https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-013-2323-z
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Limit on sterile neutrino contribution from the Mainz Neutrino Mass Experiment
1
Laurentian University, 935 Ramsay Lake Road, Sudbury, P3E 2C6, Canada
2
Institute of Nuclear Physics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 9, 48149, Münster, Germany
3
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
4
Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Erwin-Rommel-Str. 1, 91058, Erlangen, Germany
* e-mail: weinheimer@uni-muenster.de
Received:
15
October
2012
Revised:
18
January
2013
Published online:
26
February
2013
The recent analysis of the normalization of reactor antineutrino data, the calibration data of solar neutrino experiments using gallium targets, and the results from the neutrino oscillation experiment MiniBooNE suggest the existence of a fourth light neutrino mass state with a mass of 
, which contributes to the electron neutrino with a sizable mixing angle. Since we know from measurements of the width of the Z0 resonance that there are only three active neutrinos, a fourth neutrino should be sterile (i.e., interact only via gravity). The corresponding fourth neutrino mass state should be visible as an additional kink in β-decay spectra. In this work the phase II data of the Mainz Neutrino Mass Experiment have been analyzed searching for a possible contribution of a fourth light neutrino mass state. No signature of such a fourth mass state has been found and limits on the mass and the mixing of this fourth mass state are derived.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg and Società Italiana di Fisica, 2013
