Enhanced active-sterile neutrino polarizability at the intensity frontier

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gehrlein, Julia, Thapa, Anil, Thompson, Adrian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Gehrlein, Julia
Thapa, Anil
Thompson, Adrian
author_facet Gehrlein, Julia
Thapa, Anil
Thompson, Adrian
contents Electromagnetic probes of neutrinos can provide insights into physics beyond the Standard Model. Among the possible electromagnetic interactions of neutrinos is neutrino polarizability, a dimension-7 effective operator that couples two neutrinos to two photons. In this manuscript, we study a realization of the neutrino polarizability operator in which one of the active neutrinos is replaced by a sterile neutrino. We derive new constraints on this active-sterile neutrino polarizability from its contribution to neutrino-nucleus scattering with a single photon in the final state at neutrino experiments. We show that a realization of this operator via a light mediator can explain the MiniBooNE low-energy excess while remaining consistent with other experimental constraints. Finally, we comment on additional model realizations of this higher-dimensional operator.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_07691
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Enhanced active-sterile neutrino polarizability at the intensity frontier
Gehrlein, Julia
Thapa, Anil
Thompson, Adrian
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Electromagnetic probes of neutrinos can provide insights into physics beyond the Standard Model. Among the possible electromagnetic interactions of neutrinos is neutrino polarizability, a dimension-7 effective operator that couples two neutrinos to two photons. In this manuscript, we study a realization of the neutrino polarizability operator in which one of the active neutrinos is replaced by a sterile neutrino. We derive new constraints on this active-sterile neutrino polarizability from its contribution to neutrino-nucleus scattering with a single photon in the final state at neutrino experiments. We show that a realization of this operator via a light mediator can explain the MiniBooNE low-energy excess while remaining consistent with other experimental constraints. Finally, we comment on additional model realizations of this higher-dimensional operator.
title Enhanced active-sterile neutrino polarizability at the intensity frontier
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07691