Search for Active-Sterile Antineutrino Mixing Using Neutral-Current Interactions with the NOvA Experiment.
M A Acero, P Adamson, L Aliaga, N Anfimov, A Antoshkin, E Arrieta-Diaz, L Asquith, A Aurisano, A Back, C Backhouse, M Baird, N Balashov, P Baldi, B A Bambah, S Bashar, K Bays, R Bernstein, V Bhatnagar, B Bhuyan, J Bian, J Blair, A C Booth, R Bowles, C Bromberg, N Buchanan, A Butkevich, S Calvez, T J Carroll, E Catano-Mur, B C Choudhary, A Christensen, T E Coan, M Colo, L Cremonesi, G S Davies, P F Derwent, P Ding, Z Djurcic, M Dolce, D Doyle, D Dueñas Tonguino, E C Dukes, H Duyang, S Edayath, R Ehrlich, M Elkins, E Ewart, G J Feldman, P Filip, J Franc, M J Frank, H R Gallagher, R Gandrajula, F Gao, A Giri, R A Gomes, M C Goodman, V Grichine, M Groh, R Group, B Guo, A Habig, F Hakl, A Hall, J Hartnell, R Hatcher, H Hausner, K Heller, J Hewes, A Himmel, A Holin, J Huang, B Jargowsky, J Jarosz, F Jediny, C Johnson, M Judah, I Kakorin, D Kalra, A Kalitkina, D M Kaplan, R Keloth, O Klimov, L W Koerner, L Kolupaeva, S Kotelnikov, R Kralik, Ch Kullenberg, M Kubu, A Kumar, C D Kuruppu, V Kus, T Lackey, P Lasorak, K Lang, J Lesmeister, S Lin, A Lister, J Liu, M Lokajicek, S Magill, M Manrique Plata, W A Mann, M L Marshak, M Martinez-Casales, V Matveev, B Mayes, D P Méndez, M D Messier, H Meyer, T Miao, W H Miller, S R Mishra, A Mislivec, R Mohanta, A Moren, A Morozova, W Mu, L Mualem, M Muether, K Mulder, D Naples, N Nayak, J K Nelson, R Nichol, E Niner, A Norman, A Norrick, T Nosek, H Oh, A Olshevskiy, T Olson, J Ott, J Paley, R B Patterson, G Pawloski, O Petrova, R Petti, D D Phan, R K Plunkett, J C C Porter, A Rafique, V Raj, M Rajaoalisoa, B Ramson, B Rebel, P Rojas, V Ryabov, O Samoylov, M C Sanchez, S Sánchez Falero, P Shanahan, A Sheshukov, P Singh, V Singh, E Smith, J Smolik, P Snopok, N Solomey, A Sousa, K Soustruznik, M Strait, L Suter, A Sutton, S Swain, C Sweeney, B Tapia Oregui, P Tas, T Thakore, R B Thayyullathil, J Thomas, E Tiras, J Tripathi, J Trokan-Tenorio, A Tsaris, Y Torun, J Urheim, P Vahle, Z Vallari, J Vasel, P Vokac, T Vrba, M Wallbank, T K Warburton, M Wetstein, D Whittington, D A Wickremasinghe, S G Wojcicki, J Wolcott, W Wu, Y Xiao, A Yallappa Dombara, K Yonehara, S Yu, Y Yu, S Zadorozhnyy, J Zalesak, Y Zhang, R Zwaska
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 12.51×10^{20} 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 ν[over ¯]_{μ}→ν[over ¯]_{s} oscillation is observed. Interpreting this result within a 3+1 model, constraints are placed on the mixing angles θ_{24}<25° and θ_{34}<32° at the 90% C.L. for 0.05 eV^{2}≤Δm_{41}^{2}≤0.5 eV^{2}, 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.
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