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Title: Bounds on light sterile neutrino mass and mixing from cosmology and laboratory searches

Journal Article · · Physical Review D

We provide a consistent framework to set limits on properties of light sterile neutrinos coupled to all three active neutrinos using a combination of the latest cosmological data and terrestrial measurements from oscillations, β-decay and neutrinoless double-β-decay (0νββ) experiments. We directly constrain the full 3+1 active-sterile mixing matrix elements |Uα4|2, with α ∈ (e, µ, τ ), and the mass-squared splitting Δm$${^2_4}_1$$ ☰ m$$^2_4$$ – m$$^2_1$$. We find that results for a 3+1 case differ from previously studied 1+1 scenarios where the sterile is only coupled to one of the neutrinos, which is largely explained by parameter space volume effects. Limits on the mass splitting and the mixing matrix elements are currently dominated by the cosmological data sets. The exact results are slightly prior dependent, but we reliably find all matrix elements to be constrained below |Uα4|2 ≲ 10-3. Short-baseline neutrino oscillation hints in favor of eV-scale sterile neutrinos are in serious tension with these bounds, irrespective of prior assumptions. We also translate the bounds from the cosmological analysis into constraints on the parameters probed by laboratory searches, such as mβ or mββ, the effective mass parameters probed by β-decay and 0νββ searches, respectively. When allowing for mixing with a light sterile neutrino, cosmology leads to upper bounds of mβ < 0.09 eV and mββ < 0.07 eV at 95% CL, more stringent than the limits from current laboratory experiments.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Swedish Research Council (SRC); European Union, Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme; Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Grant/Contract Number:
W7405-ENG-36; SC007859; AC02-06CH11357; 796941; FPA2017-85216-P; PROMETEO/2018/165
OSTI ID:
1834974
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1868989
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Journal Name: Physical Review D Vol. 104 Journal Issue: 12; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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