Search for active-sterile neutrino mixing using neutral-current interactions in NOvA
Creators: name: NOvA Collaboration
name: Adamson, P.
name: Aliaga, L.
name: Ambrose, D.
name: Anfimov, N.
name: Antoshkin, A.
name: Arrieta-Diaz, E.
name: Augsten, K.
name: Aurisano, A.
name: Backhouse, C.
name: Baird, M.
name: Bambah, B. A.
name: Bays, K.
name: Behera, B.
name: Bending, S.
name: Bernstein, R.
name: Bhatnagar, V.
name: Bhuyan, B.
name: Bian, J.
name: Blackburn, T.
name: Bolshakova, A.
name: Bromberg, C.
name: Brown, J.
name: Brunetti, G.
name: Buchanan, N.
name: Butkevich, A.
name: Bychkov, V.
name: Campbell, M.
name: Catano-Mur, E.
name: Childress, S.
name: Choudhary, B. C.
name: Chowdhury, B.
name: Coan, T. E.
name: Coelho, J. A. B.
name: Colo, M.
name: Cooper, J.
name: Corwin, L.
name: Cremonesi, L.
name: Cronin-Hennessy, D.
name: Davies, G. S.
name: Davies, J. P.
name: Derwent, P. F.
name: Dharmapalan, R.
name: Ding, P.
name: Djurcic, Z.
name: Dukes, E. C.
name: Duyang, H.
name: Edayath, S.
name: Ehrlich, R.
name: Feldman, G. J.
name: Frank, M. J.
name: Gabrielyan, M.
name: Gallagher, H. R.
name: Germani, S.
name: Ghosh, T.
name: Giri, A.
name: Gomes, R. A.
name: Goodman, M. C.
name: Grichine, V.
name: Groh, M.
name: Group, R.
name: Grover, D.
name: Guo, B.
name: Habig, A.
name: Hartnell, J.
name: Hatcher, R.
name: Hatzikoutelis, A.
name: Heller, K.
name: Himmel, A.
name: Holin, A.
name: Howard, B.
name: Hylen, J.
name: Jediny, F.
name: Judah, M.
name: Kafka, G. K.
name: Kalra, D.
name: Kasahara, S. M. S.
name: Kasetti, S.
name: Keloth, R.
name: Kolupaeva, L.
name: Kotelnikov, S.
name: Kourbanis, I.
name: Kreymer, A.
name: Kumar, A.
name: Kurbanov, S.
name: Lackey, T.
name: Lang, K.
name: Lee, W. M.
name: Lin, S.
name: Lokajicek, M.
name: Lozier, J.
name: Luchuk, S.
name: Maan, K.
name: Magill, S.
name: Mann, W. A.
name: Marshak, M. L.
name: Matera, K.
name: Matveev, V.
name: Méndez, D. P.
name: Messier, M. D.
name: Meyer, H.
name: Miao, T.
name: Miller, W. H.
name: Mishra, S. R.
name: Mohanta, R.
name: Moren, A.
name: Mualem, L.
name: Muether, M.
name: Mufson, S.
name: Murphy, R.
name: Musser, J.
name: Nelson, J. K.
name: Nichol, R.
name: Niner, E.
name: Norman, A.
name: Nosek, T.
name: Oksuzian, Y.
name: Olshevskiy, A.
name: Olson, T.
name: Paley, J.
name: Patterson, R. B.
name: Pawloski, G.
name: Pershey, D.
name: Petrova, O.
name: Petti, R.
name: Phan-Budd, S.
name: Plunkett, R. K.
name: Poling, R.
name: Potukuchi, B.
name: Principato, C.
name: Psihas, F.
name: Radovic, A.
name: Rameika, R. A.
name: Rebel, B.
name: Reed, B.
name: Rocco, D.
name: Rojas, P.
name: Ryabov, V.
name: Sachdev, K.
name: Sail, P.
name: Samoylov, O.
name: Sanchez, M. C.
name: Schroeter, R.
name: Sepulveda-Quiroz, J.
name: Shanahan, P.
name: Sheshukov, A.
name: Singh, J.
name: Singh, J.
name: Singh, P.
name: Singh, V.
name: Smolik, J.
name: Solomey, N.
name: Song, E.
name: Sousa, A.
name: Soustruznik, K.
name: Strait, M.
name: Suter, L.
name: Talaga, R. L.
name: Tas, P.
name: Thayyullathil, R. B.
name: Thomas, J.
name: Tian, X.
name: Tognini, S. C.
name: Tripathi, J.
name: Tsaris, A.
name: Urheim, J.
name: Vahle, P.
name: Vasel, J.
name: Vinton, L.
name: Vold, A.
name: Vrba, T.
name: Wang, B.
name: Wetstein, M.
name: Whittington, D.
name: Wojcicki, S. G.
name: Wolcott, J.
name: Yadav, N.
name: Yang, S.
name: Zalesak, J.
name: Zamorano, B.
name: Zwaska, R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report results from the first search for sterile neutrinos mixing with active neutrinos through a reduction in the rate of neutral-current interactions over a baseline of 810\,km between the NOvA detectors. Analyzing a 14-kton detector equivalent exposure of 6.05$\times$10$^{20}$ protons-on-target in the NuMI beam at Fermilab, we observe 95 neutral-current candidates at the Far Detector compared with $83.5 \pm 9.7 \mbox{(stat.)} \pm 9.4 \mbox{(syst.)}$ events predicted assuming mixing only occurs between active neutrino species. No evidence for $ν_μ \rightarrow ν_{s}$ transitions is found. Interpreting these results within a 3+1 model, we place constraints on the mixing angles $θ_{24}&lt;20.8^{\circ}$ and $θ_{34}&lt;31.2^{\circ}$ at the 90% C.L. for $0.05~eV^2\leq Δm^2_{41}\leq 0.5~eV^2$, the range of mass splittings that produce no significant oscillations over the Near Detector baseline.
description: 8 pages, 4 figures