Active to sterile neutrino mixing limits from neutral-current interactions in MINOS
hep-ex
/ Authors
MINOS Collaboration, P. Adamson, D. J. Auty, D. S. Ayres, C. Backhouse, G. Barr, M. Bishai, A. Blake, G. J. Bock, D. J. Boehnlein
and 116 more authors
D. Bogert, S. Cavanaugh, D. Cherdack, S. Childress, J. A. B. Coelho, S. J. Coleman, L. Corwin, D. Cronin-Hennessy, I. Z. Danko, J. K. de Jong, N. E. Devenish, M. V. Diwan, M. Dorman, C. O. Escobar, J. J. Evans, E. Falk, G. J. Feldman, M. V. Frohne, H. R. Gallagher, R. A. Gomes, M. C. Goodman, P. Gouffon, N. Graf,
/ Abstract
Results are reported from a search for active to sterile neutrino oscillations in the MINOS long-baseline experiment, based on the observation of neutral-current neutrino interactions, from an exposure to the NuMI neutrino beam of $7.07\times10^{20}$ protons on target. A total of 802 neutral-current event candidates is observed in the Far Detector, compared to an expected number of $754\pm28\rm{(stat.)}\pm{37}\rm{(syst.)}$ for oscillations among three active flavors. The fraction $f_s$ of disappearing \numu that may transition to $ν_s$ is found to be less than 22% at the 90% C.L.