Gallium experiments have long counted fewer neutrino captures than standard calculations predict. A paper published September 24 proposes that the calculation has simplified how the relevant lepton wavefunctions vary inside the nucleus. Allowing that spatial variation and interference can lower the predicted capture rate by roughly the size of the anomaly for plausible nuclear transition densities.
Gallium-71 captures a neutrino and becomes germanium-71; the experiment subsequently counts the produced atoms. A discrepancy in that conversion probability can therefore resemble missing neutrinos. The authors constrain their calculation using the germanium half-life, but a definitive microscopic nuclear-structure calculation remains outstanding. This is a proposed explanation of the gallium anomaly, not the exclusion of sterile neutrinos or the settlement of every neutrino discrepancy. The preprint dates to December 2025; September 24 is the journal-publication date. Open paper and publication record · INFN's account