Effect of a light sterile neutrino at NOνA and DUNE

Abstract

Now that the NOνA experiment has been running for a few years and has released some preliminary data, some constraints for the oscillation parameters can be inferred. The best fits for NOνA include three degenerate results; the reason they are indistinct is that they produce almost degenerate probability curves. It has been postulated that these degeneracies can be resolved by running antineutrinos at NOνA and/or combining its data with T2K. However, this degeneracy resolution power can be compromised if sterile neutrinos are present due to additional degrees of freedom that can significantly alter the oscillation probability for any of these best fits. We aim to investigate this degradation in predictive power and the effect of the DUNE experiment on it. In light of the 2018 NOνA data, we also consider the same fits but with θ₂₃ = 45° to see if the sensitivity results are different.