A Multi-Channel Search for Signatures of eV2-Scale Sterile Neutrinos in IceCube
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Date
2023-12-13Author
Smithers, Benjamin Randolph
0000-0003-1273-985X
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The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer-scale neutrino observatory built using a gigaton of instrumented ice near the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica; it measures the Cherenkov light emitted by the daughter particles of deep inelastic scattering interactions occurring inside and around the detector from neutrinos of both astrophysical and atmospheric origin. For eV2-scale sterile neutrino models, matter-effects can yield resonant muon antineutrino to sterile oscillations for TeV-scale up-going neutrinos. For certain combinations of mixing angles, this is expected to yield resonant muon antineutrino to tau antineutrino oscillations at the same energies and angles as the muon neutrino disappearance. This superimposed muon neutrino disappearance and tau neutrino appearance presents itself as an ideal signature with which we can search for indications of sterile neutrino oscillations.
This dissertation presents the development of novel techniques for quantifying new sources of detector uncertainty, new simulation methods, calculations of the detector's sensitivity to these processes, and applies each of these in a multi-channel analysis searching for signs of both the resonant muon neutrino disappearance alongside the tau neutrino appearance.
The analysis finds a best fit at a mass-squared splitting of 7 eV2, |U_{mu 4}|2=0.03, and |U_{tau 4}|2 =0.0, indicating no significant preference for a sterile neutrino.
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