Status of Experiment NEUTRINO-4 Search for Sterile Neutrino

TL;DR

This paper reports on the status of the NEUTRINO-4 experiment, which searches for sterile neutrinos by measuring reactor antineutrino flux at short distances using a movable liquid scintillator detector at the SM-3 reactor in Russia.

Contribution

It presents the development, deployment, and initial data collection of a novel movable neutrino detector designed for short-distance oscillation measurements.

Findings

First measurements of antineutrino flux at 6-11 meters from reactor core

Deployment of a 350-liter prototype detector in 2015

Start of full-scale detector measurements in June 2016

Abstract

In order to carry out research in the field of possible existence of a sterile neutrino the laboratory based on SM-3 reactor (Dimitrovgrad, Russia) was created to search for oscillations of reactor antineutrino. The prototype of a multi-section neutrino detector with liquid scintillator volume of 350 l was installed in the middle of 2015. It is a moveable inside the passive shielding detector, which can be set at distance range from 6 to 11 meters from the reactor core. Measurements of antineutrino flux at such short distances from the reactor core are carried out with moveable detector for the first time. The measurements with full-scale detector with liquid scintillator volume of 3 m^3 (5x10 sections) was started only in June, 2016. The today available data is presented in the article.