We study the proposal that mass-varying neutrinos could provide an explanation for the LSND signal for ${\overline{\nu }}_{\mu }\to {\overline{\nu }}_e$ oscillations. We first point out that all positive oscillation signals occur in matter and that three active mass-varying neutrinos are insufficient to describe all existing neutrino data including LSND. We then examine the possibility that a model with four mass-varying neutrinos (three active and one sterile) can explain the LSND effect and remain consistent with all other neutrino data. We find that such models with a $3+1$ mass structure in the neutrino sector may explain the LSND data and a null MiniBooNE result for $0.10\lesssim {sin}^{2}2{\theta }_x\lesssim 0.30$. Predictions of the model include a null result at Double-CHOOZ, but positive signals for underground reactor experiments and for ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ oscillations in long-baseline experiments.

• Received 27 September 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.73.013005