Consistent analysis of the ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ sterile neutrinos searches of ICARUS and OPERA

Abstract

The two long-baseline experiments ICARUS and OPERA have recently provided bounds on light ($\sim$ eV) sterile neutrinos exploiting the negative results of the ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ appearance searches. Both collaborations have performed the data analysis using an effective 2-flavor description. We show that such a simplified treatment neglects sizable genuine 4-flavor effects, which are induced by the interference of the new large squared-mass splitting $\Delta m_{14}^2$ with the atmospheric one. The inclusion in the data analysis of such effects weakens the upper bounds on the effective appearance amplitude ${\sin }^{2}2{\theta }_{\mu e}$ approximately by a factor of two. In addition, we evidence that, in a 4-flavor scheme, the flavor oscillations involve also the ${\nu }_e$ component of the CNGS beam and can suppress the theoretical expectation of the background in a substantial way. The inclusion in the data analysis of the ${\nu }_e$ disappearance effects leads to a further weakening of the upper bounds on ${\sin }^{2}2{\theta }_{\mu e}$, which overall are relaxed by a factor of three with respect to those obtained in the effective 2-flavor description.

Comments: 5 pages, 5 figures; references updated; to appear in PRD as a Rapid Communication