Explaining the MiniBooNE excess by a decaying sterile neutrino with mass in the 250 MeV range

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.

arXiv comment26 pages, 9 figures. New references, supernova bound and an appendix about the impact of the timing cut are added

References in corpus (47)

• Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations from the Observation of Electron Anti-neutrinos in a Muon Anti-Neutrino Beam
• The Search for Heavy Majorana Neutrinos
• Improved Search for ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\to {\bar{\nu }}_e$ Oscillations in the MiniBooNE Experiment
• A Search for Electron Neutrino Appearance at the Delta m**2 ~ 1 eV**2 Scale
• Significant Excess of ElectronLike Events in the MiniBooNE Short-Baseline Neutrino Experiment
• Updated global analysis of neutrino oscillations in the presence of eV-scale sterile neutrinos
• The Neutrino Flux prediction at MiniBooNE
• Upper limits for neutrino oscillations muon-antineutrino to electron-antineutrino from muon decay at rest
• A Proposal for a Three Detector Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Program in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam
• A Combined ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }\to {\bar{\nu }}_e$ Oscillation Analysis of the MiniBooNE Excesses
• Updated Global 3+1 Analysis of Short-BaseLine Neutrino Oscillations
• Phenomenology of GeV-scale Heavy Neutral Leptons
• Heavy sterile neutrinos: Bounds from big-bang nucleosynthesis and SN 1987A
• Dark Neutrino Portal to Explain MiniBooNE excess
• Dipole portal to heavy neutral leptons
• The Short-Baseline Neutrino Program at Fermilab
• Dark Matter Search in Nucleon, Pion, and Electron Channels from a Proton Beam Dump with MiniBooNE
• Search for pair and single production of vectorlike quarks in final states with at least one $Z$ boson decaying into a pair of electrons or muons in $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV
• The MiniBooNE Detector
• Right-handed neutrino magnetic moments
• The MiniBooNE anomaly and heavy neutrino decay
• Double Bangs from New Physics in IceCube
• Constraints on Sterile Neutrinos in the MeV to GeV Mass Range
• U(1)' mediated decays of heavy sterile neutrinos in MiniBooNE
• Explaining LSND by a decaying sterile neutrino
• Search for heavy neutrinos with the T2K near detector ND280
• Resolution of puzzles from the LSND, KARMEN, and MiniBooNE experiments
• Search for heavy neutrinos in $K^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_H$ decays
• Supernovae and Light Neutralinos: SN1987A Bounds on Supersymmetry Revisited
• Search for heavy neutral lepton production in $K^{+}$ decays
• Testing New Physics Explanations of MiniBooNE Anomaly at Neutrino Scattering Experiments
• Heavy sterile neutrinos and supernova explosions
• MeV-scale sterile neutrino decays at the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino program
• Sensitivity of Lepton Number Violating Meson Decays in Different Experiments
• Heavy neutrino decays at MiniBooNE
• Prediction of Neutrino Fluxes in the NOMAD Experiment
• Higgs phenomenology as a probe of sterile neutrinos
• Direct Detection Experiments at the Neutrino Dipole Portal Frontier
• Majorana neutrino decay in an Effective Approach
• Heavy Sterile Neutrinos in Tau Decays and the MiniBooNE Anomaly
• A Search for Single Photon Events in Neutrino Interactions
• Heavy sterile neutrinos in stellar core-collapse
• Severe Constraints on New Physics Explanations of the MiniBooNE Excess
• Hierarchical Four-Neutrino Oscillations With a Decay Option
• Search for neutral-current induced single photon production at the ND280 near detector in T2K
• Search for Heavy Neutrino in K->mu nu_h(nu_h-> nu gamma) Decay at ISTRA+ Setup
• Radiative decay of heavy neutrinos at MiniBooNE and MicroBooNE

Cited by in corpus (46)

• Updated MiniBooNE Neutrino Oscillation Results with Increased Data and New Background Studies
• Sterile Neutrinos
• The Present and Future Status of Heavy Neutral Leptons
• Dark Neutrinos and a Three Portal Connection to the Standard Model
• An Extended Analysis of Heavy Neutral Leptons during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Event Generators for High-Energy Physics Experiments
• Searching for eV-scale sterile neutrinos with eight years of atmospheric neutrinos at the IceCube neutrino telescope
• A Dark Seesaw Solution to Low Energy Anomalies: MiniBooNE, the muon $(g-2)$, and BaBar
• Decaying Sterile Neutrinos and the Short Baseline Oscillation Anomalies
• Unveiling Hidden Physics at the LHC
• Understanding the MiniBooNE and the muon and electron $g-2$ anomalies with a light $Z^{\prime }$ and a second Higgs doublet
• Heavy neutral leptons below the kaon mass at hodoscopic detectors
• Neutrino beam-dump experiment with FASER at the LHC
• On The Decaying-Sterile Neutrino Solution to the Electron (Anti)Neutrino Appearance Anomalies
• Explaining the MiniBooNE Excess Through a Mixed Model of Oscillation and Decay
• Two-Higgs doublet solution to the LSND, MiniBooNE and muon $g-2$ anomalies
• Constraining active-sterile neutrino transition magnetic moments at DUNE near and far detectors
• Neutrino Physics Opportunities with the IsoDAR Source at Yemilab
• Sterile Neutrino Searches with MicroBooNE: Electron Neutrino Disappearance
• Solutions to the MiniBooNE Anomaly from New Physics in Charged Meson Decays
• Explaining the MiniBooNE Anomalous Excess via Leptophilic ALP-Sterile Neutrino Coupling
• Model Independent Bounds on the Non-Oscillatory Explanations of the MiniBooNE Excess
• Neutrino Portals, Terrestrial Upscattering, and Atmospheric Neutrinos
• An Altarelli Cocktail for the MiniBooNE Anomaly?
• Dipole-Coupled Neutrissimo Explanations of the MiniBooNE Excess Including Constraints from MINERvA Data
• Using DUNE to Shed Light on the Electromagnetic Properties of Neutrinos
• The Dark $Z^{\prime }$ and Sterile Neutrinos Behind Current Anomalies
• Searching for a Single Photon from Lightest Neutralino Decays in R-parity-violating Supersymmetry at FASER
• A novel event generator for the automated simulation of neutrino scattering
• Projected NA62 sensitivity to heavy neutral lepton production in $K^{+}\to {\pi }^0{e}^{+}N$ decays
• Enhanced neutrino polarizability
• Requirements on common solutions to the LSND and MiniBooNE excesses: a post-MicroBooNE study
• Search for an Anomalous Production of Charged-Current ${\nu }_e$ Interactions Without Visible Pions Across Multiple Kinematic Observables in MicroBooNE
• Efficiently Exploring Multi-Dimensional Parameter Spaces Beyond the Standard Model
• Searching for heavy neutral leptons coupled to axion-like particles at the LHC far detectors and SHiP
• First Search for Unstable Sterile Neutrinos with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• More Ingredients for an Altarelli Cocktail at MiniBooNE
• Long-Lived Particles and the Quiet Sun
• Quasi-Sterile Neutrinos from Dark Sectors I. BSM matter effects in neutrino oscillations and the short-baseline anomalies
• Prospects for Heavy Neutral Lepton Searches at Short and Medium Baseline Reactor Experiments
• Probing Solar Heavy Neutrinos with Heliospheric Electrons
• Dark Matter and Neutrino Masses in a Portalino-like Model
• Enhanced search for neutral current $\Delta$ radiative single-photon production in MicroBooNE
• From oversimplified to overlooked: the case for exploring Rich Dark Sectors
• Shedding light on the MiniBoone Excess with Searches at the LHC
• Enhanced active-sterile neutrino polarizability at the intensity frontier