A new scheme for short baseline electron antineutrino disappearance study

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel, portable ${ar{ u}}_{e}$ source using $^{252}$Cf and $^{8}$Li for short baseline neutrino disappearance studies, enabling sterile neutrino searches without the need for reactors or accelerators.

Contribution

It introduces a new, reactor- and accelerator-free ${ar{ u}}_{e}$ source for short baseline experiments, facilitating sterile neutrino investigations with flexible detector placement.

Findings

Demonstrates feasibility of using $^{252}$Cf and $^{8}$Li as a portable neutrino source.

Provides sensitivity estimates for sterile neutrino parameters with different detector geometries.

Shows potential for complementary studies among various neutrino detectors.

Abstract

A new scheme for the short baseline electron antineutrino (${\bar{\nu}}_{e}$) disappearance study is investigated. We propose to use an intense neutron emitter, $^{252}$Cf, which produces $^{8}$Li isotope through the $^{7}$Li(n,$\gamma$)$^{8}$Li reaction; $^{8}$Li is a ${\bar{\nu}}_{e}$ emitter via $\beta^{-}$ decay. Because this ${\bar{\nu}}_{e}$ source needs neither accelerator nor reactor facilities, the ${\bar{\nu}}_{e}$ can be placed on any neutrino detectors as closely as possible. This short baseline circumstance with a suitable detector enables us to study the existence of possible sterile neutrinos, in particular, on 1 eV mass scale. Also, complementary comparison studies among different neutrino detectors can become feasible by using ${\bar{\nu}}_{e}$ from the $^{8}$Li source. As an example, applications to hemisphere and cylinder shape scintillator detectors are performed in detail with the expectation signal modification by the sterile neutrino. Sensitivities to mass and mixing angles of sterile neutrinos are also presented for comparison with those of other neutrino experiments.