Combining Sterile Neutrino Fits to Short Baseline Data with IceCube Data

Publication information:

M.H. Moulai, C.A. Argüelles, G. Collin, J.M. Conrad, A. Diaz, and M. Shaevitz. 2020. “Combining Sterile Neutrino Fits to Short Baseline Data With IceCube Data”. Physical Review D, 101, 5

Abstract

Recent global fits to short-baseline neutrino oscillation data have been performed finding preference for a sterile neutrino solution (3+1) over null. In the most recent iteration, it was pointed out that an unstable sterile neutrino (3+1+decay) may be a better description of the data. This is due to the fact that this model significantly reduces the tension between appearance and disappearance datasets. In this work, we add a 1-year IceCube dataset to the global fit obtaining new results for the standard 3+1 and 3+1+decay sterile neutrino scenarios. We find that the 3+1+decay model provides a better fit than the 3+1, even in the presence of IceCube, with reduced appearance to disappearance tension. The 3+1+decay model is a 5.4σ improvement over the null hypothesis and a 2.8σ improvement over the standard 3+1 model.