2012

Phenomenolgy with sterile neutrinos

by Dr Joachim Kopp (FNAL)

Pacific/Honolulu
Watanabe Hall 112

Watanabe Hall 112

Description
Sterile neutrinos are a natural ingredient of many extensions of the Standard Model. In first part of this talk, we discuss results from a global fit to short-baseline oscillation data and discuss the possible hints for sterile neutrinos with masses of order >~ 1 eV. We also highlight the tension that exists between these hints and null results from other experiments. We then discuss the implications that the existence of sterile neutrinos can have for dark matter searches. For instance, MSW-enhanced conversion of active neutrinos into sterile flavors can significantly reduce the discovery potential for neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun in a neutrino telescope. Moreover, low-energy scattering of sterile neutrinos on electrons and nuclei can be enhanced by new physics (e.g. a new light gauge boson), and could then lead to interesting signals in direct dark matter searches. In particular, sterile neutrinos produced in the Sun can mimic a dark matter signal and can potentially explain some of the anomalous signals observed in DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST.