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 θ14, θ24, θ34 and the effective angle θμe, over a broad range of mass squared difference 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.
Highlights
Oscillations in the presence of a single sterile neutrino can be modelled by extending the standard picture to include four neutrino eigenstates
Results are not fully consistent with the 3+1 model: disappearance experiments results are compatible with the standard neutrino scenario while some appearance experiments, such as LSND [11] and MiniBooNE [12], observed significant νe or νe excesses
If a light sterile neutrino with the mixing parameters determined by SBL oscillations is included in the model, it should have been fully thermalised with the active neutrinos [15]
Summary
The general solutions to the Hamiltonian in eq (1.1) have a rich phenomenology that is difficult to express in analytical form. While the full numerical solutions exemplified above can already provide some insight, some exploration of common analytical approximations can be enlightening even if not used in the analysis. They are described in the following subsections. Anomalous oscillation results, such as LSND and MiniBooNE, are commonly interpreted as oscillations in a higher frequency than the solar and atmospheric scales. Some interference terms appear if both s14 and s24 are non-zero
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