Monte Carlo Computational Modeling of DANSS Short-Baseline Antineutrino Oscillation Experiment

Short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments provide insight into the potential existence and behavior of the sterile neutrino. Among these experiments is the Detector of Antineutrinos based on Solid Scintillator (DANSS), located a mechanically variable 10.7 to 12.7 m underneath a commercial reactor core in Russia. We offer a reanalysis of the most recent DANSS results by computationally imitating experimental conditions, including a Monte Carlo integration across the reactor core and detector volumes and incorporation of the detector energy resolution. We validate DANSS’s χ²-function calculations and proposed allowed region indicating possible Δm₁₄² and sin²2θ₁₄ combinations characteristic of a four-neutrino model. Discrepancies arose in use of a ratio of counting rates at the furthest and nearest baselines as the primary data set, a strategy eliminating contribution of the average theoretical flux. To compensate for geometric disparities, we propose a slight alteration of the Monte Carlo integration. With this new strategy, the implications of the DANSS experiment are found to be greatly enhanced, suggesting a larger disallowed region. Completion of the model provides best fit values of Δm₁₄² and sin²2θ₁₄ associated with a minimized χ².