A decoherence explanation of the gallium neutrino anomaly

Farzan, Yasaman; Schwetz, Thomas

doi:10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.4.172

SciPost Physics

A decoherence explanation of the gallium neutrino anomaly

Yasaman Farzan, Thomas Schwetz

SciPost Phys. 15, 172 (2023) · published 19 October 2023

doi: 10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.4.172
pdf
Submissions/Reports

Abstract

Gallium radioactive source experiments have reported a neutrino-induced event rate about 20% lower than expected with a high statistical significance. We present an explanation of this observation assuming quantum decoherence of the neutrinos in the gallium detectors at a scale of 2 m. This explanation is consistent with global data on neutrino oscillations, including solar neutrinos, if decoherence effects decrease quickly with energy, for instance with a power law $E_\nu^{-r}$ with r$\simeq$ 12. Our proposal does not require the presence of sterile neutrinos but implies a modification of the standard quantum mechanical evolution equations for active neutrinos.

TY  - JOUR
PB  - SciPost Foundation
DO  - 10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.4.172
TI  - A decoherence explanation of the gallium neutrino anomaly
PY  - 2023/10/19
UR  - https://www.scipost.org/SciPostPhys.15.4.172
JF  - SciPost Physics
JA  - SciPost Phys.
VL  - 15
IS  - 4
SP  - 172
A1  - Farzan, Yasaman
AU  - Schwetz, Thomas
AB  - Gallium radioactive source experiments have reported a neutrino-induced event rate about 20% lower than expected with a high statistical significance. We present an explanation of this observation assuming quantum decoherence of the neutrinos in the gallium detectors at a scale of 2 m. This explanation is consistent with global data on neutrino oscillations, including solar neutrinos, if decoherence effects decrease quickly with energy, for instance with a power law $E_\nu^{-r}$ with r$\simeq$ 12. Our proposal does not require the presence of sterile neutrinos but implies a modification of the standard quantum mechanical evolution equations for active neutrinos.
ER  -

@Article{10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.4.172,
	title={{A decoherence explanation of the gallium neutrino anomaly}},
	author={Yasaman Farzan and Thomas Schwetz},
	journal={SciPost Phys.},
	volume={15},
	pages={172},
	year={2023},
	publisher={SciPost},
	doi={10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.4.172},
	url={https://scipost.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.4.172},
}

Cited by 3

Authors / Affiliations: mappings to Contributors and Organizations

See all Organizations.

¹ Yasaman Farzan,
² Thomas Schwetz

Funders for the research work leading to this publication

Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teorica Abdus Salam / Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics [ICTP]
HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Horizon 2020 (through Organization: European Commission [EC])
Simons Foundation