Dark sector origin of the KOTO and MiniBooNE anomalies

Abstract

We present a dark sector model that reproduces the KOTO, MiniBooNE and muon anomalous magnetic moment anomalies. The dark sector is comprised of a light scalar singlet $S$ that has a large coupling to a slightly heavier sterile neutrino that mixes with the active neutrinos. The scalar couples to standard model fermions via Yukawa couplings, and to photons via a higher-dimensional coupling. The KOTO signal is a result of the flavor-changing penguin process $K_L \to \pi^0 S$ followed by the decay of $S$ to neutrinos. The sterile neutrino produced in neutrino-nucleus scattering at MiniBooNE decays to an active neutrino and $S$, which decays electromagnetically and creates an event excess at low energies.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. Version to appear in PL