Quantum mechanics

Neutrino oscillation

Materials science

Proton

Nuclear physics

Particle physics

Range (aeronautics)

Neutrino

Photon

Fermilab

Physics

Neutrino detector

Muon

Composite material

Muon neutrino

Electron neutrino

Electron

Sterile neutrino

MiniBooNE

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

The MiniBooNE Collaboration has reported an excess of $460.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}99.0$ electronlike events ($4.8\ensuremath{\sigma}$). We propose an explanation of these events in terms of a sterile neutrino decaying into a photon and a light neutrino. The sterile neutrino has a mass around 250 MeV, and it is produced from kaon decays in the proton beam target via mixing with the muon or the electron in the range ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}11}\ensuremath{\lesssim}|{U}_{\ensuremath{\ell}4}{|}^{2}\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}$ ($\ensuremath{\ell}=e$, $\ensuremath{\mu}$). The model can be tested by considering the time distribution of the events in MiniBooNE and by looking for single-photon events in running or upcoming neutrino experiments, in particular by the suite of liquid argon detectors in the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab.

Explaining the MiniBooNE excess by a decaying sterile neutrino with mass in the 250 MeV range