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Constraints on light sterile neutrinos and scalar nonstandard interactions using the first reactor antineutrino oscillation results at JUNO

L. J. Flores1,*, R. Pacheco-Aké2,†, Eduardo Peinado2,‡, G. Sanchez Garcia3,§, and E. Vázquez-Jáuregui2,∥

  • *Contact author: ljflores@jerez.tecnm.mx
  • †Contact author: rodrigopa@estudiantes.fisica.unam.mx
  • ‡Contact author: epeinado@fisica.unam.mx
  • §Contact author: g.sanchez@ciencias.unam.mx
  • ∥Contact author: ericvj@fisica.unam.mx
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115030 – Published 11 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5zws-wpcc

Abstract

Constraints on light sterile neutrinos and scalar nonstandard neutrino interactions are obtained from the first reactor antineutrino results reported by JUNO. The analysis is based on a spectral χ2 fit to the prompt-energy distribution corresponding to 59.1 days of data, including full three-flavor oscillations extended to a 3+1 framework and effective scalar nonstandard neutrino interaction (NSI) contributions. The reactor flux is modeled using the Daya Bay measured spectrum, and systematic uncertainties are accounted for through a set of nuisance parameters describing reactor flux normalization, spectral shape, background normalization, and detector response. It is found that JUNO is already sensitive to light sterile neutrinos in the mass-splitting range 10−5≲Δm412/eV2≲10−2, probing mixing amplitudes down to sin22θ14∼O(10−1). In addition, a constraint on the scalar NSI parameter |ηee|∼O(10−3) is obtained, with correlations with solar oscillation parameters. These results demonstrate the potential of JUNO to probe small deviations from the Standard Model resulting from new physics through precision measurements, with significant improvements expected as statistics and systematic control improve.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115030– Published 11 June, 2026
  • Received 6 April 2026
  • Accepted 14 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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