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Updated global analysis of neutrino oscillations in the presence of eV-scale sterile neutrinos

Journal Article · · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [2]
  1. Johannes Gutenberg Univ. Mainz, Mainz (Germany)
  2. Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie (KIT), Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany)
  3. Johannes Gutenberg Univ. Mainz, Mainz (Germany); European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland)
  4. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  5. Instituto de Fisica Teorica UAM/CSIC, Madrid (Spain)

Here, we discuss the possibility to explain the anomalies in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments in terms of sterile neutrinos. We work in a 3 + 1 framework and pay special attention to recent new data from reactor experiments, IceCube and MINOS+. We find that results from the DANSS and NEOS reactor experiments support the sterile neutrino explanation of the reactor anomaly, based on an analysis that relies solely on the relative comparison of measured reactor spectra. Global data from the ν$$_{e}$$ disappearance channel favour sterile neutrino oscillations at the 3σ level with Δm$$_{41}^{2}$$ ≈1.3 eV$$^{2}$$ and |U$$_{e4}$$| ≈ 0.1, even without any assumptions on predicted reactor fluxes. In contrast, the anomalies in the ν$$_{e}$$ appearance channel (dominated by LSND) are in strong tension with improved bounds on ν$$_{μ}$$ disappearance, mostly driven by MINOS+ and IceCube. Under the sterile neutrino oscillation hypothesis, the p-value for those data sets being consistent is less than 2.6 × 10$$^{-6}$$. Therefore, an explanation of the LSND anomaly in terms of sterile neutrino oscillations in the 3 + 1 scenario is excluded at the 4.7σ level. This result is robust with respect to variations in the analysis and used data, in particular it depends neither on the theoretically predicted reactor neutrino fluxes, nor on constraints from any single experiment. Irrespective of the anomalies, we provide updated constraints on the allowed mixing strengths |U$$_{α4}$$| (α = e, μ, τ ) of active neutrinos with a fourth neutrino mass state in the eV range.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1436714
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1803.10661; MITP-18--023; IFT-UAM-CSIC--18-033; MITP/18--023; FERMILAB-PUB--18-086-T; IFT-UAM/CSIC--18-033; 1664547
Journal Information:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 2018; ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Impact of form factor uncertainties on interpretations of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering data journal June 2019
Seeking for sterile neutrinos with displaced leptons at the LHC journal July 2019
Non-standard neutrino interactions and low energy experiments journal September 2019
Matter effect of light sterile neutrino: an exact analytical approach journal October 2018
Physics potential of ESSνSB in the presence of a light sterile neutrino journal December 2019
Search for neutral-current induced single photon production at the ND280 near detector in T2K journal June 2019
Prospects for exploring New Physics in Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering journal November 2018
Sterile neutrinos with secret interactions—cosmological discord? journal November 2018
Thermalisation of sterile neutrinos in the early universe in the 3+1 scheme with full mixing matrix journal July 2019
Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project: active neutrino properties and the light sterile case journal July 2019
Constraining sterile neutrino cosmology with terrestrial oscillation experiments journal July 2019
Final results on neutrino oscillation parameters from the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam journal September 2019
Improved constraints on sterile neutrinos in the MeV to GeV mass range journal September 2019
Empirical inference on the Majorana mass of the ordinary neutrinos journal October 2019
Constraints on sterile neutrinos in the MeV to GeV mass range journal October 2019
Post-inflationary thermal histories and the refractive index of relic gravitons journal November 2018
Constraints on a sub-eV scale sterile neutrino from nonoscillation measurements journal December 2018
MiniBooNE, MINOS + and IceCube data imply a baroque neutrino sector journal January 2019
Activating the fourth neutrino of the 3 + 1 scheme journal February 2019
U ( 1 ) ′ mediated decays of heavy sterile neutrinos in MiniBooNE journal April 2019
Effective approach to lepton observables: The seesaw case journal May 2019
Sterile Neutrino Constraints from the STEREO Experiment with 66 Days of Reactor-On Data journal October 2018
Significant Excess of Electronlike Events in the MiniBooNE Short-Baseline Neutrino Experiment journal November 2018
Dark Neutrino Portal to Explain MiniBooNE Excess journal December 2018
Severe Constraints on New Physics Explanations of the MiniBooNE Excess journal February 2019
Testing New Physics Explanations of the MiniBooNE Anomaly at Neutrino Scattering Experiments journal December 2019
Colloquium : Neutrino detectors as tools for nuclear security journal March 2020
Compatibility of $$A_{4}$$ A 4 flavour symmetric minimal extended seesaw with $$(3+1)$$ ( 3 + 1 ) neutrino data journal February 2019
Icecube/DeepCore tests for novel explanations of the MiniBooNE anomaly journal September 2019
Inflation, (p)reheating and neutrino anomalies: production of sterile neutrinos with secret interactions journal October 2019
Detecting and studying high-energy collider neutrinos with FASER at the LHC: FASER Collaboration journal January 2020
Roles of sterile neutrinos in particle physics and cosmology journal April 2019
Sterile neutrinos influence on oscillation characteristics of active neutrinos at short distances in the generalized model of neutrino mixing journal October 2019
Testing unitarity of the 3 × 3 neutrino mixing matrix in an atomic system journal January 2020
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Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project: active neutrino properties and the light sterile case text January 2019
Impact of form factor uncertainties on interpretations of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering data text January 2019
Seeking for sterile neutrinos with displaced leptons at the LHC text January 2019
Roles of sterile neutrinos in particle physics and cosmology text January 2019
Testing unitarity of the $3\times 3$ neutrino mixing matrix in an atomic system text January 2019
Constraining Sterile Neutrino Cosmology with Terrestrial Oscillation Experiments text January 2019
Beta and neutrinoless double beta decays with KeV sterile fermions text January 2019

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