Impact of nonstandard interactions on sterile neutrino searches at IceCube

TL;DR

This study uses IceCube atmospheric neutrino data to constrain sterile neutrinos at the eV scale, showing that standard nonstandard interactions do not affect the exclusion of LSND and MiniBooNE favored parameters, but large NSI could.

Contribution

It provides the first analysis of how nonstandard matter interactions influence sterile neutrino constraints from IceCube data.

Findings

Sterile neutrino parameters favored by LSND and MiniBooNE are excluded at over 99% confidence level.

Standard nonstandard interactions do not alter the exclusion limits.

Large NSI parameters can reconcile LSND and MiniBooNE data with IceCube observations.

Abstract

We analyze the energy and zenith angle distributions of the latest 2-year IceCube dataset of upward going atmospheric neutrinos to constrain sterile neutrinos at the eV scale in the 3+1 scenario. We find that the parameters favored by a combination of LSND and MiniBooNE data are excluded at more than the 99% C.L. We explore the impact of nonstandard matter interactions on this exclusion, and find that the exclusion holds for nonstandard interactions (NSI) that are within the stringent model-dependent bounds set by collider and neutrino scattering experiments. However, for large NSI parameters subject only to model-independent bounds from neutrino oscillation experiments, the LSND and MiniBooNE data are consistent with IceCube.