Searching for eV-scale sterile neutrinos with eight years of atmospheric
neutrinos at the IceCube neutrino telescope
Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology American Physical Society 102:5 (2020) 052009
Authors:
MG Aartsen, R Abbasi, M Ackermann, J Adams, JA Aguilar, M Ahlers, M Ahrens, C Alispach, NM Amin, K Andeen, T Anderson, I Ansseau, G Anton, C Argüelles, J Auffenberg, S Axani, H Bagherpour, X Bai, A Balagopal V, A Barbano, SW Barwick, B Bastian, V Basu, V Baum, S Baur, R Bay, JJ Beatty, K-H Becker, J Becker Tjus, S BenZvi, D Berley, E Bernardini, DZ Besson, G Binder, D Bindig, E Blaufuss, S Blot, C Bohm, S Böser, O Botner, J Böttcher, E Bourbeau, J Bourbeau, F Bradascio, J Braun, S Bron, J Brostean-Kaiser, A Burgman, J Buscher, RS Busse, T Carver, C Chen, E Cheung, D Chirkin, S Choi, BA Clark, K Clark, L Classen, A Coleman, GH Collin, JM Conrad, P Coppin, P Correa, DF Cowen, R Cross, P Dave, C De Clercq, JJ DeLaunay, H Dembinski, K Deoskar, S De Ridder, A Desai, P Desiati, KD de Vries, G de Wasseige, M de With, T DeYoung, S Dharani, A Diaz, JC Díaz-Vélez, H Dujmovic, M Dunkman, MA DuVernois, E Dvorak, T Ehrhardt, P Eller, R Engel, PA Evenson, S Fahey, AR Fazely, A Fedynitch, J Felde, AT Fienberg, K Filimonov, C Finley, D Fox, A Franckowiak, E Friedman, A Fritz, TK Gaisser, J Gallagher, E Ganster, S Garrappa, L Gerhardt, T Glauch, T Glüsenkamp, A Goldschmidt, JG Gonzalez, D Grant, T Grégoire, Z Griffith, S Griswold, M Günder, M Gündüz, C Haack, A Hallgren, R Halliday, L Halve, F Halzen, K Hanson, J Hardin, A Haungs, S Hauser, D Hebecker, D Heereman, P Heix, K Helbing, R Hellauer, F Henningsen, S Hickford, J Hignight, GC Hill, KD Hoffman, R Hoffmann, T Hoinka, B Hokanson-Fasig, K Hoshina, F Huang, M Huber, T Huber, K Hultqvist, M Hünnefeld, R Hussain, S In, N Iovine, A Ishihara, M Jansson, GS Japaridze, M Jeong, BJP Jones, F Jonske, R Joppe, D Kang, W Kang, A Kappes, D Kappesser, T Karg, M Karl, A Karle, U Katz, M Kauer, M Kellermann, JL Kelley, A Kheirandish, J Kim, T Kintscher, J Kiryluk, T Kittler, SR Klein, R Koirala, H Kolanoski, L Köpke, C Kopper, S Kopper, DJ Koskinen, P Koundal, M Kowalski, K Krings, G Krückl, N Kulacz, N Kurahashi, A Kyriacou, JL Lanfranchi, MJ Larson, F Lauber, JP Lazar, K Leonard, A Leszczyńska, Y Li, QR Liu, E Lohfink, CJ Lozano Mariscal, L Lu, F Lucarelli, A Ludwig, J Lünemann, W Luszczak, Y Lyu, WY Ma, J Madsen, G Maggi, KBM Mahn, Y Makino, P Mallik, S Mancina, IC Mariş, R Maruyama, K Mase, R Maunu, F McNally, K Meagher, M Medici, A Medina, M Meier, S Meighen-Berger, J Merz, T Meures, J Micallef, D Mockler, G Momenté, T Montaruli, RW Moore, R Morse, M Moulai, P Muth, R Nagai, U Naumann, G Neer, LV Nguyen, H Niederhausen, MU Nisa, SC Nowicki, DR Nygren, A Obertacke Pollmann, M Oehler, A Olivas, A O'Murchadha, E O'Sullivan, T Palczewski, H Pandya, DV Pankova, N Park, GK Parker, EN Paudel, P Peiffer, C Pérez de los Heros, S Philippen, D Pieloth, S Pieper, E Pinat, A Pizzuto, M Plum, Y Popovych, A Porcelli, M Prado Rodriguez, PB Price, GT Przybylski, C Raab, A Raissi, M Rameez, L Rauch, K Rawlins, IC Rea, A Rehman, R Reimann, B Relethford, M Renschler, G Renzi, E Resconi, W Rhode, M Richman, B Riedel, S Robertson, M Rongen, C Rott, T Ruhe, D Ryckbosch, D Rysewyk Cantu, I Safa, SE Sanchez Herrera, A Sandrock, J Sandroos, M Santander, S Sarkar, S Sarkar, K Satalecka, M Scharf, M Schaufel, H Schieler, P Schlunder, T Schmidt, A Schneider, J Schneider, FG Schröder, L Schumacher, S Sclafani, D Seckel, S Seunarine, S Shefali, M Silva, B Smithers, R Snihur, J Soedingrekso, D Soldin, M Song, GM Spiczak, C Spiering, J Stachurska, M Stamatikos, T Stanev, R Stein, J Stettner, A Steuer, T Stezelberger, RG Stokstad, A Stößl, NL Strotjohann, T Stürwald, T Stuttard, GW Sullivan, I Taboada, F Tenholt, S Ter-Antonyan, A Terliuk, S Tilav, K Tollefson, L Tomankova, C Tönnis, S Toscano, D Tosi, A Trettin, M Tselengidou, CF Tung, A Turcati, R Turcotte, CF Turley, B Ty, E Unger, MA Unland Elorrieta, M Usner, J Vandenbroucke, W Van Driessche, D van Eijk, N van Eijndhoven, D Vannerom, J van Santen, S Verpoest, M Vraeghe, C Walck, A Wallace, M Wallraff, TB Watson, C Weaver, A Weindl, MJ Weiss, J Weldert, C Wendt, J Werthebach, BJ Whelan, N Whitehorn, K Wiebe, CH Wiebusch, DR Williams, L Wills, M Wolf, TR Wood, K Woschnagg, G Wrede, J Wulff, XW Xu, Y Xu, JP Yanez, G Yodh, S Yoshida, T Yuan, Z Zhang, M Zöcklein
Abstract:
We report in detail on searches for eV-scale sterile neutrinos, in the
context of a 3+1 model, using eight years of data from the IceCube neutrino
telescope. By analyzing the reconstructed energies and zenith angles of 305,735
atmospheric $\nu_\mu$ and $\bar{\nu}_\mu$ events we construct confidence
intervals in two analysis spaces: $\sin^2 (2\theta_{24})$ vs. $\Delta m^2_{41}$
under the conservative assumption $\theta_{34}=0$; and $\sin^2(2\theta_{24})$
vs. $\sin^2 (2\theta_{34})$ given sufficiently large $\Delta m^2_{41}$ that
fast oscillation features are unresolvable. Detailed discussions of the event
selection, systematic uncertainties, and fitting procedures are presented. No
strong evidence for sterile neutrinos is found, and the best-fit likelihood is
consistent with the no sterile neutrino hypothesis with a p-value of 8\% in the
first analysis space and 19\% in the second.
