Sprecher
Beschreibung
While most research on sterile neutrinos focuses on the sub-eV mass scale associated with the surprising oscillation effects at a scale of L/GeV ~ 1 m/eV, this master’s research project aims to explore an alternative and far less investigated scenario: that of superlight sterile neutrinos (sub-meV scale).
This scenario becomes particularly relevant with the advent of next-generation long-baseline experiments, especially JUNO (Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory). The remarkable precision expected from JUNO provides a unique opportunity to probe subtle deviations in the electron antineutrino disappearance channel, making it possible either to place strong constraints on or to uncover signatures of new neutrino families.
The main goal of this work is therefore to carry out a detailed investigation of the sensitivity and exclusion limits associated with the superlight sterile neutrino scenario (with masses in the sub-meV range well below 1 eV^2), using the experimental framework and infrastructure of JUNO, while updating current constraints based on the accumulated data from the former KamLand experiment.