Abstract
If a sterile neutrino nu_s with an eV-scale mass and a sizeable mixing to the electron neutrino exists, as indicated by the reactor and gallium neutrino anomalies, a strong resonance enhancement of nu_e-nu_s oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos should occur in the TeV energy range. At these energies neutrino flavour transitions in the 3+1 scheme depend on just one neutrino mass squared difference and are fully described within a 3-flavour oscillation framework. We demonstrate that the flavour transitions of atmospheric nu_e can actually be very accurately described in a 2-flavour framework, with neutrino flavour evolution governed by an inhomogeneous Schroedinger-like equation. Evolution equations of this type have not been previously considered in the theory of neutrino oscillations.
Highlights
JHEP08(2016)153 out that the available IceCube data posed only rather weak constraints on the parameters governing this oscillation channel
We demonstrate that the flavour transitions of atmospheric νe can be very accurately described in a 2-flavour framework, with neutrino flavour evolution governed by an inhomogeneous Schrodinger-like equation
If a sterile neutrino with an eV-scale mass exists and has a sizeable mixing to νe, as the reactor and gallium neutrino anomalies suggest, the flux of atmospheric νe in the TeV energy region can be significantly affected by νe ↔ νs oscillations
Summary
JHEP08(2016)153 out that the available IceCube data posed only rather weak constraints on the parameters governing this oscillation channel. We demonstrate that the flavour transitions of atmospheric νe can be very accurately described in a 2-flavour approach, where neutrino oscillations are governed by an inhomogeneous Schrodinger-like equation. Neutrino oscillations in matter are described in the 3+1 framework by the evolution equation d i ν = U diag dx
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