In view of the recent results from the MiniBooNE experiment we revisit the global neutrino oscillation fit to short-baseline neutrino data by adding one or two sterile neutrinos with eV-scale masses to the three standard model neutrinos, and for the first time we consider also the global fit with three sterile neutrinos. Four-neutrino oscillations of the ($3+1$) type have been only marginally allowed before the recent MiniBooNE results, and become even more disfavored with the new data (at the level of $4\sigma$). In the framework of so-called ($3+2$) five-neutrino mass schemes we find severe tension between appearance and disappearance experiments at the level of more than $3\sigma$, and hence no satisfactory fit to the global data is possible in ($3+2$) schemes. This tension remains also when a third sterile neutrino is added, and the quality of the global fit does not improve significantly in a ($3+3$) scheme. It should be noted, however, that in models with more than one sterile neutrino the MiniBooNE results are in perfect agreement with the appearance evidence reported by the LSND Collaboration, thanks to the possibility of $CP$ violation available in such oscillation schemes. Furthermore, if disappearance data are not taken into account ($3+2$) oscillations provide an excellent fit to the full MiniBooNE spectrum including the event excess at low energies.

• Received 14 June 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.093005