Search for Heavy Neutrinos in $\pi \to \mu\nu$ Decay

Abstract

Heavy neutrinos were sought in pion decays $\pi^+ \rightarrow \mu^+ \nu$ by examining the observed muon energy spectrum for extra peaks in addition to the expected peak for a massless neutrino. No evidence for heavy neutrinos was observed. Upper limits were set on the neutrino mixing matrix $|U_{\mu i}|^2$ in the neutrino mass region of 15.7--33.8 MeV/c$^2$, improving on previous results by an order of magnitude.