The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (contract ANR-15-CE31-0020), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), LabEx UnivEarthS (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-18-IDEX-0001), Paris Ile-de-France Region, France; Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG, FR-18-1268), Georgia; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Germany; The General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT), Greece; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR), PRIN 2017 program (Grant NAT-NET 2017W4HA7S) Italy; Ministry of Higher Education Scientific Research and Professional Training, ICTP through Grant AF-13, Morocco; Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; The National Science Centre, Poland (2015/18/E/ST2/00758); National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018-096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCIU/FEDER), Generalitat Valenciana: Prometeo (PROMETEO/2020/019), Grisolia (ref. GRISOLIA/2018/119) and GenT (refs. CIDEGENT/2018/034,/2019/043,/2020/049) programs, Junta de Andalucia (ref. A-FQM-053-UGR18), La Caixa Foundation (ref. LCF/BQ/IN17/11620019), EU: MSC program (ref. 101025085), Spain.
KM3NeT/ORCA is a next-generation neutrino telescope optimised for atmospheric neutrino oscillations studies. In this paper, the sensitivity of ORCA to the presence of a light sterile neutrino in a 3+1 model is presented. After three years of data taking, ORCA will be able to probe the active-sterile mixing angles theta(14), theta(24), theta(34) and the effective angle theta(mu e), over a broad range of mass squared difference Delta m(41)(2) similar to [10(-5), 10] eV(2), allowing to test the eV-mass sterile neutrino hypothesis as the origin of short baseline anomalies, as well as probing the hypothesis of a very light sterile neutrino, not yet constrained by cosmology. ORCA will be able to explore a relevant fraction of the parameter space not yet reached by present measurements.
French National Research Agency (ANR)
European Commission ANR-15-CE31-0020
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund)
Commission Europeenne (Marie Curie Program)
Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)
LabEx UnivEarthS ANR-10-LABX-0023 ANR-18-IDEX-0001
Paris Ile-de-France Region, France
Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), Georgia FR-18-1268
German Research Foundation (DFG)
Greek Ministry of Development-GSRT
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR)
PRIN 2017 program, Italy NAT-NET 2017W4HA7S
Ministry of Higher Education Scientific Research and Professional Training
ICTP, Morocco AF-13
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
Netherlands Government
National Science Centre, Poland 2015/18/E/ST2/00758
National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento PGC2018-096663-B-C41 PGC2018-096663-A-C42 PGC2018-096663-B-C43 PGC2018-096663-B-C44
Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO/2020/019
Grisolia program GRISOLIA/2018/119
GenT program CIDEGENT/2018/034 CIDEGENT/2019/043 CIDEGENT/2020/049
Junta de Andalucia A-FQM-053-UGR18
La Caixa Foundation LCF/BQ/IN17/11620019
EU: MSC program, Spain 101025085