A new analysis of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess

TL;DR

This paper reanalyzes MiniBooNE data considering new background sources, reducing the significance of the low-energy excess and suggesting smaller active-sterile neutrino mixing, impacting short-baseline neutrino oscillation interpretations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive background model including photon emissions and resonance contributions, refining the understanding of the low-energy excess in MiniBooNE data.

Findings

Background modeling reduces excess significance from 5.1σ to 3.6σ.

Indicates smaller active-sterile neutrino mixing parameters.

Potentially resolves the appearance-disappearance tension in global fits.

Abstract

We present the results of a new analysis of the data of the MiniBooNE experiment taking into account the additional background of photons from $\Delta^{+/0}$ decay proposed in arXiv:1909.08571 and additional contributions due to coherent photon emission, incoherent production of higher mass resonances, and incoherent non-resonant nucleon production. We show that the new background can explain part of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess and the statistical significance of the MiniBooNE indication in favor of short-baseline neutrino oscillation decreases from $5.1\sigma$ to $3.6\sigma$. We also consider the implications for short-baseline neutrino oscillations in the 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing framework. We show that the new analysis of the MiniBooNE data indicates smaller active-sterile neutrino mixing and may lead us towards a solution of the appearance-disappearance tension in the global fit of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data.