Sterile neutrino searches at future $e^-e^+$, $pp$, and $e^-p$ colliders

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of future colliders to detect sterile neutrinos, analyzing production and decay channels, and assessing sensitivities to active-sterile mixing and neutrino masses across different collider types.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of sterile neutrino signatures at future $e^-e^+$, $pp$, and $e^-p$ colliders, including novel search channels and sensitivity estimates.

Findings

Identifies key production and decay channels for sterile neutrinos.

Estimates sensitivities for active-sterile mixing parameters.

Highlights complementarity of different collider types.

Abstract

Sterile neutrinos are among the most attractive extensions of the SM to generate the light neutrino masses observed in neutrino oscillation experiments. When the sterile neutrinos are subject to a protective symmetry, they can have masses around the electroweak scale and potentially large neutrino Yukawa couplings, which makes them testable at planned future particle colliders. We systematically discuss the production and decay channels at electron-positron, proton-proton and electron-proton colliders and provide a complete list of the leading order signatures for sterile neutrino searches. Among other things, we discuss several novel search channels, and present a first look at the possible sensitivities for the active-sterile mixings and the heavy neutrino masses. We compare the performance of the different collider types and discuss their complementarity.