Sterile neutrinos and right-handed currents in KATRIN

Abstract

Kurie-plot experiments allow for neutrino-mass measurements based on kinematics in an almost model-independent manner. A future tritium-based KATRIN-like experiment can be sensitive to light sterile neutrinos with masses below 18 keV, which are among the prime candidates for warm dark matter. Here we consider such keV neutrinos in left--right symmetric extensions, i.e. coupled to right-handed currents, which allow for an enhanced contribution to beta decay even for small active--sterile mixing, without violating astrophysical X-ray constraints. The modified spectral shape is in principle distinguishable from the standard contribution---especially for sterile neutrino masses below 9 keV, which can lead to a distinct peak. We compare the sensitivity to constraints from the LHC and neutrinoless double beta decay.

21 pages, 10 figures; minor changes, added references. Matches published version

References in corpus (4)

• Tests of the standard electroweak model in beta decay
• Left-Right Symmetry: from Majorana to Dirac
• Search for leptonic decays of W' bosons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Supernova bound on keV-mass sterile neutrinos reexamined

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Sterile Neutrinos
• Sensitivity of Next-Generation Tritium Beta-Decay Experiments for keV-Scale Sterile Neutrinos
• 7 keV Sterile neutrino dark matter in $U(1{)}_R-$ lepton number model
• Flavor changing in the flipped trinification
• Phasing out of Darkness: From Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter to Neutrino Masses via Time-Dependent Mixing
• First constraints on general neutrino interactions based on KATRIN data
• Theoretical and phenomenological consequences of active and sterile neutrino within Beyond Standard Model framework
• Sterile neutrino dark matter production in presence of non-standard neutrino self-interactions: an EFT approach