Combining sterile neutrino fits to short-baseline data with IceCube data
Marjon Moulai, C. Argüelles, G. H. Collin, J. M. Conrad, A. Diaz, M.H. Shaevitz
Abstract
Recent global fits to short-baseline neutrino oscillation data have been performed finding preference for a sterile neutrino solution ($3+1$) over null. In the most recent iteration, it was pointed out that an unstable sterile neutrino ($3+1+\text{decay}$) may be a better description of the data. This is due to the fact that this model significantly reduces the tension between appearance and disappearance datasets. In this work, we add a 1-year IceCube dataset to the global fit obtaining new results for the standard $3+1$ and $3+1+\text{decay}$ sterile neutrino scenarios. We find that the $3+1+\text{decay}$ model provides a better fit than the $3+1$, even in the presence of IceCube, with reduced appearance to disappearance tension. The $3+1+\text{decay}$ model is a $5.4\ensuremath{\sigma}$ improvement over the null hypothesis and a $2.8\ensuremath{\sigma}$ improvement over the standard $3+1$ model.