On the possibility of experimentally confirming the hypothesis of reactor antineutrino passage into a sterile state

• Published in: Technical physics letters 2013-07, Vol.39 (7), p.636-639
• Main Authors: Serebrov, A. P., Fomin, A. K., Zinov’ev, V. G., Loginov, Yu. E., Onegin, M. S., Gagarskiy, A. M., Petrov, G. A., Solovei, V. A., Chernyi, A. V., Zherebtsov, O. M., Martem’yanov, V. P., Tsinoev, V. G., Tarasenkov, V. G., Aleshin, V. I., Petelin, A. L., Pavlov, S. V., Svyatkin, M. N., Izhutov, A. L., Sazontov, S. A., Ryazanov, D. K., Gromov, M. O., Khramkov, N. S., Rykalin, V. I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classical and Continuum Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy
• ISSN: 1063-7850; 1090-6533
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063785013070225

The “Neutrino-4” experiment for the 100-MW SM-3 reactor has been developed with the aim of testing the reactor antineutrino anomaly at Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute. The advantages of this reactor for studying the antineutrino anomaly are (i) a low background level and (ii) small dimensions (35 × 42 × 42 cm) of the active zone. Operation of a position-sensitive antineutrino detector comprising five working sections and moving so as to cover a region of distances within 6–13 m from the active zone has been simulated by the Monte-Carlo method. The range of experimental sensitivity with respect to the oscillation parameters Δ m 2 and sin 2 2θ is determined, which will make it possible to confirm the hypothesis of antineutrino oscillations into a sterile state.