Revisiting the LSND anomaly II: critique of the data analysis


Abstract in English

This paper, together with a preceding paper, questions the so-called LSND anomaly: a 3.8 sigma excess of antielectronneutrino interactions over standard backgrounds, observed by the LSND Collaboration in a beam dump experiment with 800 MeV protons. That excess has been interpreted as evidence for the antimuonneutrino to antielectronneutrino oscillation in the Deltam2 range from 0.2 eV2 to 2 eV2. Such a Deltam2 range is incompatible with the widely accepted model of oscillations between three light neutrino species and would require the existence of at least one light sterile neutrino. In a preceding paper, it was concluded that the estimates of standard backgrounds must be significantly increased. In this paper, the LSND Collaborations estimate of the number of antielectronneutrino interactions followed by neutron capture, and of its error, is questioned. The overall conclusion is that the significance of the LSND anomaly is not larger than 2.3 sigma.

Download