skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Heavy neutral leptons below the kaon mass at hodoscopic neutrino detectors

Journal Article · · Physical Review D

Heavy neutral leptons (N) below the kaon mass are severely constrained by cosmology and lab-based searches for their decays in flight. If N interacts via an additional force, N→νe+e- decays are enhanced and cosmological limits can be avoided. We show that the T2K and MicroBooNE neutrino experiments provide the best limits on the mixing of N with muon neutrinos, outperforming past-generation experiments, previously thought to dominate. We constrain models with electromagnetically decaying and long-lived N, such as in a transition-magnetic-moment portal and in a leptophilic axionlike particle portal, invoked to explain the MiniBooNE excess. By considering these models as representative examples, our results show that explanations of the MiniBooNE excess that involve e+e- pairs from long-lived particles are in tension with T2K, PS191, and MicroBooNE data. Similarly, these searches also constrain MiniBooNE explanations based on single photons due to the associated e+e- decay mode via a virtual photon.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0007881; SC0011842; PHY-1607611
OSTI ID:
1867309
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1905305
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Journal Name: Physical Review D Vol. 105 Journal Issue: 9; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (94)

Exploring portals to a hidden sector through fixed targets journal November 2009
Inelastic dark matter journal July 2001
Global constraints on a heavy neutrino journal February 2016
T2K neutrino flux prediction journal January 2013
See-saw neutrino masses induced by a triplet of leptons journal September 1989
Model for large transition magnetic moment of the electron neutrino journal July 1989
Do experiments suggest a hierarchy problem? journal June 1998
μ→eγ at a rate of one out of 109 muon decays? journal April 1977
Explaining the MiniBooNE excess by a decaying sterile neutrino with mass in the 250 MeV range journal April 2020
Proton lifetime and fermion masses in an SO(10) model journal April 1981
Significant Excess of Electronlike Events in the MiniBooNE Short-Baseline Neutrino Experiment journal November 2018
Semantic segmentation with a sparse convolutional neural network for event reconstruction in MicroBooNE journal March 2021
Measurement of the charged-current electron (anti-)neutrino inclusive cross-sections at the T2K off-axis near detector ND280 journal October 2020
Naturalness, Chiral Symmetry, and Spontaneous Chiral Symmetry Breaking book January 1980
Neutrino masses and mixings dynamically generated by a light dark sector journal April 2019
The ICARUS Experiment journal September 2019
Invisible width of the Z-boson and “secret” ν-ν interactions journal March 1993
The Physics of the Dark Photon book January 2021
Dynamical left-right symmetry breaking journal March 1996
A dark seesaw solution to low energy anomalies: MiniBooNE, the muon (g − 2), and BaBar journal September 2021
Search for K+ decays to a muon and invisible particles journal May 2021
Further limits on heavy neutrino couplings journal March 1988
Global constraints on heavy neutrino mixing journal August 2016
Search for a Higgs Portal Scalar Decaying to Electron-Positron Pairs in the MicroBooNE Detector journal October 2021
Double-Cascade Events from New Physics in Icecube journal November 2017
Neutrino masses, mixings, and oscillations in SU(2)×U(1) models of electroweak interactions journal December 1980
Dark neutrinos and a three-portal connection to the standard model journal June 2020
Big bang nucleosynthesis and physics beyond the standard model journal December 1996
Limits on the mixing of tau neutrino to heavy neutrinos journal December 2002
Neutrino masses in SU(2) ⊗ U(1) theories journal November 1980
Dipole portal to heavy neutral leptons journal December 2018
The Pandora multi-algorithm approach to automated pattern recognition of cosmic-ray muon and neutrino events in the MicroBooNE detector journal January 2018
Measurement of neutrino flux from neutrino-electron elastic scattering journal June 2016
Three-body decays of heavy Dirac and Majorana fermions journal July 2021
Constraint of the MINER ν A medium energy neutrino flux using neutrino-electron elastic scattering journal November 2019
Left-right symmetry breaking in NJL approach journal February 1996
Precision measurement of electroweak parameters from the scattering of muon-neutrinos on electrons journal September 1994
Explaining the MiniBooNE anomalous excess via a leptophilic ALP-sterile neutrino coupling journal July 2021
Updated MiniBooNE neutrino oscillation results with increased data and new background studies journal March 2021
Heavy sterile neutrinos: bounds from big-bang nucleosynthesis and SN 1987A journal December 2000
MicroBooNE experiment, NuMI absorber, and heavy neutral leptons journal September 2021
Loophole in K π ν ν ¯ Search and New Weak Leptonic Forces journal April 2015
Measurement of the intrinsic electron neutrino component in the T2K neutrino beam with the ND280 detector journal May 2014
Right-handed neutrino magnetic moments journal July 2009
Improved search for heavy neutrinos in the decay π e ν journal April 2018
Improved big bang nucleosynthesis constraints on heavy neutral leptons journal July 2021
Light sterile neutrinos: models and phenomenology journal July 2011
Fast decaying neutrinos and observable flavour violation in a new class of majoron models journal January 1989
Search for Neutrino-Induced Neutral-Current Δ Radiative Decay in MicroBooNE and a First Test of the MiniBooNE Low Energy Excess under a Single-Photon Hypothesis journal March 2022
Explaining the MiniBooNE excess through a mixed model of neutrino oscillation and decay journal November 2021
Excess electronic recoil events in XENON1T journal October 2020
Time projection chambers for the T2K near detectors
  • Abgrall, N.; Andrieu, B.; Baron, P.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 637, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2011.02.036
journal May 2011
MiniBooNE Anomaly and Heavy Neutrino Decay journal December 2009
Bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos revisited journal November 2005
Testing light dark matter coannihilation with fixed-target experiments journal September 2017
Anomalous electron production observed in the CERN PS neutrino beam journal November 1986
Direct detection experiments at the neutrino dipole portal frontier journal April 2019
Hierarchy of quark masses, cabibbo angles and CP violation journal January 1979
Constraints on light scalars from PS191 results journal September 2021
The SBND experiment conference January 2017
Convolutional neural network for multiple particle identification in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber journal May 2021
The search for heavy Majorana neutrinos journal May 2009
BBN constraints on MeV-scale dark sectors. Part I. Sterile decays journal February 2018
MeV-scale sterile neutrino decays at the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino program journal April 2017
Publisher’s Note: T2K neutrino flux prediction [Phys. Rev. D 87 , 012001 (2013)] journal January 2013
Combining experimental and cosmological constraints on heavy neutrinos journal August 2017
Experimental bounds on sterile neutrino mixing angles journal June 2012
Search for neutral-current induced single photon production at the ND280 near detector in T2K journal June 2019
Search for heavy neutrinos with the T2K near detector ND280 journal September 2019
Constraints from the CHARM experiment on heavy neutral leptons with tau mixing journal November 2021
Light sterile neutrino in the minimal extended seesaw journal August 2012
Resolution of puzzles from the LSND, KARMEN, and MiniBooNE experiments journal January 2011
Search for neutrino decay journal January 1986
GeV-scale neutrinos: interactions with mesons and DUNE sensitivity journal January 2021
Search for heavy neutrinos mixing with tau neutrinos journal May 2001
Probing the Higgs portal at the Fermilab short-baseline neutrino experiments journal December 2019
Design and construction of the MicroBooNE detector journal February 2017
General theory of weak processes involving neutrinos. I. Leptonic pseudoscalar-meson decays, with associated tests for, and bounds on, neutrino masses and lepton mixing journal September 1981
Supersymmetry and large transition magnetic moment of the neutrino journal April 1990
Neutrino mass and baryon-number nonconservation in superstring models journal September 1986
Neutrino masses and mixings in gauge models with spontaneous parity violation journal January 1981
U ( 1 ) ′ mediated decays of heavy sterile neutrinos in MiniBooNE journal April 2019
The neutrino magnetic moment portal: cosmology, astrophysics, and direct detection journal January 2021
Calorimetric classification of track-like signatures in liquid argon TPCs using MicroBooNE data journal December 2021
Dark Neutrino Portal to Explain MiniBooNE Excess journal December 2018
Restrictions on the lifetime of sterile neutrinos from primordial nucleosynthesis journal October 2012
Search for heavy neutrinos in π → μν decay journal November 2019
New tests for and bounds on neutrino masses and lepton mixing journal October 1980
Neutrino Mass and Spontaneous Parity Nonconservation journal April 1980
An extended analysis of Heavy Neutral Leptons during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis journal November 2020
Search for heavy neutral lepton production in K+ decays to positrons journal August 2020
Massless neutrinos in left-hand symmetric models journal May 1983
Search for heavy neutral leptons decaying into muon-pion pairs in the MicroBooNE detector journal March 2020
A neutrino with a large magnetic moment and a naturally small mass journal February 1989