Compatibility Analysis of the LSND Evidence and the KARMEN Exclusion for numubar->nuebar Oscillations

Abstract

A combined statistical analysis of the experimental results of the LSND and KARMEN numubar->nuebar oscillation search is presented. LSND has evidence for neutrino oscillations that is not confirmed by the KARMEN experiment. However, there is a region in the (sin^2(2theta),Dm^2) parameter space where the results of both experiments are statistically compatible. This joint analysis is based on likelihood functions for both data sets. A frequentist approach creating Monte Carlo samples analogous to the experimental outcome is applied to deduce correct confidence limits. Different schemes of combination can be chosen to provide correct coverage which lead to slightly different confidence regions in (sin^2(2theta),Dm^2).