Document Type
Article
Abstract
This Letter reports results from the first long-baseline search for sterile antineutrinos mixing in an accelerator-based antineutrino-dominated beam. The rate of neutral-current interactions in the two NOvA detectors, at distances of 1 and 810 km from the beam source, is analyzed using an exposure of 12.51×1020 protons-on-target from the NuMI beam at Fermilab running in antineutrino mode. A total of 121 of neutral-current candidates are observed at the far detector, compared to a prediction of 122±11(stat.)±15(syst.) assuming mixing only between three active flavors. No evidence for ⊽ μ → ⊽ s oscillation is observed. Interpreting this result within a 3+1 model, constraints are placed on the mixing angles θ24 < 25° and θ34<32° at the 90% C.L. for 0.05 eV2 ≤ Δm2 41 ≤0.5 eV2, the range of mass splittings that produces no significant oscillations at the near detector. These are the first 3+1 confidence limits set using long-baseline accelerator antineutrinos.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Preprint version Physical Review Letters, Volume 127, Issue 20, 2021, pages 201801-.
©Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
APA Citation
Acero, M. A., Adamson, P., Aliaga, L., Anfimov, N., Antoshkin, A., Arrieta-Diaz, E., Asquith, L., Aurisano, A., Back, A., Backhouse, C., Baird, M., Balashov, N., Baldi, P., Bambah, B. A., Bashar, S., Bays, K., Bernstein, R., Bhatnagar, V., Bhuyan, B., & Bian, J. (2021b). Search for Active-Sterile Antineutrino Mixing Using Neutral-Current Interactions with the NOvA Experiment. Physical Review Letters, 127(20). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.201801