Abstract
The 4.8$\sigma$ anomaly in MiniBooNE data cannot be reconciled with MINOS+ and IceCube data within the vanilla framework of neutrino oscillations involving an eV-mass sterile neutrino. We show that an apparently consistent picture can be drawn if charged-current and neutral-current nonstandard neutrino interactions are at work in the 3+1 neutrino scheme. It appears that either the neutrino sector is more elaborate than usually envisioned, or one or more datasets needs revision.
Highlights
The existence of an eV-scale neutrino has been a major open question in neutrino physics for more than two decades
In this Letter, we first show that the MINOSþ constraints can be relaxed if there exist charged-current (CC) nonstandard interactions (NSI) in the detector. (An earlier analysis invoked CC NSI in the 3 þ 1 scenario to explain a discrepancy between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations observed in early MiniBooNE data [12].) It is known that large neutral-current (NC) NSI, can suppress the resonant enhancement of high-energy atmospheric neutrino oscillations and weaken the IceCube constraints on sin θ24 [13]
We only use the far detector (FD) data for two reasons: (i) for the mass-squared difference relevant to LSND/ MiniBooNE, the sensitivity to constrain sterile neutrinos at MINOS=MINOSþ mainly comes from the FD since the oscillation effects at the MINOS=MINOSþ near detector (ND) are negligible, and (ii) the systematic uncertainties at the ND are very large and a precise determination of the spectrum at the ND has been called into question [20]
Summary
The existence of an eV-scale neutrino has been a major open question in neutrino physics for more than two decades. If we take the results of all three experiments, MiniBooNE, MINOSþ and IceCube, at face value, a baroque new physics scenario must be introduced to explain all the data. (An earlier analysis invoked CC NSI in the 3 þ 1 scenario to explain a discrepancy between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations observed in early MiniBooNE data [12].) It is known that large neutral-current (NC) NSI, can suppress the resonant enhancement of high-energy atmospheric neutrino oscillations and weaken the IceCube constraints on sin θ24 [13]. Since large NC NSI modify the lower-energy atmospheric neutrino spectrum at DeepCore, here we study NSI effects on the combination of IceCube and DeepCore data
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