The discovery of solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations means that at least two of the three mass neutrino states are non-zero. Certain values ​​of the oscillation parameters together with restrictions on the sum of the light neutrino masses obtained from the Planck space telescope data limit the heaviest mass state (ν1, ν2, ν3) of three known types of neutrinos (νe, νμ, ντ) to 70 meV.

The measured decay width of the Z-boson indicates that the heavier neutrino mass states, if they exist, must be related to the sterile neutrino. The simplest mechanism of mass formation is ensured by the existence of right-handed, sterile neutrino interactions. Such neutrinos can be mixed with three active types of neutrinos. The mixing effect leads to neutrino oscillations, it can manifest itself in the processes of production of active neutrinos and lead to the decay of sterile neutrinos into particles of the Standard Model (SM).

Sterile neutrinos, in one form or another, appear in many extensions of the SM, they are well-motivated candidates for the role of dark matter particles. Although the search for sterile neutrinos has been conducted for many years, convincing results of their existence have not yet been obtained [1].

This paper is devoted to the search for the manifestations of massive neutrinos in the measured electron spectra arising from the decay of nuclei ¹⁴⁴Ce – ¹⁴⁴Pr. The source of electronic antineutrinos ¹⁴⁴Ce – ¹⁴⁴Pr is one of the most suitable for studying neutrino oscillations into a sterile state with a mass of about 1 eV. We decided to test the possibility of radiation in these beta transitions of heavy sterile neutrinos with a mass of from 1 keV to 3 MeV. The range of possible studied neutrino masses is determined by the resolution of the spectrometer used [2] and the boundary energy of beta decay of the ¹⁴⁴Pr nucleus.

A spectrometer consisting of a Si(Li) full-absorption detector and a transition Si-detector was used for precision measurements of the electron spectrum arising from the beta decays of ¹⁴⁴Ce – ¹⁴⁴Pr nuclei. The beta spectrum measured during 364 h is analyzed to find the contribution from heavy neutrinos with masses from 10 keV to 1 MeV. For neutrinos with a mass in the range (150–350) keV, new upper limits on the mixing parameter at the level |U_eH|² ≤ 2×10^–3 - 5×10⁻³ for 90% confidence level have been obtained.

The achieved sensitivity to |U_eH|² can be increased several times after precision measurement of the response function when using a 4π-geometry spectrometer, in which the response function for monochromatic electrons practically coincides with the Gaussian function [3].

[1]. K.N. Abazajian, M.A. Acero, S.K. Agarwalla et al. (Collaboration), Light Sterile Neutrinos: A White Paper, arXiv:1204.5379v1 (2012).

[2]. I. E. Alexeev, S.V. Bakhlanov, N.V. Bazlov, E. A. Chmel, A. V. Derbin, I. S. Drachnev, I.M. Kotina, V.N. Muratova, N.V. Pilipenko, D.A. Semyonov, E.V. Unzhakov, V.K. Yeremin, Nuclear Inst. And Methods in Physics Research A 890, 647 (2018).

[3]. A.V. Derbin, A. I. Egorov, I.A. Mitropolskii, V. N. Muratova, S.V. Bakhlanov, and L.M. Tukhkonen, JETP Lett. 65, 605 (1997).

A.V. Derbin, I.S. Drachnev, I.S. Lomskaya, V.N. Muratova. N.V. Pilipenko,

D.A. Semenov, L.M. Tykhkonen, E.V. Unzhakov, A.Kh. Khusainov

 JETP Letters 108, issue 8 (2018)