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Search for an eV-scale sterile neutrino with the first six detection units of KM3NeT/ORCA
Article de revue   Open Access

Search for an eV-scale sterile neutrino with the first six detection units of KM3NeT/ORCA

O Adriani, A Albert, A.R Alhebsi, S Alshalloudi, M Alshamsi, S. Alves Garre, F Ameli, M Andre, L Aphecetche, M Ardid, …
JHEP, Vol.02
2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2026)080

Résumé

Neutrino Detectors and Telescopes (experiments) Oscillation Beyond Standard Model
The existence of an eV-scale sterile neutrino has been proposed to explain several anomalous experimental results obtained over the course of the past 25 years. The first search for such a sterile neutrino conducted with data from KM3NeT/ORCA -- a water Cherenkov neutrino telescope under construction at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea -- is reported in this paper. GeV-scale atmospheric neutrino oscillations are measured by reconstructing the energy and arrival direction of up-going neutrinos that have traversed the Earth. This study is based on a data sample containing 5828 neutrino candidates collected with 6 detection units ($5\%$ of the complete detector), corresponding to an exposure of 433 kton-years. From the expected effect of an eV-scale sterile neutrino on the first $ν_μ\rightarrow ν_τ$ standard oscillation maximum, simultaneous constraints are put on the magnitude of the $U_{μ4}$ and $U_{τ4}$ mixing elements under the assumption $Δm^2_{41} = 1$ eV$^2$. The results are compatible with the absence of mixing between active neutrinos and a sterile state, with $|U_{μ4}|^2 < 0.138$ and $|U_{τ4}|^2 < 0.076$ at a $90\%$ confidence level. Such constraints are compatible with the results reported by other long-baseline experiments, and indicate that with KM3NeT/ORCA it is possible to bring crucial contributions to sterile neutrino searches in the coming years.

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