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Improving electro-weak fits with TeV-scale sterile neutrinos

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Abstract

We study the impact of TeV-scale sterile neutrinos on electro-weak precision observables and lepton number and flavour violating decays in the framework of a type-I see-saw extension of the Standard Model. At tree level sterile neutrinos manifest themselves via non-unitarity of the PMNS matrix and at one-loop level they modify the oblique radiative corrections. We derive explicit formulae for the S, T, U parameters in terms of the neutrino masses and mixings and perform a numerical fit to the electro-weak observables. We find regions of parameter space with a sizable active-sterile mixing which provide a better over-all fit compared to the case where the mixing is negligible. Specifically we find improvements of the invisible Z-decay width, the charged-to-neutral-current ratio for neutrino scattering experiments and of the deviation of the W boson mass from the theoretical expectation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany

    E. Akhmedov, M. Lindner, L. Michaels & J. Smirnov

  2. Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Föhringer Ring 6, 80805, München, Germany

    A. Kartavtsev

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  1. E. Akhmedov
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  2. A. Kartavtsev
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  3. M. Lindner
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  4. L. Michaels
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  5. J. Smirnov
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Correspondence to J. Smirnov.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1302.1872

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Akhmedov, E., Kartavtsev, A., Lindner, M. et al. Improving electro-weak fits with TeV-scale sterile neutrinos. J. High Energ. Phys. 2013, 81 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2013)081

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