Sterile neutrinos can be a possible candidate for dark matter. Sterile neutrinos are radiatively unstable and can inject photon energy into the intergalactic medium (IGM). The injection of photon energy into IGM can modify the temperature and ionization history of IGM gas during cosmic dawn. Theoretical models based on the ΛCDM framework predict an absorption profile in the 21 cm line during the cosmic dawn era. Recently, the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature (EDGES) collaboration confirmed such an adsorption signal. Injection of energy into IGM can modify the absorption amplitude in the 21 cm signal. Considering the 21 cm absorption signal at cosmic dawn, we constrain the lifetime of sterile neutrinos and the mixing angle of sterile neutrinos with active neutrinos. We also compare these bounds with other astrophysical observational bounds.
Sterile neutrinos can be produced in the early universe via interactions with their active counterparts. For small active-sterile mixing angles, thermal equilibrium with the standard model plasma is not reached and sterile neutrinos are only produced via flavor oscillations. We study in detail this regime, taking into account matter potentials and decoherence effects caused by elastic scatterings with the plasma. We find that resonant oscillations occurring at temperatures $T\lesssim 10\,\mathrm{GeV}$ lead to a significant enhancement of the sterile neutrino production rate. Taking this into a…
In the framework of a 3+1 scheme with an additional inert state, we consider the thermalisation of sterile neutrinos in the early Universe taking into account the full $4\times4$ mixing matrix. The evolution of the neutrino energy distributions is found solving the momentum-dependent kinetic equations with full diagonal collision terms, as in previous analyses of flavour neutrino decoupling in the standard case. The degree of thermalisation of the sterile state is shown in terms of the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{\rm eff}$, and its dependence on the three additional mixing angles ($θ_{1…
The strongest bounds on active-sterile neutrino mixing after Planck data
在早期宇宙中，活跃中微子的振荡可以激发出轻的惰性中微子。它们的性质可以通过它们作为额外辐射的贡献来限制，这些额外辐射可以用中微子种类的有效数量N_ eff和今天的宇宙能量密度Ω_ν h ^2来参数化。这两个参数都已通过普朗克卫星实验测量到相当高的精度。我们用这个结果来更新（3+1）无菌中微子情形的参数空间的边界，其中活性-无菌中微子的质量平方分裂在（10^{-5}-10^2）eV ^2范围内。我们认为正常和倒置的质量排序的活跃和不育状态。第一次，我们考虑到两个非零的积极-无菌混合角的可能性。我们发现，边界是更严格的比在实验室实验中得到的。这导致了与轻无菌中微子的短基线暗示的强烈张力。为了消除这种分歧，需要修改标准宇宙学的假设，例如大的原始中微子不对称性。
This brief report is an extension of a prediction of neutrino oscillation with a sterile neutrino using parameters of the sterile neutrino mass and mixing angle recently extracted from experiment.
We study a scenario where sterile neutrino (either warm or cold) dark matter (DM) is produced through (nonresonant) oscillations among right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) and can constitute the whole DM in the Universe, in contrast to the conventional sterile neutrino production through its mixing with the left-handed neutrinos. The lightest RHN can be sterile neutrino DM whose mixing with left-handed neutrinos is sufficiently small while heavier RHNs can have non-negligible mixings with left-handed neutrinos to explain the neutrino masses by the seesaw mechanism. We also demonstrate that, in our sc…
We explore the possibility of generating a non-zero $U_{e3}$ element of the neutrino mixing matrix from tribimaximal neutrino mixing by adding a light sterile neutrino to the active neutrinos. Small active-sterile mixing can provide the necessary deviation from tribimaximal mixing to generate a non-zero $θ_{13}$ and atmospheric mixing $θ_{23}$ different from maximal. Assuming no CP-violation, we study the phenomenological impact of sterile neutrinos in the context of current neutrino oscillation data. The tribimaximal pattern is broken in such a manner that the second column of tribimaximal mi…
Seesaw mechanism constrains from below mixing between active and sterile neutrinos for fixed sterile neutrino masses. Signal events associated with sterile neutrino decays inside a detector at fixed target experiment are suppressed by the mixing angle to the power of four. Therefore sensitivity of experiments such as SHiP and DUNE should take into account minimal possible values of the mixing angles. We extend the previous study of this subject arXiv:1312.2887 to a more general case of non-zero CP-violating phases in the neutrino sector. Namely, we provide numerical estimate of minimal value o…
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…
Recent IceCube search results for sterile neutrino increased tension between the combined appearance and disappearance experiments. On the other hand, MiniBooNE latest data confirms at $4.9σ$ CL the short-baseline oscillation anomaly. We analyze published IceCube data based on two different active-sterile mixing schemes using one additional sterile neutrino flavor. We present exclusion regions in the parameter ranges $0.01 \le \sin^2 θ_{24} \le 0.1$ and $0.1~{\rm eV}^2 \le Δm^2_{42} \le 10~{\rm eV}^2$ for the mass-mixing and flavor-mixing schemes. Under the more conservative mass-mixing scheme…
Remarks on the lifetime of sterile neutrinos and the effect on detection of rare meson decays M+ -> M'- lepton+ lepton+
本文回顾了我们在以前的工作中研究的M（+）-> M '（-）轻子（+）轻子（-）形式的Δ L=2半轻子衰变的探测，它是由质量介于初介子和末介子质量之间的Majorana中微子介导的。在这样的质量范围内，马约拉纳中微子将在它的质量壳层上运动，而两个带电轻子将出现在位移的顶点上，或者，如果寿命足够长，大多数次顶点将落在探测器之外。我们研究的后果，这种影响的实验搜索和限制，可以提取。
For active-sterile mixing to be responsible for the full relic abundance of dark matter additional new physics is needed beyond the keV-scale sterile neutrino itself. The extra ingredient we consider here is the presence of self-interactions among the sterile neutrinos. We examine whether active-to-sterile conversion is amplified enough in this scenario that the observed abundance of dark matter can be obtained with a subconstraint mixing angle. This turns out never to be the case in the region we explore: either self-interactions have too small an impact and cannot escape bounds on the mass a…
In the standard model extended with a seesaw mass matrix, we study the production of sterile neutrinos from the decay of vector bosons at $T\simeq M_{W,Z}$. We derive a general quantum kinetic equation for the production of sterile neutrinos and their effective mixing angles valid in a wide range of temperature, to all orders in interactions of the standard model, and to leading order mixing angle $θ\ll 1$. Production rates and effective mixing angles depend sensitively on helicity. Positive helicity states interact more weakly with the medium and their effective mixing angle is not modified s…
Assuming the existence of an eV or KeV scale sterile neutrino, we develop a 3+1 neutrino mass model using $A_4\times Z_4 \times Z_2$ symmetry group. Three Higgs $H, H^{\prime}$ and $H^{\prime\prime}$ are considered to give a desired neutrino mass matrix which generates non-zero $θ_{13}$. The model can give neutrino mixing parameters that are well within the experimental 3$σ$ bounds. We also calculate the $4\times 4$ active-sterile neutrino mixing matrix, and it is found to be consistent with experimental bounds.
Considering the gauge model SU(2)_L x U(1) with the extension of the lepton sector by right-handed sterile Majorana neutrinos, we distinguish a "minimal parametric mixing scenario" for a complete matrix of 6 x 6 light (active) and sterile neutrinos, which depends, in addition to experimentally measured physical parameters, only on the masses of sterile neutrinos. For such a scenario, improved cosmological bounds are provided, resulting from the lifetime of sterile neutrinos and the fraction of energy carried by sterile neutrino dark matter.
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.
Light sterile neutrinos with a mass around 1 eV have been studied for many years as a possible explanation of the so called short-baseline neutrino oscillation anomalies. Recently, several neutrino oscillation experiments reported preferences for non-zero values of the mixing angles and squared mass differences for active-sterile mixing, which however are not always in agreement. I review our current knowledge of the light sterile neutrino in the 3+1 model, starting with a separate discussion on the status of the most relevant searches and then analyzing the problems that arise when combining …
It has been recently suggested \cite{Bezrukov:2017ike,Bezrukov:2018wvd} that a cosmic scalar field can completely change the keV-scale sterile neutrino production in the early Universe. Its effect may, for various parameter choices, either suppress sterile neutrino production and make moderate active-sterile mixing cosmologically acceptable, or increase the production and generate considerable dark matter component out of sterile neutrino with otherwise negligible mixing with SM. In this paper we provide analytic estimates complementing and providing details of the numerical calculations perfo…
We revisit the flavor composition of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos observed at neutrino telescopes. Assuming unitary time evolution of the neutrino flavor states, the flavor composition observable at Earth is related to the initial composition at their sources via oscillation-averaged flavor transitions. In a previous study we derived general bounds on the flavor composition of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos assuming three-flavor unitary mixing. We extend these bounds to the case of active-sterile neutrino mixing. Our bounds are analytical, derived based only on the unitarity of the mix…
We compare the solutions to the short baseline neutrino anomaly based on oscillations to sterile neutrinos and the Stochastic Neutrino Mixing Mechanism (SNMM) through an analysis of the present neutrino data. The SNMM suggests worse fits than a 3 + 1 sterile neutrino model, although it cannot be discarded by present data. We propose an experiment to distinguish between both solutions, based on placing a $^8$Li source inside a 5kton-yr detector (like SNO). We studied the sensitivity of such an experiment, which makes it possible to discriminate within $2σ$ the SNMM from the 3+1 sterile hypothes…
We study the production of heavy sterile neutrino $N$, $e^+ e^- \to N ν({\bar ν})$, at the Circular Electron Positron Collider(CEPC) and its $ljj$ signal in its decay to three charged fermions. We study background events for this process which are mainly events coming from W pair production. We study the production of a single heavy sterile neutrino and the sensitivity of CEPC to the mixing of sterile neutrino with active neutrinos. We study the production of two degenerate heavy sterile neutrinos in a low energy see-saw model by taking into account the constraints on mixings of sterile neutri…
We consider the possibility of the lightest sterile neutrino dark matter which has dipole interaction with heavier sterile neutrinos. The lifetime can be long enough to be a dark matter candidate without violating other constraints and the correct amount of relic abundance can be produced in the early Universe. We find that a sterile neutrino with the mass of around MeV and the dimension-five non-renormalisable dipole interaction suppressed by $Λ_5 \gtrsim 10^{15}$ GeV can be a good candidate of dark matter, while heavier sterile neutrinos with masses of the order of GeV can explain the active…
We investigate how sterile neutrinos with a range of masses influence cosmology in MeV-scale reheating temperature scenarios. By computing the production of sterile neutrinos through the combination of mixing and scattering in the early Universe, we find that light sterile neutrinos, with masses and mixings as inferred from short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, are consistent with big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation for the reheating temperature of ${\cal O}(1)$ MeV if the parent particle responsible for reheating decays into electromagneti…
A Reply to "Comment on 'Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Active-Sterile Neutrino Mixing: Evidence for Maximal $ν_μ\leftrightarrowν_τ$ Mixing in Super Kamiokande?'"
A phenomenological model with active and sterile neutrinos is used for calculations of neutrino oscillation characteristics at the normal mass hierarchy of active neutrinos. Taking into account the contributions of sterile neutrinos, appearance and survival probabilities for active neutrinos are calculated. Modified graphical dependencies for the probability of appearance of electron neutrinos/antineutrinos in muon neutrino/antineutrino beams as a function of the ratio of the distance to the neutrino energy and other model parameters are obtained. It is shown that in the case of a certain type…
We examine the possibility that direct dark matter detection experiments find decay products from sterile neutrino dark mater in $U(1)_{B-L}$ and $U(1)_R$ models. This is possible if the sterile neutrino interacts with a light gauge boson and decays into a neutrino and the light gauge boson with a certain lifetime. This decay produces energetic neutrinos scattering off nuclei with a large enough recoil energy in direct dark matter detection experiments. We stress that direct dark matter detection experiments can explore not only WIMP but also sterile neutrino dark matter.
We explore the energy and entropy transport as well as the lepton number variation induced from the mixing between electron and sterile neutrinos with keV mass in the supernova core. We develop a radial- and time-dependent treatment of the sterile-electron neutrino mixing, by including ordinary matter effects, reconversions between sterile and electron antineutrinos, as well as the collisional production of sterile particles for the first time. The dynamical feedback due to the production of sterile particles on the composition and thermodynamic properties of the core only leads to major impli…
We propose an abelian extension of the Standard Model which can explain the origin of eV scale masses and mixing for active and sterile neutrinos and at the same time providing a natural cold dark matter candidate. One of the three active neutrinos acquires mass at tree level through seesaw mechanism whereas the other two active neutrinos and one sterile neutrino acquire eV scale masses at one-loop level. The model also allows non-trivial mixing between active and sterile neutrinos at one-loop level which could have interesting signatures at neutrino experiments. After the abelian gauge symmet…
In this work we analyze the effects of quantum decoherence upon the precession of the neutrino polarization vector in a supernovae-like environment. In order to perform the study we have determined the time-dependence of the polarization vector by solving the equation of motion for different neutrino-mixing schemes. The results of the calculations show that the onset of decoherence depends strongly on the parameters of the adopted mixing scheme. As examples we have considered : a) the mixing between active neutrinos and b) the mixing between active end sterile neutrinos.
This is an extension of estimates of the probability of $ν$ to $e$ neutrino oscillation with one sterile neutrino to three sterile neutrinos, using a 6x6 matrix. Since the mixing angle for only one sterile neutrino has been experimentally determined, we estimate the $ν$ to $e$ neutrino oscillation probability with different mixing angles for two of the sterile neutrinos.
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…
Some extensions beyond the Standard Model propose the existence of nearly degenerate heavy sterile neutrinos. If kinematically allowed these can be resonantly produced and decay in a cascade to common final states. The common decay channels lead to mixing of the heavy sterile neutrino states and interference effects. We implement non-perturbative methods to study the dynamics of the cascade decay to common final states, which features similarities but also noteworthy differences with the case of neutral meson mixing. We show that mixing and oscillations among the nearly degenerate sterile neut…
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, …
The inverse and linear seesaw scenarios are two typical extensions of the canonical seesaw mechanism, which contain much more sterile degrees of freedom but can naturally explain the smallness of three active neutrino masses at a sufficiently low energy scale (e.g., the TeV scale). To fully describe the mixing among three active neutrinos, three sterile neutrinos and three extra gauge-singlet neutral fermions in either of these two seesaw paradigms, we present the {\it first} full parametrization of the $9\times 9$ flavor mixing matrix in terms of 36 rotation angles and 36 CP-violating phases.…
