An eV-scale sterile neutrino search using eight years of atmospheric muon neutrino data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
hep-ex
/ Authors
M. G. Aartsen, R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, M. Ahrens, C. Alispach, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen
and 367 more authors
T. Anderson, I. Ansseau, G. Anton, C. Argüelles, J. Auffenberg, S. Axani, H. Bagherpour, X. Bai, A. Balagopal V., A. Barbano, S. W. Barwick, B. Bastian, V. Basu, V. Baum, S. Baur, R. Bay, J. J. Beatty, K. -H. Becker, J. Becker Tjus, S. BenZvi, D. Berley, E. Bernardini, D. Z. Besson, G. Binder
/ Abstract
The results of a 3+1 sterile neutrino search using eight years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory are presented. A total of 305,735 muon neutrino events are analyzed in reconstructed energy-zenith space to test for signatures of a matter-enhanced oscillation that would occur given a sterile neutrino state with a mass-squared differences between 0.01\,eV$^2$ and 100\,eV$^2$. The best-fit point is found to be at $\sin^2(2θ_{24})=0.10$ and $Δm_{41}^2 = 4.5{\rm eV}^2$, which is consistent with the no sterile neutrino hypothesis with a p-value of 8.0\%.