sterile neutrino

After a series of experiments, MicroBooNE scientists have ruled out the sterile neutrino, taking at least one complication out of explaining phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

An international collaboration of scientists working on the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab announced that they have found no evidence for a fourth type of neutrino, known as a sterile neutrino.

Scientists on the MicroBooNE experiment further ruled out the possibility of one sterile neutrino as an explanation for results from previous experiments. In the latest MicroBooNE result, the collaboration used one detector and two beams to study neutrino behavior, ruling out the single sterile neutrino model with 95% certainty.

New data from the NOvA experiment at Fermilab in the US contain no evidence for so-called “sterile” neutrinos, in line with results from most – though not all – other neutrino detectors to date.

To determine whether sterile neutrinos exist, researchers at Fermilab have constructed two new detectors as part of the Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program that they hope will resolve the situation once and for all.

The MicroBooNE collaboration at Fermilab has released a new analysis of their neutrino data. The result provides constraints on a model that assumes the existence of a sterile neutrino to explain anomalies in neutrino measurements by other experiments.

Physicists take on the mystery of the missing (and extra) neutrinos.

From Le Scienze (France), November 4, 2021: The preliminary analysis of three years of data from the MicroBooNE experiment show no signs of the existence of a fourth type of neutrino. The standard model of particle physics remains confirmed but it has not excluded clues to exotic physical phenomena may emerge.

From Scientific American, November 4, 2021: Physicists have wondered if neutrino particles come in a mysterious fourth variety. Now new experimental findings complicate the question. Physicists have wondered if neutrino particles come in a mysterious fourth variety. Now new experimental findings complicate the question.

From Quanta, October 28, 2021: In 1993, Los Alamos National Laboratory saw hints of a fourth kind of neutrino which led to MiniBooNE. Now the results of MicroBooNE reveal sterile neutrinos alone cannot account for the MiniBooNE anomaly and the results are consistent with the possibility that only half of MiniBooNE’s events are due to neutrino oscillations.