Sensitivities of long and medium baseline experiments to sterile neutrinos and non-standard interactions
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In this work, we present for the first time, the simultaneous analysis of the non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) and a light sterile neutrino in the 3+1 framework for the future long- and medium-baseline experiments DUNE and MOMENT, respectively. We show that treating the two sectors separately yields over optimistic sensitivities. The simultaneous presence of sterile-neutrino mixing and complex NSI weakens the |ε eμ | sensitivity by a factor of ∼ ( 2 − 3 ) with the dominant degradation associated with the additional parameter freedom in the flavor-changing NSI sector. DUNE alone fails to achieve 5 σ CP-violation discovery, once NSI phases are marginalized over. The DUNE+MOMENT combination recovers > 5 σ sensitivity over a wide range of δ CP space, constrains sin 2 θ 24 ≲ 10 − 2 and |ε eμ | ≲ 0.025 at 95% C.L., and resolves degeneracies that are intractable for either experiment alone. Our results establish that a multi-baseline strategy combining matter-rich and near-vacuum baselines is necessary for robust parameter extraction in the simultaneous presence of two new-physics scenarios. It is also important to perform simultaneous new-physics analyses to reliably interpret future precision neutrino oscillation data.
Source: Physics Letters B
Institution: University of Hyderabad
Language: English
Topic: Neutrino Physics Research
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: University Grants Commission
OpenAlex ID: W7214938152