Abstract
The MiniBooNE collaboration has reported an excess of $460.5\pm 95.8$ electron-like events ($4.8\sigma$). We propose an explanation of these events in terms of a sterile neutrino decaying into a photon and a light neutrino. The sterile neutrino has a mass around 250 MeV and it is produced from kaon decays in the proton beam target via mixing with the muon or the electron in the range $10^{-11} \lesssim |U_{\ell 4}|^2 \lesssim 10^{-7}$ ($\ell = e,\mu$). The model can be tested by considering the time distribution of the events in MiniBooNE and by looking for single-photon events in running or upcoming neutrino experiments, in particular by the suite of liquid argon detectors in the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab.
Highlights
The MiniBooNE Collaboration has published evidence for an excess of electronlike events of 381.2 Æ 85.2 above their background expectation [1], confirming previous hints present in both neutrino and antineutrino beam modes [2]
The collaboration presents the results in the context of ð−νÞμ → ð−νÞe neutrino oscillations, under the hypothesis of a sterile neutrino with a neutrino mass-squared difference Δm2 of order 1 eV2, motivated by a previous claim from LSND [3]
In this paper we propose a sterile neutrino in the 150 to 300 MeV mass range, which is produced in the beam target from kaon decay via mixing either with electron or muon neutrinos
Summary
The MiniBooNE Collaboration has published evidence for an excess of electronlike events of 381.2 Æ 85.2 above their background expectation [1], confirming previous hints present in both neutrino and antineutrino beam modes [2]. In this paper we propose a sterile neutrino in the 150 to 300 MeV mass range, which is produced in the beam target from kaon decay via mixing either with electron or muon neutrinos. It decays inside the MiniBooNE detector into a photon and a light neutrino. In order to obtain a reasonable fit to the angular distribution, we are driven to heavy neutrino masses around 250 MeV, which can be produced by kaon decays in the beam target. Given in Appendix A; in Appendix B we discuss the impact of the timing cut on the MiniBooNE fit result
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