Search for sterile neutrinos mixing with muon neutrinos in MINOS

Abstract

We report results of a search for oscillations involving a light sterile neutrino over distances of 1.04 and 735 km in a νμ-dominated beam with a peak energy of 3 GeV. The data, from an exposure of 10.56 × 1020 protons on target, are analyzed using a phenomenological model with one sterile neutrino. We constrain the mixing parameters θ24 and Δm2 41 and set limits on parameters of the four-dimensional Pontecorvo-Maki Nakagawa-Sakata matrix, jUμ4j2 and jUτ4j2, under the assumption that mixing between νe and νs is negligible (jUe4j2 ¼ 0). No evidence for νμ → νs transitions is found and we set a world-leading limit on θ24 for values of Δm2 41 ≲ 1 eV2.