Novel Search For Heavy Nu Mixing From The Beta(+) Decay Of K-38m Confined In An Atom Trap

A new technique, full neutrino momentum reconstruction, is used to set limits on the admixture of heavy neutrinos into the electron neutrino. We measure coincidences between nuclear recoils and positrons from the beta decay of trapped radioactive atoms and deduce the neutrino momentum. A search for peaks in the reconstructed recoil time-of-flight spectrum as a function of positron energy is performed. The admixture upper limits range from 4x10(-3) to 2x10(-2) and are the best direct limits for neutrinos (as opposed to antineutrinos) for the mass region of 0.7 to 3.5 MeV.