What effect can sterile neutrinos have on observations in neutrino experiments?
Supervisor: dr hab. Katarzyna Grzelak, email: Katarzyna.Grzelak@fuw.edu.pl
The phenomenon of transformations (oscillations) of electron, muon and taon neutrinos is more and more studied from year to year and most of the results obtained are consistent with the oscillations between the three neutrino odors. However, there are some clues, including the results of LSND experiments, MiniBooNE and neutrino flux measurement in reactor experiments, that the model with three neutrino odors may not be complete, and the resulting inconsistencies between the theory of experience can be explained by the existence of an additional neutrino, characterized by unusual properties. Such a neutrino, called sterile, would not interact in any known way, and its existence could be observed by studying the oscillations of neutrinos. The aim of the exercise is to test how the introduction of an additional, sterile neutrino into the neutrino oscillation model may affect the probability of known oscillations, i.e. the processes observed in near and far detectors of modern and future neutrino experiments.