Non-unitarity, sterile neutrinos, and non-standard neutrino interactions

A bstract The simplest Standard Model extension to explain neutrino masses involves the addition of right-handed neutrinos. At some level, this extension will impact neutrino oscillation searches. In this work we explore the differences and similarities between the case in which these neutrinos are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of high energy physics 2017-04, Vol.2017 (4), p.1-26, Article 153
Main Authors: Blennow, Mattias, Coloma, Pilar, Fernandez-Martinez, Enrique, Hernandez-Garcia, Josu, Lopez-Pavon, Jacobo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accessibility
Analogies
Benchmarking
Beyond Standard Model
Classical and Quantum Gravitation
Detectors
Dunes
Elementary Particles
Formalism
High energy physics
Neutrino Physics
Neutrinos
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
Proposals
Quantum Field Theories
Quantum Field Theory
Quantum Physics
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Relativity Theory
Sensors
String Theory
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Summary:A bstract The simplest Standard Model extension to explain neutrino masses involves the addition of right-handed neutrinos. At some level, this extension will impact neutrino oscillation searches. In this work we explore the differences and similarities between the case in which these neutrinos are kinematically accessible (sterile neutrinos) or not (mixing matrix non-unitarity). We clarify apparent inconsistencies in the present literature when using different parametrizations to describe these effects and recast both limits in the popular neutrino non-standard interaction (NSI) formalism. We find that, in the limit in which sterile oscillations are averaged out at the near detector, their effects at the far detector coincide with non-unitarity at leading order, even in presence of a matter potential. We also summarize the present bounds existing in both limits and compare them with the expected sensitivities of near-future facilities taking the DUNE proposal as a benchmark. We conclude that non-unitarity effects are too constrained to impact present or near future neutrino oscillation facilities but that sterile neutrinos can play an important role at long baseline experiments. The role of the near detector is also discussed in detail.
ISSN:1029-8479
1126-6708
1029-8479
DOI:10.1007/JHEP04(2017)153