Matter Flavor Conversion Mediated by Pseudo-Sterile States as the Possible Origin of Neutrino Oscillation Anomalies
Abstract
Neutrino oscillation experiments present anomalous results across a vast range of baselines and energies. Here we show that a 3+1 scenario in which sterile neutrinos feel a novel matter potential Vs proportional to background density of ordinary or (asymmetric) dark matter is able to explain several anomalies. At low-energies (E≲ 1 TeV) the model behaves as an effective 3-flavor NSI-like scheme among active flavors and eliminates the tension between the two LBL experiments NOvA and T2K provided that the potential is negative and the two sterile mixing angles θ14 and θ24 are non-zero. A further indication in favor of a negative non-zero potential comes from the anomalous excess of νe-like events observed in Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrinos, which, in the new scenario is explained by a modification of the 3-flavor resonance at few GeV. A high energies ($E\gtrsim $ 1 TeV) the new framework reveals its 4-flavor nature and produces a resonant behavior at E ≃ 10 TeV as hinted at by IceCube. We identify an irreducible 3-level dynamics generating a new resonance in the (νe, νμ) sector intertwined with two conventional resonances in the (νe, νs) and (νμ, νs) systems. The novel amplification mechanism manifests with the emergence of effective mixing angles in matter (θ12m or θ13m) involving active neutrinos. The scenario requires values of $f = V_s/|V_{NC}| \sim -20 $, $Δm^2_{41} \sim 60 $ eV2, |Ue4|2≃ sin2θ14 ≃ 0.01−0.03 and |Uμ4|2 ≃ sin2θ24≃ 10−4−10−3. Such a very small size of |Uμ4|2 eliminates the tension between IceCube and the other νμ disappearance searches. The model can be directly probed by KATRIN, which is very sensitive to the electron-sterile neutrino admixture in the region of high Δm241.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{chatterjee2026matter,
title = {{Matter Flavor Conversion Mediated by Pseudo-Sterile States as the Possible Origin of Neutrino Oscillation Anomalies}},
author = {Sabya Sachi Chatterjee and Antonio Palazzo},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.15146},
eprint = {2605.15146},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15146},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Matter Flavor Conversion Mediated by Pseudo-Sterile States as the Possible Origin of Neutrino Oscillation Anomalies
AU - Sabya Sachi Chatterjee
AU - Antonio Palazzo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.15146
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15146
AB - Neutrino oscillation experiments present anomalous results across a vast range of baselines and energies. Here we show that a 3+1 scenario in which sterile neutrinos feel a novel matter potential V_s proportional to background density of ordinary or (asymmetric) dark matter is able to explain several anomalies. At low-energies (E≲ 1 TeV) the model behaves as an effective 3-flavor NSI-like scheme among active flavors and eliminates the tension between the two LBL experiments NOvA and T2K provided that the potential is negative and the two sterile mixing angles θ_14 and θ_24 are non-zero. A further indication in favor of a negative non-zero potential comes from the anomalous excess of ν_e-like events observed in Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrinos, which, in the new scenario is explained by a modification of the 3-flavor resonance at few GeV. A high energies ($E\gtrsim $ 1 TeV) the new framework reveals its 4-flavor nature and produces a resonant behavior at E ≃ 10 TeV as hinted at by IceCube. We identify an irreducible 3-level dynamics generating a new resonance in the (ν_e, ν_μ) sector intertwined with two conventional resonances in the (ν_e, ν_s) and (ν_μ, ν_s) systems. The novel amplification mechanism manifests with the emergence of effective mixing angles in matter (θ_12^m or θ_13^m) involving active neutrinos. The scenario requires values of $f = V_s/|V_{NC}| \sim -20 $, $Δm^2_{41} \sim 60 $ eV^2, |U_e4|^2≃ sin^2θ_14 ≃ 0.01−0.03 and |U_μ4|^2 ≃ sin^2θ_24≃ 10^−4−10^−3. Such a very small size of |U_μ4|^2 eliminates the tension between IceCube and the other ν_μ disappearance searches. The model can be directly probed by KATRIN, which is very sensitive to the electron-sterile neutrino admixture in the region of high Δm^2_41.
ER -