Search for Sterile Neutrinos Mixing with Muon Neutrinos in MINOS

We report results of a search for oscillations involving a light sterile neutrino over distances of 1.04 and 735 km in a ν_μ-dominated beam with a peak energy of 3 GeV. The data, from an exposure of 10.56×10^(20) protons on target, are analyzed using a phenomenological model with one sterile neutrino. We constrain the mixing parameters θ_(24) and Δm^2_(41) and set limits on parameters of the four-dimensional Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata matrix, |U_(μ4)|^2 and |U_(τ4)|^2, under the assumption that mixing between ν_e and ν_s is negligible (|U_(e4)|^2=0). No evidence for ν_μ→ν_s transitions is found and we set a world-leading limit on θ_(24) for values of Δm^2_(41)≲1  eV^2.