Sterile-neutrino search based on 259 days of KATRIN data
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61389005%3A_____%2F25%3A00645184" target="_blank" >RIV/61389005:_____/25:00645184 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09739-9" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09739-9</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09739-9" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41586-025-09739-9</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Sterile-neutrino search based on 259 days of KATRIN data
Original language description
Neutrinos are the most abundant fundamental matter particles in the Universe and play a crucial part in particle physics and cosmology. Neutrino oscillation, discovered about 25 years ago, shows that the three known species mix with each other. Anomalous results from reactor and radioactive-source experiments1 suggest a possible fourth neutrino state, the sterile neutrino, which does not interact through the weak force. The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment2, primarily designed to measure the neutrino mass using tritium beta-decay, also searches for sterile neutrinos suggested by these anomalies. A sterile-neutrino signal would appear as a distortion in the beta-decay energy spectrum, characterized by a discontinuity in curvature (kink) related to the sterile-neutrino mass. This signature, which depends only on the shape of the spectrum rather than its absolute normalization, offers a robust, complementary approach to reactor experiments. Here we report the analysis of the energy spectrum of 36 million tritium beta-decay electrons recorded in 259 measurement days within the last 40 eV below the endpoint. The results exclude a substantial part of the parameter space suggested by the gallium anomaly and challenge the Neutrino-4 claim. Together with other neutrino-disappearance experiments, KATRIN probes sterile-to-active mass splittings from a fraction of an eV2 to several hundred eV2, excluding light sterile neutrinos with mixing angles above a few per cent.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10303 - Particles and field physics
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Nature
ISSN
0028-0836
e-ISSN
1476-4687
Volume of the periodical
648
Issue of the periodical within the volume
8092
Country of publishing house
DE - GERMANY
Number of pages
25
Pages from-to
70-75
UT code for WoS article
001634400900002
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105023912334