Search for sterile neutrino mixing in the muon neutrino to tau neutrino appearance channel with the OPERA detector

The OPERA experiment observed ν _μ → ν _τ oscillations in the atmospheric sector. To this purpose the hybrid OPERA detector was exposed to the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso beam from 2008 to 2012, at a distance of 730 km from the neutrino source. Charged-current interactions of ν _τ were searched for through the identification of τ lepton decay topologies. The five observed ν _τ interactions are consistent with the expected number of events in the standard three neutrino framework. Based on this result, new limits on the mixing parameters of a massive sterile neutrino may be set. Preliminary results of the analysis performed in the 3+1 neutrino framework are here presented. (paper)