Active to Sterile Neutrino Mixing Limits from Neutral-Current Interactions in MINOS

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 7.07×10(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 ± 28(stat) ± 37(syst) for oscillations among three active flavors. The fraction f(s) of disappearing ν(μ) that may transition to ν(s) is found to be less than 22% at the 90% C.L.