Neutrino oscillations in the presence of super-light sterile neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates how super-light sterile neutrinos oscillate into electron neutrinos within Earth's matter, highlighting the potential for reactor experiments to detect such phenomena and examining the influence of CP-violating phases.

Contribution

It introduces the study of super-light sterile neutrino oscillations in Earth's matter, emphasizing the role of neutron density and CP phases, which was less explored before.

Findings

Neutron density in Earth affects sterile neutrino oscillations.

CP-violating phases influence active-sterile neutrino mixing.

Medium/short baseline reactor experiments can probe SLSN scenarios.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the effect of conversion of super-light sterile neutrino (SLSN) to electron neutrino in matter like that of the Earth. In the Sun the resonance conversion between SLSN and electron neutrino via the neutral current is suppressed due to the smallness of neutron number. On the other hand, neutron number density can play an important role in the Earth, making the scenario of SLSN quite interesting. The effect of CP-violating phases on active-SLSN oscillations is also discussed. Reactor neutrino experiments with medium or short baseline may probe the scenario of SLSN.