Light Sterile Neutrinos at $\nu$STORM: Decoherence and CP violation

Abstract

Light sterile neutrino oscillations can be partially or completely washed out at short-baseline experiments due to the breaking of neutrino production coherence. In this work we address this issue in sterile searches at $\nu$STORM, an experimental proposal for a beam of neutrinos from the decay of stored muons. We work with 3+1 and 3+2 models, the latter introducing CP violation at short-baselines. We find that decoherence effects are only relevant for sterile masses above $\Delta m^2 \gtrsim 10$ eV$^2$, and that, even in that regime, we are able to place strong appearance bounds in such clean environments. In addition, the novel signatures of CP violation in the parameter space of interest can be identified with a significance of up to $\gtrsim 3 \sigma$.