Sterile neutrino oscillometry with Jinping

Abstract

Abstract The existence of sterile neutrino is an open question in neutrino physics up to now. The method of neutrino oscillometry provides a powerful tool to test the common 3 + 1 sterile neutrino hypothesis, i.e. three active flavors and one sterile flavor. There are several antineutrino sources which can be used for this method. One of them is the well known isotope chain of $$^{144}\mathrm{Ce}$$144Ce–$$^{144}{\mathrm{Pr}}$$144Pr with initial activity around 50–100 kCi. It has compact size and might be installed either outside or inside the detector. Another one is the short-lived isotope $$^8{\mathrm{Li}}$$8Li, which can be produced in nuclear reaction of a proton beam hitting a beryllium target. The lithium source has only the out-of-detector option due to its large size. The proposed Jinping water-based liquid scintillator detector will be used as a detection volume. Above experimental setups will allow us to cover the current best fit values of oscillation parameters with 90% C.L. At the same time, it is sensitive to the region of the Neutrino-4 result.