Search for long-lived heavy neutrinos in the decays of B mesons produced in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV
A search for long-lived heavy neutrinos (N) in the decays of B mesons produced in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 41.6 fb$^{−1}$ collected in 2018 by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, using a dedicated data stream that enhances the number of recorded events containing B mesons. The search probes heavy neutrinos with masses in the range 1 < m$_{N}$ < 3 GeV and decay lengths in the range 10$^{−2}$ < cτ$_{N}$ < 10$^{4}$ mm, where τ$_{N}$ is the N proper mean lifetime. Signal events are defined by the signature B → ℓ$_{B}$NX; N → ℓ$^{±}$π$^{∓}$, where the leptons ℓ$_{B}$ and ℓ can be either a muon or an electron, provided that at least one of them is a muon. The hadronic recoil system, X, is treated inclusively and is not reconstructed. No significant excess of events over the standard model background is observed in any of the ℓ$^{±}$π$^{∓}$ invariant mass distributions. Limits at 95% confidence level on the sum of the squares of the mixing amplitudes between heavy and light neutrinos, |V$_{N}$|$^{2}$, and on cτ$_{N}$ are obtained in different mixing scenarios for both Majorana and Dirac-like N particles. The most stringent upper limit |V$_{N}$|$^{2}$ < 2.0 × 10$^{−5}$ is obtained at m$_{N}$ = 1.95 GeV for the Majorana case where N mixes exclusively with muon neutrinos. The limits on |V$_{N}$|$^{2}$ for masses 1 < m$_{N}$ < 1.7 GeV are the most stringent from a collider experiment to date.[graphic not available: see fulltext]