# Icecube/DeepCore tests for novel explanations of the MiniBooNE anomaly

## TL;DR

This paper explores how IceCube/DeepCore can test new hidden sector models involving GeV-scale Z' bosons and heavy neutrinos to explain the MiniBooNE anomaly, focusing on detecting double-bang events at low energies.

## Contribution

It proposes using atmospheric neutrino experiments, especially IceCube/DeepCore, to probe parameter space of hidden sector models explaining the MiniBooNE anomaly through double-bang event detection.

## Key findings

- IceCube/DeepCore can test significant parts of the model parameter space.
- Double-bang events at low energies are a promising signature.
- The proposed method aligns with mechanisms needed for the anomaly explanation.

## Abstract

While the low-energy excess observed at MiniBooNE remains unchallenged, it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile it with the results from other sterile neutrino searches and cosmology. Recently, it has been shown that non-minimal models with new particles in a hidden sector could provide a better fit to the data. As their main ingredients they require a GeV-scale $Z'$, kinetically mixed with the photon, and an unstable heavy neutrino with a mass in the 150 MeV range that mixes with the light neutrinos. In this letter we point out that atmospheric neutrino experiments (and, in particular, IceCube/DeepCore) could probe a significant fraction of the parameter space of such models by looking for an excess of "double-bang" events at low energies, as proposed in our previous work (arXiv:1707.08573). Such a search would probe exactly the same production and decay mechanisms required to explain the anomaly.