Search for a Sub-eV Sterile Neutrino Using Daya Bay’s Full Dataset
Authors: An F. P. , Bai W. D. , Balantekin A. B. , Bishai M. , Blyth S. , Cao G. F. , Cao J. , Chang J. F. , Chang Y. , Chen H. S. , Chen H. Y. , Chen S. M. , Chen Y. , Chen Y. X. , Chen Z. Y. , Cheng J. , Cheng Y.-C. , Cheng Z. K. , Cherwinka J. J. , Chu M. C. , Cummings J. P. , Dalager O. , Deng F. S. , Ding X. Y. , Ding Y. Y. , Diwan M. V. , Dohnal T. , Dolzhikov D. , Dove J. , Dugas K. V. , Duyang H. Y. , Dwyer D. A. , Gallo J. P. , Gonchar M. , Gong G. H. , Gong H. , Gu W. Q. , Guo J. Y. , Guo L. , Guo X. H. , Guo Y. H. , Guo Z. , Hackenburg R. W. , Han Y. , Hans S. , He M. , Heeger K. M. , Heng Y. K. , Hor Y. K. , Hsiung Y. B. , Hu B. Z. , Hu J. R. , Hu T. , Hu Z. J. , Huang H. X. , Huang J. H. , Huang X. T. , Huang Y. B. , Huber P. , Jaffe D. E. , Jen K. L. , Ji X. L. , Ji X. P. , Johnson R. A. , Jones D. , Kang L. , Kettell S. H. , Kohn S. , Kramer M. , Langford T. J. , Lee J. , Lee J. H. C. , Lei R. T. , Leitner R. , Leung J. K. C. , Li F. , Li H. L. , Li J. J. , Li Q. J. , Li R. H. , Li S. , Li S. , Li S. C. , Li W. D. , Li X. N. , Li X. Q. , Li Y. F. , Li Z. B. , Liang H. , Lin C. J. , Lin G. L. , Lin S. , Ling J. J. , Link J. M. , Littenberg L. , Littlejohn B. R. , Liu J. C. , Liu J. L. , Liu J. X. , Lu C. , Lu H. Q. , Luk K. B. , Ma B. Z. , Ma X. B. , Ma X. Y. , Ma Y. Q. , Mandujano R. C. , Marshall C. , McDonald K. T. , McKeown R. D. , Meng Y. , Napolitano J. , Naumov D. , Naumova E. , Nguyen T. M. T. , Ochoa-Ricoux J. P. , Olshevskiy A. , Park J. , Patton S. , Peng J. C. , Pun C. S. J. , Qi F. Z. , Qi M. , Qian X. , Raper N. , Ren J. , Morales Reveco C. , Rosero R. , Roskovec B. , Ruan X. C. , Russell B. , Steiner H. , Sun J. L. , Tmej T. , Tse W.-H. , Tull C. E. , Tung Y. C. , Viren B. , Vorobel V. , Wang C. H. , Wang J. , Wang M. , Wang N. Y. , Wang R. G. , Wang W. , Wang X. , Wang Y. F. , Wang Z. , Wang Z. , Wang Z. M. , Wei H. Y. , Wei L. H. , Wei W. , Wen L. J. , Whisnant K. , White C. G. , Wong H. L. H. , Worcester E. , Wu D. R. , Wu Q. , Wu W. J. , Xia D. M. , Xie Z. Q. , Xing Z. Z. , Xu H. K. , Xu J. L. , Xu T. , Xue T. , Yang C. G. , Yang L. , Yang Y. Z. , Yao H. F. , Ye M. , Yeh M. , Young B. L. , Yu H. Z. , Yu Z. Y. , Yuan C. Z. , Yue B. B. , Zavadskyi V. , Zeng S. , Zeng Y. , Zhan L. , Zhang C. , Zhang F. Y. , Zhang H. H. , Zhang J. L. , Zhang J. W. , Zhang Q. M. , Zhang S. Q. , Zhang X. T. , Zhang Y. M. , Zhang Y. X. , Zhang Y. Y. , Zhang Z. J. , Zhang Z. P. , Zhang Z. Y. , Zhao J. , Zhao R. Z. , Zhou L. , Zhuang H. L. , Zou J. H. ,   Daya Bay Collaboration
Published: July 2024

This Letter presents results of a search for the mixing of a sub-eV sterile neutrino with three active neutrinos based on the full data sample of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, collected during 3158 days of detector operation, which contains 5.55×106 reactor ν¯e candidates identified as inverse beta-decay interactions followed by neutron capture on gadolinium. The analysis benefits from a doubling of the statistics of our previous result and from improvements of several important systematic uncertainties. No significant oscillation due to mixing of a sub-eV sterile neutrino with active neutrinos was found. Exclusion limits are set by both Feldman-Cousins and CLs methods. Light sterile neutrino mixing with sin22θ14≳0.01 can be excluded at 95% confidence level in the region of 0.01  eV2≲|Δm412|≲0.1  eV2. This result represents the world-leading constraints in the region of 2×10−4  eV2≲|Δm412|≲0.2  eV2.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024