Analysis of Neutral Current Interactions in MINOS: A Search for Sterile Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper reports on a search for sterile neutrinos using MINOS data, finding no significant evidence for their existence and disfavoring neutrino decay as an alternative explanation for muon neutrino depletion.

Contribution

It introduces a new analysis methodology for neutral current events in MINOS and provides updated constraints on sterile neutrino mixing and neutrino decay.

Findings

Less than 52% of muon neutrinos convert to sterile states at 90% CL

Pure neutrino decay is disfavored at 5.4 sigma

No significant evidence for sterile neutrinos was observed

Abstract

A search for disappearance of active neutrinos over a baseline of 735 km was conducted using the NuMI neutrino beam and the MINOS detectors. The data analyzed correspond to an exposure of 3.18x10^{20} protons on target. The data are fitted to neutrino oscillation models in which mixing with one sterile neutrino is assumed. A comparison of the neutral-current-like spectrum at the FD with the expectation derived from the near detector measurement shows that the fraction of disappearing muon neutrinos converting to a sterile state is less than 52% at the 90% confidence level. In addition, the possibility of decay of active neutrinos into sterile species occurring concurrently with neutrino oscillations was analyzed. Pure neutrino decay is disfavored at 5.4 sigma as an alternate explanation to oscillations for the depletion of muon neutrinos at 735 km. The methodology employed in the analysis of neutral current neutrino events observed in MINOS is described and newly obtained results are presented.