First Search for Unstable Sterile Neutrinos with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Abstract

We present a search for an unstable sterile neutrino by looking for a matter-induced signal in eight years of atmospheric ${\nu }_{\mu }$ data collected from 2011 to 2019 at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Both the (stable) three-neutrino and the 3+1 sterile neutrino models are disfavored relative to the unstable sterile neutrino model, though with $p$-values of 2.5\% and 0.81\%, respectively, we do not observe evidence for 3+1 neutrinos with neutrino decay. The best-fit parameters for the sterile neutrino with decay model from this study are $\Delta m_{41}^2=6.7_{-2.5}^{+3.9}{\mathrm{eV}}^2$, ${\sin }^{2}2{\theta }_{24}=0.33_{-0.17}^{+0.20}$, and $g^2=2.5\pi \pm 1.5\pi$, where $g$ is the decay-mediating coupling. The preferred regions from short-baseline oscillation searches are excluded at 90\% C.L.

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