Search for heavy neutral leptons in $$W^+\rightarrow \mu ^{+}\mu ^{\pm }\, \text {jet}$$ decays
R. Aaij, C. Abellán Beteta, T. Ackernley, B. Adeva, M. Adinolfi, H. Afsharnia, C. A. Aidala, Simone Aiola, Z. Ajaltouni, S. Akar, J. Albrecht, F. Alessio, M. Alexander, A. Alfonso Albero, Z. Aliouche, G. Alkhazov, P. Álvarez Cartelle, S. Amato, Y. Amhis, An Li, L. Anderlini, A. Andreianov, M. Andreotti, F. Archilli, A. Artamonov, M. Artuso, K. Arzymatov, E. Aslanides, M. Atzeni, B. Audurier, S. Bachmann, M. Bachmayer, J. J. Back, S. Baker, P. Baladrón Rodríguez, V. Balagura, W. Baldini, J. Baptista Leite, R. J. Barlow, S. Barsuk, W. Barter, M. Bartolini, F. Baryshnikov, J. M. Basels, G. Bassi, B. Batsukh, A. Battig, A. Bay, M. Becker, F. Bedeschi, I. Bediaga, A. Beiter, V. Belavin, S. Belin, V. Bellée, K. Belous, I. Belov, I. Belyaev, G. Bencivenni, E. Ben-Haim, A. Berezhnoy, R. Bernet, D. Berninghoff, H. C. Bernstein, C. Bertella, E. Bertholet, A. Bertolin, C. Betancourt, F. Betti, M. O. Bettler, Ia. Bezshyiko, S. Bhasin, J. Bhom, L. Bian, M. S. Bieker, S. Bifani, P. Billoir, M. Birch, F. C. R. Bishop, A. Bizzeti, M. Bjørn, M. P. Blago, T. Blake, F. Blanc, S. Blusk, D. Bobulska, V. Bocci, J. A. Boelhauve, O. Boente García, T. Boettcher, A. Boldyrev, A. Bondar, N. Bondar, S. Borghi, M. Borisyak, M. Borsato, J. T. Borsuk, Sonia Amina Bouchiba, T. J. V. Bowcock, A. Boyer
Abstract
Abstract A search is performed for heavy neutrinos in the decay of a W boson into two muons and a jet. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately $$3.0\, \text {fb} ^{-1} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>3.0</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:msup> <mml:mtext>fb</mml:mtext> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of proton–proton collision data at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and $$8\, \text {TeV} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>8</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mtext>TeV</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> collected with the LHCb experiment. Both same-sign and opposite-sign muons in the final state are considered. Data are found to be consistent with the expected background. Upper limits on the coupling of a heavy neutrino with the Standard Model neutrino are set at $$95\%$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>95</mml:mn> <mml:mo>%</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> confidence level in the heavy-neutrino mass range from 5 to $$50\, \text {GeV/}c^2 $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>50</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mtext>GeV/</mml:mtext> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . These are of the order of $$10^{-3}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> for lepton-number-conserving decays and of the order of $$10^{-4}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> for lepton-number-violating heavy-neutrino decays.