A critical appraisal of the LSND anomaly

The so-called LSND anomaly, a 3.8 sigma excess of anti-nu_e events interpreted as originating from anti-nu_mu -> anti-nu_e oscillation, gave rise to many theoretical speculations. The MiniBooNE Collaboration reported inconsistency of this interpretation with the findings from their search for nu_mu -> nu_e oscillations. Yet the origin of the LSND anomaly was never clarified. A critical issue is the prediction of the background anti-nu_e flux that was used in the analysis of the LSND experiment. For this, decisive input comes from pion spectra measured with the HARP large-angle spectrometer under conditions that closely resemble the LSND situation: a proton beam with 800 MeV kinetic energy hitting a water target.