Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

6-15-2017

Publisher

American Physical Society

Source Publication

Physical Review D

Source ISSN

2470-0010

Abstract

We present a search for a light sterile neutrino using three years of atmospheric neutrino data from the DeepCore detector in the energy range of approximately 10–60 GeV. DeepCore is the low-energy subarray of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The standard three-neutrino paradigm can be probed by adding an additional light sterile neutrino. Sterile neutrinos do not interact through the standard weak interaction and, therefore, cannot be directly detected. However, their mixing with the three active neutrino states leaves an imprint on the standard atmospheric neutrino oscillations for energies below 100 GeV. A search for such mixing via muon neutrino disappearance is presented here. The data are found to be consistent with the standard three-neutrino hypothesis. Therefore, we derive limits on the mixing matrix elements at the level of (90% C.L.) for the sterile neutrino mass splitting .

Comments

Published version. Physical Review D, Vol. 95 (June 15, 2017): 112002. DOI. © 2017 American Physical Society. Used with permission.

The entire list of IceCube Collaboration members is available in the article text.

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