source the "new oscillation length L14 is expected shorter than 3m. Thus the needed measurements can be implemented with a gaseous spherical TPC of modest dimensions with a very good energy and position resolution, detecting nuclear recoils following the coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering. The best candidates for oscillometry, yielding both monochromatic neutrinos as well as antineutrinos, are discussed. A sensitivity in the mixing angle theta14, (sin(2\theta14))^2=0.1 (99 %), can be reached after a few months of data handling.