Laboratory constraints on peV-scale mass splitting between ordinary and sterile neutron states
Abstract
Sterile states of matter, represented by a parallel ``mirror'' sector, may contribute to the observed dark matter in the Universe. We investigated the parameter space of neutron (n) to mirror-neutron (n') oscillations, in the case where the two states are not necessarily mass-degenerate, taking into account interactions in the mirror sector. By tuning the magnitude of an applied magnetic-field in the range 5 μT < B < 360 μT to corresponding resonance conditions for finite mass splitting, we derive exclusion limits for the n−n' oscillation time constant reaching about 20 s over the mass-difference range 0.3 − 22 peV. In parts of this parameter range, our limits exceed the model-dependent neutron-star-cooling bound, providing the first experimental constraints in this scenario that are more stringent than this astrophysical estimate.
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BibTeX
@misc{ayres2026laboratory,
title = {{Laboratory constraints on peV-scale mass splitting between ordinary and sterile neutron states}},
author = {N. J. Ayres and Z. Berezhiani and G. Bison and K. Bodek and V. Bondar and P. -J. Chiu and M. Daum and C. B. Doorenbos and S. Emmenegger and K. Kirch and V. Kletzl and J. Krempel and B. Lauss and D. Pais and I. Rienäcker and D. Ries and D. Rozpędzik and P. Schmidt-Wellenburg and K. S. Tanaka and J. Zejma and N. Ziehl and G. Zsigmond},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.12173},
eprint = {2608.12173},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.12173},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Laboratory constraints on peV-scale mass splitting between ordinary and sterile neutron states
AU - N. J. Ayres
AU - Z. Berezhiani
AU - G. Bison
AU - K. Bodek
AU - V. Bondar
AU - P. -J. Chiu
AU - M. Daum
AU - C. B. Doorenbos
AU - S. Emmenegger
AU - K. Kirch
AU - V. Kletzl
AU - J. Krempel
AU - B. Lauss
AU - D. Pais
AU - I. Rienäcker
AU - D. Ries
AU - D. Rozpędzik
AU - P. Schmidt-Wellenburg
AU - K. S. Tanaka
AU - J. Zejma
AU - N. Ziehl
AU - G. Zsigmond
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.12173
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.12173
AB - Sterile states of matter, represented by a parallel ``mirror'' sector, may contribute to the observed dark matter in the Universe. We investigated the parameter space of neutron (n) to mirror-neutron (n') oscillations, in the case where the two states are not necessarily mass-degenerate, taking into account interactions in the mirror sector. By tuning the magnitude of an applied magnetic-field in the range 5 μT < B < 360 μT to corresponding resonance conditions for finite mass splitting, we derive exclusion limits for the n−n' oscillation time constant reaching about 20 s over the mass-difference range 0.3 − 22 peV. In parts of this parameter range, our limits exceed the model-dependent neutron-star-cooling bound, providing the first experimental constraints in this scenario that are more stringent than this astrophysical estimate.
ER -