https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-6595-9
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
On the robustness of IceCube’s bound on sterile neutrinos in the presence of non-standard interactions
Departamento de Física, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, C. P. 38097, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-900, Brazil
* e-mail: arman@puc-rio.br
Received:
17
November
2018
Accepted:
12
January
2019
Published online:
28
January
2019
The mixing parameters of sterile neutrino(s) preferred by the MiniBooNE and LNSD experiments are in strong tension with the exclusion limit from the IceCube experiment. Recently it has been claimed that by considering the non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) in addition to the sterile neutrino, the IceCube’s limit can be relaxed and the tension can be reconciled; a baroque scenario as it has been called. We will show that this claim is just an artifact originating from the energy cuts of the chosen datasets. Contrary to the claim, by turning on the NSI and fixing the NSI parameters to the proposed values, not only the IceCube’s limit on sterile neutrino cannot be alleviated, but in fact the tension will be aggravated (or at least keeps its strength). To this aim, an analysis of the IceCube’s atmospheric neutrino data in the full energy range is crucial.
© The Author(s), 2019
