Sensitivity to light sterile neutrino mixing parameters with KM3NeT/ORCA

• Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Main Authors: The KM3NeT collaboration, S. Aiello, A. Albert, M. Alshamsi, S. Alves Garre, Z. Aly, A. Ambrosone, F. Ameli, M. Andre, G. Androulakis, M. Anghinolfi, M. Anguita, G. Anton, M. Ardid, S. Ardid, J. Aublin, C. Bagatelas, B. Baret, S. Basegmez du Pree, M. Bendahman, F. Benfenati, E. Berbee, A. M. van den Berg, V. Bertin, S. Biagi, M. Bissinger, M. Boettcher, M. Bou Cabo, J. Boumaaza, M. Bouta, M. Bouwhuis, C. Bozza, H. Brânzaş, F. Bretaudeau, R. Bruijn, J. Brunner, R. Bruno, E. Buis, R. Buompane, J. Busto, B. Caiffi, D. Calvo, S. Campion, A. Capone, V. Carretero, P. Castaldi, S. Celli, M. Chabab, N. Chau, A. Chen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2021
• Subjects: Neutrino Detectors and Telescopes (experiments); Oscillation; Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity; QC770-798; Orca
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2021)180; https://doaj.org/article/4bdd5cf597d5465ca348d5831bc98034

Abstract KM3NeT/ORCA is a next-generation neutrino telescope optimised for atmospheric neutrino oscillations studies. In this paper, the sensitivity of ORCA to the presence of a light sterile neutrino in a 3+1 model is presented. After three years of data taking, ORCA will be able to probe the active-sterile mixing angles θ 14, θ 24, θ 34 and the effective angle θ μe , over a broad range of mass squared difference ∆ m 41 2 $$ \Delta {m}_{41}^2 $$ ∼ [10 −5 , 10] eV2, allowing to test the eV-mass sterile neutrino hypothesis as the origin of short baseline anomalies, as well as probing the hypothesis of a very light sterile neutrino, not yet constrained by cosmology. ORCA will be able to explore a relevant fraction of the parameter space not yet reached by present measurements.