First Constraints on Light Sterile Neutrino Oscillations from Combined Appearance and Disappearance Searches with the MicroBooNE Detector

Abstract

We present a search for eV-scale sterile neutrino oscillations in the MicroBooNE liquid argon detector, simultaneously considering all possible appearance and disappearance effects within the 3+1 active-to-sterile neutrino oscillation framework. We analyze the neutrino candidate events for the recent measurements of charged-current νe and νμ interactions in the MicroBooNE detector, using data corresponding to an exposure of 6.37×1020 protons on target from the Fermilab booster neutrino beam. We observe no evidence of light sterile neutrino oscillations and derive exclusion contours at the 95% confidence level in the plane of the mass-squared splitting Δm241 and the sterile neutrino mixing angles θμe and θee, excluding part of the parameter space allowed by experimental anomalies. Cancellation of νe appearance and νe disappearance effects due to the full 3+1 treatment of the analysis leads to a degeneracy when determining the oscillation parameters, which is discussed in this Letter and will be addressed by future analyses.