Interactions of MeV and GeV sterile neutrinos with matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how sterile neutrinos in the MeV and GeV energy ranges interact with atoms and nuclei, providing cross sections and comparing these interactions to those at keV energies.

Contribution

It presents new calculations of sterile neutrino interactions with matter at MeV and GeV energies, extending previous keV-scale studies.

Findings

Calculated cross sections for sterile neutrino-atom interactions

Calculated cross sections for sterile neutrino-nucleus interactions

Compared high-energy interactions with keV energy range results

Abstract

Both cosmology and astrophysics suggest the possible existence of sterile neutrino which is a dark matter candidate. The interaction of sterile neutrinos with matter in keV energy scale has been studied in the literature. In this paper we study the interaction of sterile neutrinos with atoms and their role on ionization of atoms in MeV and GeV energy scale. We also study the interaction of sterile neutrinos with nuclei in the MeV and GeV energy scale. We obtain the relevant cross sections for both these two interactions. Finally we compare our results with the results of keV energy range.