eV-Scale Sterile Neutrino Search Using Eight Years of Atmospheric Muon Neutrino Data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

The results of a 3 + 1 sterile neutrino search using eight years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory are presented. A total of 305 735 muon neutrino events are analyzed in reconstructed energy-zenith space to test for signatures of a matter-enhanced oscillation that would occur given a sterile neutrino state with a mass-squared differences between 0.01 and 100 eV(2). The best-fit point is found to be at sin(2)(2 theta(24)) = 0.10 and Delta m(41)(2) = 4.5 eV(2), which is consistent with the no sterile neutrino hypothesis with a p value of 8.0%. / <p>For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.141801</p>