New limits on heavy sterile neutrino mixing in ${^{8}\rm{B}}$-decay obtained with the Borexino detector
Borexino collaboration, G. Bellini, J. Benziger, D. Bick, G. Bonfini, D. Bravo, M. Buizza Avanzini, B. Caccianiga, L. Cadonati, F. Calaprice, P. Cavalcante, A. … 展开作者
Borexino collaboration, G. Bellini, J. Benziger, D. Bick, G. Bonfini, D. Bravo, M. Buizza Avanzini, B. Caccianiga, L. Cadonati, F. Calaprice, P. Cavalcante, A. Chavarria, A. Chepurnov, D. DAngelo, S. Davini, A. Derbin, I. Drachnev, A. Empl, A. Etenko, K. Fomenko, D. Franco, C. Galbiati, S. Gazzana, C. Ghiano, M. Giammarchi, M. Goger-Neff, A. Goretti, L. Grandi, C. Hagner, E. Hungerford, Aldo Ianni, Andrea Ianni, V. Kobychev, D. Korablev, G. Korga, D. Kryn, M. Laubenstein, T. Lewke, E. Litvinovich, B. Loer, F. Lombardi, P. Lombardi, L. Ludhova, G. Lukyanchenko, I. Machulin, S. Manecki, W. Maneschg, G. Manuzio, Q. Meindl, E. Meroni, L. Miramonti, M. Misiaszek, P. Mosteiro, V. Muratova, L. Oberauer, M. Obolensky, F. Ortica, K. Otis, M. Pallavicini, L. Papp, L. Perasso, S. Perasso, A. Pocar, G. Ranucci, A. Razeto, A. Re, A. Romani, N. Rossi, R. Saldanha, C. Salvo, S. Schonert, H. Simgen, M. Skorokhvatov, O. Smirnov, A. Sotnikov, S. Sukhotin, Y. Suvorov, R. Tartaglia, G. Testera, D. Vignaud, R. B. Vogelaar, F. von Feilitzsch, J. Winter, M. Wojcik, A. Wright, M. Wurm, J. Xu, O. Zaimidoroga, S. Zavatarelli, G. Zuzel
If heavy neutrinos with mass $m_{ν_{H}}\geq$2$ m_e $ are produced in the Sun via the decay ${^8\rm{B}} \rightarrow {^8\rm{Be}} + e^+ + ν_H$ in a side branch of pp-chain, they would undergo the observable decay into an electron, a positron and a light neutrino $ν_{H}\rightarrowν_{L}+e^++e^-$. In the present work Borexino data are used to set a bound on the existence of such decays. We constrain the mixing of a heavy neutrino with mass 1.5 MeV $\leq m_{ν_{H}} \le$ 14 MeV to be $|U_{eH}|^2\leq (10^{-3}-4\times10^{-6})$ respectively. These are tighter limits on the mixing parameters than obtained in previous experiments at nuclear reactors and accelerators.
Solar neutrino experiments are highly sensitive to sources of $ν\to\overlineν$ conversions in the $^8$B neutrino flux. In this work we adapt these searches to non-minimal sterile neutrino models recently proposed to explain the LSND, MiniBooNE, and reactor anomalies. The production of such sterile neutrinos in the Sun, followed the decay chain $ν_4 \to νϕ\to νν\overlineν$ with a new scalar $ϕ$ results in upper limits for the neutrino mixing $|U_{e4}|^2$ at the per mille level. We conclude that a simultaneous explanations of all anomalies is in tension with KamLAND, Super-Kamiokande, and Borexi…
Bringing an external radioactive source close to a large underground detector can significantly advance sensitivity not only to sterile neutrinos but also to "dark" gauge bosons and scalars. Here we address in detail the sensitivity reach of the Borexino-SOX configuration, which will see a powerful (a few PBq) $^{144}$Ce$-^{144}$Pr source installed next to the Borexino detector, to light scalar particles coupled to the SM fermions. The mass reach of this configuration is limited by the energy release in the radioactive $γ$-cascade, which in this particular case is 2.2 MeV. Within that reach on…
Light sterile neutrinos can be probed in a number of ways, including electroweak decays, cosmology and neutrino oscillation experiments. At long-baseline experiments, the neutral-current data is directly sensitive to the presence of light sterile neutrinos: once the active neutrinos have oscillated into a sterile state, a depletion in the neutral-current data sample is expected since they do not interact with the $Z$ boson. This channel offers a direct avenue to probe the mixing between a sterile neutrino and the tau neutrino, which remains largely unconstrained by current data. In this work, …
Low-scale models of neutrino mass generation often feature sterile neutrinos with masses in the GeV-TeV range, which can be produced at colliders through their mixing with the Standard Model neutrinos. We consider an alternative scenario in which the sterile neutrino is produced in the decay of a heavier particle, such that its production cross section does not depend on the active-sterile neutrino mixing angles. The mixing angles can be accessed through the decays of the sterile neutrino, provided that they lead to observable displaced vertices. We present an explicit realization of this scen…
Charged-Current Quasi-Elastic (CCQE) neutrino scattering is the signal channel for sterile neutrino oscillation experiments. Recent cross-section measurements have made it clear that the current understanding of this channel in the few-GeV region is incomplete, and several sophisticated theoretical models have been proposed to tackle this issue, although it is not clear which model best describes the global dataset. In this paper we argue that the current uncertainty surrounding CCQE cross-sections is a serious problem for experiments seeking to produce sterile neutrino limits. We perform a st…
We investigate the reach at the LHC to probe light sterile neutrinos with displaced vertices. We focus on sterile neutrinos $N$ with masses $m_{N} \sim $ (5-30) GeV, that are produced in rare decays of the Standard Model gauge bosons and decay inside the inner trackers of the LHC detectors. With a strategy that triggers on the prompt lepton accompanying the $N$ displaced vertex and considers charged tracks associated to it, we show that the 13 TeV LHC with $3000$/fb is able to probe active-sterile neutrino mixings down to $|V_{lN}|^2\approx 10^{-9}$, with $l=e,μ$, which is an improvement of up…
The study has been carried out on the prospects of probing the sterile neutrino mixing with the magnetized Iron CALorimeter (ICAL) at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), using atmospheric neutrinos as a source. The so-called 3~$+$~1 scenario is considered for active-sterile neutrino mixing and lead to projected exclusion curves in the sterile neutrino mass and mixing angle plane. The analysis is performed using the neutrino event generator NUANCE, modified for ICAL, and folded with the detector resolutions obtained by the INO collaboration from a full GEANT4 based detector simulation. …
We investigate the sensitivity of solar neutrino data to mixing of sterile neutrinos with masses $\gtrsim$ eV. For current data, we perform a Feldman-Cousins analysis to derive a robust limit on the sterile neutrino mixing. The solar neutrino limit excludes significant regions of the parameter space relevant to hints from reactor and radioactive gallium source experiments. We then study the sensitivity of upcoming solar neutrino data, most notably elastic neutrino-electron scattering in the DARWIN and DUNE experiments as well as coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering in DARWIN. These high precis…
We study a model of a keV-scale sterile neutrino with a relatively large mixing with the Standard Model sector. Usual considerations predict active generation of such particles in the early Universe, which leads to constraints from the total Dark Matter density and absence of X-ray signal from sterile neutrino decay. These bounds together may deem any attempt of creation of the keV scale sterile neutrino in the laboratory unfeasible. We argue that for models with a hidden sector coupled to the sterile neutrino these bounds can be evaded, opening new perspectives for the direct studies at neutr…
We present the bounds on 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing obtained from the first results of the KATRIN experiment. We show that the KATRIN data extend the Mainz and Troitsk bound to smaller values of $Δ{m}^2_{41}$ for large mixing and improves the exclusion of the large-$Δ{m}^2_{41}$ solution of the Huber-Muller reactor antineutrino anomaly. We also show that the combined bound of the Mainz, Troitsk, and KATRIN tritium experiments and the Bugey-3, NEOS, PROSPECT, and DANSS reactor spectral ratio measurements exclude most of the region in the ($\sin^2\!2\vartheta_{ee},Δ{m}^2_{41}$) plane all…
Using an analytic treatment, we discuss the parameter regions of large active-sterile neutrino mixing angles where sterile neutrinos produced in non-resonant flavour oscillations can approach thermalization in several cosmologies. We show that thermalization affects only large active-sterile neutrino mixing already rejected by different limits. Hence, the allowed sterile neutrino parameter regions are unaffected.
The existence of light sterile neutrinos, as predicted in several models, can help to explain a number of observations starting from dark mater to recent anomalies in short baseline experiments. In this paper we consider two models - Left-Right Symmetric Zee model and Extended Seesaw model, that can naturally accommodate the presence of light sterile neutrinos in the eV to MeV mass scale. We perform a detailed study on the neutrinoless double beta decay process which receives major contributions from diagrams involving these light sterile neutrinos. Considering a number of theoretical and expe…
Neutrino oscillation models involving one extra mass eigenstate beyond the standard three ($3+1$) are fit to global short baseline experimental data and the recent IceCube $ν_μ+\barν_μ$ disappearance search result. We find a best fit of $Δm^2_{41} = 1.75\; \text{eV}^2$ with $Δχ^2_{null-min}$ (dof) of 50.61 (4). We find that the combined IceCube and short baseline data constrain $θ_{34}$ to $< 80^\circ (< 6^\circ) $ at 90\% C.L. for $Δm^2_{41} \approx 2 (6)~\text{eV}^2$, which is improved over present limits. Incorporating the IceCube information provides the first constraints on all entries of…
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 $|U_{\alpha4}|^2$, with $α\in ( e,μ,τ)$, and the mass-squared splitting $Δm^2_{41} \equiv m_4^2-m_1^2$. 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…
We explore the implications of the Borexino experiment's real time measurements of the lowest energy part of the neutrino spectrum from the primary pp fusion process up to 0.420 MeV through the 7^Be decay at 0.862 MeV to the pep reaction at 1.44 MeV. We exploit the fact that at such low energies, the large mixing angle solution to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein matter effects in the sun are small for 7^Be and pep and negligible for pp. Consequently, the neutrinos produced in the sun change their flavor almost entirely through vacuum oscillations during propagation from the sun's surface and …
A comprehensive monitoring system for the thermal environment inside the Borexino neutrino detector was developed and installed in order to reduce uncertainties in determining temperatures throughout the detector. A complementary thermal management system limits undesirable thermal couplings between the environment and Borexino's active sections. This strategy is bringing improved radioactive background conditions to the region of interest for the physics signal thanks to reduced fluid mixing induced in the liquid scintillator. Although fluid-dynamical equilibrium has not yet been fully reache…
We explore the sensitivity of $^{163}$Ho electron capture experiments to neutrino masses in the standard framework of three-neutrino mixing and in the framework of 3+1 neutrino mixing with a sterile neutrino which mixes with the three standard active neutrinos, as indicated by the anomalies found in short-baseline neutrino oscillations experiments. We calculate the sensitivity to neutrino masses and mixing for different values of the energy resolution of the detectors, of the unresolved pileup fraction and of the total statistics of events, considering the expected values of these parameters i…
Phasing out of Darkness: From Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter to Neutrino Masses via Time-Dependent Mixing
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik（马克斯·普朗克核物理研究所）；Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação - CENTRA, Departamento de Física, Instituto Superior Técnico - IST, Universidade de Lisboa - UL（里斯本大学高等技术学院物理系天体物理学与引力中心）；Departamento de Física Teórica and Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos (IPARCOS-UCM), Universidad Complutense de Madrid（马德里康普顿斯大学理论物理系及粒子与宇宙物理研究所）
We present accurate predictions of the effective Majorana mass $|m_{ββ}|$ in neutrinoless double-$β$ decay in the standard case of $3ν$ mixing and in the case of 3+1 neutrino mixing indicated by the reactor, Gallium and LSND anomalies. We have taken into account the uncertainties of the neutrino mixing parameters determined by oscillation experiments. It is shown that the predictions for $|m_{ββ}|$ in the cases of $3ν$ and 3+1 mixing are quite different, in agreement with previous discussions in the literature, and that future measurements of neutrinoless double-$β$ decay and of the effective …
Several neutrino experiments have reported results that are potentially inconsistent with our current understanding of the lepton sector. A candidate solution to these so-called short-baseline anomalies is postulating the existence of new, eV-scale, mostly sterile neutrinos that mix with the active neutrinos. This hypothesis, however, is strongly disfavored once one considers all neutrino data, especially those that constrain the disappearance of muon and electron neutrinos at short-baselines. Here, we show that if the sterile-active mixing parameters depend on the energy-scales that character…
We calculate the rates of radiative $β^- \to α^- + γ$ decays for $(α, β) = (e, μ)$, $(e, τ)$ and $(μ, τ)$ by taking the {\it unitary} gauge in the $(3+n)$ active-sterile neutrino mixing scheme, and make it clear that constraints on the unitarity of the $3\times 3$ Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) matrix $U$ extracted from $β^- \to α^- + γ$ decays in the {\it minimal unitarity violation} scheme differ from those obtained in the canonical seesaw mechanism with $n$ heavy Majorana neutrinos by a factor $5/3$. In such a natural seesaw case we show that the rates of $β^- \to α^- + γ$ can be us…
Measuring all neutrino components is the most direct way to test the standard solar model (SSM). Despite the great results obtained so far, important questions such as the solar metallicity remain open. A precise measurement of the solar pp chain and the CNO cycle would settle this controversy between high (HZ) and low (LZ) metallicity compositions of the Sun. Solar neutrinos allow the determination of oscillation parameters, in particular the $θ_{12}$ mixing angle and, to a lesser degree the $Δm^2_{12}$ mass splitting. Furthermore the measurement of the electron neutrino survival probability …
Next-generation experiments allow for the possibility to testing the neutrino flavor oscillation model to very high levels of accuracy. Here, we explore the possibility that the dark matter in the current universe is made of two particles, a sterile neutrino and a very light dark matter particle. By using a 3+1 neutrino flavor oscillation model, we study how such a type of dark matter imprints the solar neutrino fluxes, spectra, and survival probabilities of electron neutrinos. The current solar neutrino measurements allow us to define an upper limit for the ratio of the mass of a light dark m…
Borexino is a unique detector able to perform measurement of solar neutrinos fluxes in the energy region around 1 MeV or below due to its low level of radioactive background. It was constructed at the LNGS underground laboratory with a goal of solar $^{7}$Be neutrino flux measurement with 5\% precision. The goal has been successfully achieved marking the end of the first stage of the experiment. A number of other important measurements of solar neutrino fluxes have been performed during the first stage. Recently the collaboration conducted successful liquid scintillator repurification campaign…
Unexplored interactions of neutrinos could be the key to understanding the nature of the dark matter (DM). In particular, active neutrinos with new self-interactions can produce keV-mass sterile neutrinos that account for the whole of the DM through the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism for a large range of active-sterile mixing values. This production typically occurs before Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) in a yet uncharted era of the Universe. We assess how the mixing range for keV-mass sterile neutrino DM is affected by the uncertainty in the early Universe pre-BBN cosmology. This is particularly r…
