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First search for sterile neutrino oscillation leading to νμ disappearance in the Booster Neutrino Beam at ICARUS

F. Abd Alrahman9, P. Abratenko28, N. Abrego-Martinez5, A. Aduszkiewicz9, F. Akbar24, L. Aliaga Soplin27, M. Artero Pons20, J. Asaadi27, W. F. Badgett8 et al. (ICARUS Collaboration)

W. F. Badgett8, B. Baibussinov20, F. Battisti11, B. Behera10, V. Bellini12, R. Benocci18, J. Berger6, S. Bertolucci11, M. Betancourt8, A. Blanchet3, F. Boffelli21, M. Bonesini18, T. Boone6, B. Bottino13, A. Braggiotti20,*, S. J. Brice8, V. Brio12, C. Brizzolari18, H. S. Budd24, A. Campani13, A. Campos29, D. Carber6, M. Carneiro1, I. Caro Terrazas6, H. Carranza27, R. Castillo Fernández27, S. Centro20, G. Cerati8, A. Chatterjee3, D. Cherdack9, S. Cherubini16, N. Chithirasreemadam22, M. Cicerchia20, T. E. Coan26, A. Cocco19, M. R. Convery25, L. Cooper-Troendle23, S. Copello21, H. Da Motta2, M. Dallolio27, A. A. Dange27, A. de Roeck3, S. Di Domizio13, L. Di Noto13, D. Di Ferdinando11, M. Diwan1, S. Dolan3, S. Donati22, F. Drielsma25, J. Dyer6, A. Falcone18, C. Farnese20, A. Fava8, N. Gallice1, C. Gatto19, D. Gibin20, A. Gioiosa22, W. Gu1, A. Guglielmi20, G. Gurung3,†, K. Hassinin9, H. Hausner8, A. Heggestuen6, B. Howard30,‡, R. Howell24, Z. Hulcher25, G. Ingratta11, M. S. Ismail23, C. James8, W. Jang27, K. Jung24, Y.-J. Jwa25, L. Kashur6, W. Ketchum8, J. S. Kim24, D.-H. Koh25, J. Larkin24, Y. Li1, Z. Lin24, C. Mariani29, C. M. Marshall24, S. Martynenko1, N. Mauri11, K. S. McFarland24, D. P. Méndez1, A. Menegolli21, G. Meng20, O. G. Miranda5, A. Mogan6, N. Moggi11, E. Montagna11, C. Montanari8,§, A. Montanari11, M. Mooney6, M. Moore25, G. Moreno-Granados29, J. Mueller8, M. Murphy29, D. Naples23, S. Palestini3, M. Pallavicini13, V. Paolone23, L. Pasqualini11, L. Patrizii11, G. Petrillo25, C. Petta12, V. Pia11, F. Pietropaolo8,∥, F. Poppi11, M. Pozzato11, M. L. Pumo16, G. Putnam8, X. Qian1, A. Rappoldi21, G. L. Raselli21, S. Repetto13, F. Resnati3, A. M. Ricci22, M. Rosenberg28, M. Ross-Lonergan7, M. Rossella21, N. Rowe4, P. Roy29, C. Rubbia14, A. Ruggeri11, S. Saha23, G. Salmoria2, S. Samanta13, A. Scaramelli21, D. Schmitz4, A. Schukraft8, D. Senadheera23, S-H. Seo8, F. Sergiampietri3,¶, G. Sirri11, J. S. Smedley24, J. Smith1,**, M. Sotgia13, L. Stanco20, J. Stewart1, H. A. Tanaka25, M. Tenti11, K. Terao25, F. Terranova18, V. Togo11, D. Torretta8, M. Torti18, D. Totani6, R. Triozzi20, Y.-T. Tsai25, K. V. Tsang25, T. Usher25, F. Varanini20, N. Vardy6, S. Ventura20, M. Vicenzi1, C. Vignoli15, F. A. Wieler2, Z. Williams27, R. J. Wilson6, P. Wilson8, J. Wolfs24, T. Wongjirad28, A. Wood9, E. Worcester1, M. Worcester1, S. Yadav27, H. Yu1, J. Yu27, A. Zani17, J. Zennamo8, J. Zettlemoyer8, and S. Zucchelli11 (ICARUS Collaboration)

  • 1Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
  • 2CBPF, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 3CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research 1211 Genève 23, Switzerland, CERN
  • 4University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 5Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (Cinvestav), Mexico City
  • 6Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
  • 7Columbia University, New York, New York, 10027, USA
  • 8Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 9University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
  • 10Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
  • 11INFN Sezione di Bologna and University, Bologna, Italy
  • 12INFN Sezione di Catania and University, Catania, Italy
  • 13INFN Sezione di Genova and University, Genova, Italy
  • 14INFN GSSI, L’Aquila, Italy
  • 15INFN LNGS, Assergi, Italy
  • 16INFN LNS, Catania, Italy
  • 17INFN Sezione di Milano, Milano, Italy
  • 18INFN Sezione di Milano Bicocca and University, Milano, Italy
  • 19INFN Sezione di Napoli, Napoli, Italy
  • 20INFN Sezione di Padova and University, Padova, Italy
  • 21INFN Sezione di Pavia and University, Pavia, Italy
  • 22INFN Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
  • 23University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
  • 24University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
  • 25SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
  • 26Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
  • 27University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA
  • 28Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
  • 29Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA
  • 30York University, Toronto, Canada

  • *Also at Istituto di Neuroscienze, CNR, Padova, Italy.
  • †Also at University of Texas, Arlington.
  • ‡Also at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
  • §On leave of absence from INFN Pavia.
  • ∥Also at INFN Padova and University.
  • Present address IPSI-INAF Torino, Italy.
  • **Also at Stony Brook University.
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 072014 – Published 29 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2vms-z2j8

Abstract

We present a search for muon neutrino disappearance in the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab using the ICARUS detector. Neutrino interactions identified as muon neutrinos interacting with argon nuclei via the charged current interaction and having only a muon and at least one proton in the final state (1μNp) have been selected from data collected in 2022–2023 (ICARUS Run 2) and compared with a simulation-based expectation. In the context of a fit to a two-neutrino approximation of the sterile 3+1 model, including the impact of systematic uncertainty from the flux, neutrino interaction, and detector models, we find no statistically significant muon neutrino disappearance at the ICARUS baseline of 600 meters from the BNB target. Corresponding 90% CL exclusion contours in the Δm412−sin22θμμ space are presented. This is the first oscillation analysis produced by ICARUS exposed to the BNB. We note that the analysis is systematics limited due to large unconstrained uncertainties from the flux and interaction models. In future joint analyses, data from ICARUS and the Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND), exposed to the BNB at 110 meters from target, will be combined to provide significant constraint of these uncertainties, enabling a robust, world-leading two-detector analysis.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 072014– Published 29 October, 2026
  • Received 30 March 2026
  • Accepted 9 July 2026
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