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Dib Venturelli, Claudio Omar
Searching for a sterile neutrino that mixes predominantly with ντ at B factories
2020-05-01, DIB VENTURELLI, CLAUDIO OMAR, Helo, J. C., Nayak, M., Neill, N. A., Soffer, A., Zamora-Saa, J.
The phenomenon of neutrino flavor oscillations motivates searches for sterile neutrinos in a broad range of masses and mixing-parameter values. A sterile neutrino 𝑁 that mixes predominantly with the 𝜏 neutrino is particularly challenging experimentally. To address this challenge, we propose a new method to search for a 𝜈𝜏-mixing 𝑁 that is lighter than the 𝜏 lepton. The method uses the large 𝑒+𝑒−→𝜏+𝜏− samples collected at 𝐵-factory experiments to produce the 𝑁 in 𝜏-lepton decays. We exploit the long lifetime of a sterile neutrino in this mass range to suppress background and apply kinematic and vertexing constraints that enable measuring the sterile-neutrino mass. Estimates for the sensitivities of the BABAR, Belle, and Belle II experiments are calculated and presented.
