Abstract
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 Collaboration's 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.
Highlights
This is the second of two papers that argue that the 3:8 significance of the ‘‘LSND anomaly’’, claimed by the LSND Collaboration, cannot be upheld.The LSND experiment was carried out at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the years 1993–1998
The LSND Collaboration’s estimate of the number of "e 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
Summary
This is the second of two papers that argue that the 3:8 significance of the ‘‘LSND anomaly’’, claimed by the LSND Collaboration, cannot be upheld. Since the ‘‘LSND anomaly’’ calls the standard model of particle physics in a nontrivial way into question,. In this situation it appears worthwhile to undertake a critical review of the original results of the LSND experiment that gave rise to the ‘‘LSND anomaly’’. This is the subject both of this paper and of a preceding paper [4]. It concerns the neglect of a bias and the underestimation of systematic errors in the isolation of the signal of $120 "e þ p ! eþ þ n reactions with a correlated from neutron capture out of $2100 candidate events
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