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- Title
keV-Scale sterile neutrino sensitivity estimation with time-of-flight spectroscopy in KATRIN using self-consistent approximate Monte Carlo.
- Authors
Steinbrink, Nicholas M. N.; Behrens, Jan D.; Mertens, Susanne; Ranitzsch, Philipp C.-O.; Weinheimer, Christian
- Abstract
We investigate the sensitivity of the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) to keV-scale sterile neutrinos, which are promising dark matter candidates. Since the active-sterile mixing would lead to a second component in the tritium β<inline-graphic></inline-graphic>-spectrum with a weak relative intensity of order sin2θ≲10-6<inline-graphic></inline-graphic>, additional experimental strategies are required to extract this small signature and to eliminate systematics. A possible strategy is to run the experiment in an alternative time-of-flight (TOF) mode, yielding differential TOF spectra in contrast to the integrating standard mode. In order to estimate the sensitivity from a reduced sample size, a new analysis method, called self-consistent approximate Monte Carlo (SCAMC), has been developed. The simulations show that an ideal TOF mode would be able to achieve a statistical sensitivity of sin2θ∼5×10-9<inline-graphic></inline-graphic> at one σ<inline-graphic></inline-graphic>, improving the standard mode by approximately a factor two. This relative benefit grows significantly if additional exemplary systematics are considered. A possible implementation of the TOF mode with existing hardware, called gated filtering, is investigated, which, however, comes at the price of a reduced average signal rate.
- Subjects
NEUTRINOS; MONTE Carlo method; TIME-of-flight spectrometry; DARK matter; STANDARD model (Nuclear physics)
- Publication
European Physical Journal C -- Particles & Fields, 2018, Vol 78, Issue 3, p1
- ISSN
1434-6044
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5656-9