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Search for the rare decays $π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ} ν \bar{ν}$ and $π^{+} \to e^{+} ν_{e} ν \bar{ν}$

A. Aguilar-Arevalo¹, M. Aoki², M. Blecher³, D. I. Britton⁴, D. vom Bruch^5,‡, D. A. Bryman^5,6, S. Chen⁷, J. Comfort⁸, S. Cuen-Rochin^6,9 et al. (PIENU Collaboration)

S. Cuen-Rochin^6,9, L. Doria^6,10, P. Gumplinger⁶, A. Hussein^6,11, Y. Igarashi¹², S. Ito ^2,*,†, S. Kettell¹³, L. Kurchaninov⁶, L. S. Littenberg¹³, C. Malbrunot^5,§, R. E. Mischke⁶, T. Numao⁶, D. Protopopescu¹⁴, A. Sher⁶, T. Sullivan^5,∥, D. Vavilov⁶, D. Gorbunov^15,16, and D. Kalashnikov¹⁶ (PIENU Collaboration)

¹Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, México
²Physics Department, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan
³Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
⁴SUPA—School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12-8QQ, United Kingdom
⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
⁶TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada
⁷Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
⁸Physics Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
⁹Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, México
¹⁰PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence and Institut für Kernphysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 45, D 55128 Mainz, Germany
¹¹University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9, Canada
¹²KEK, 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, 300-3256, Japan
¹³Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA
¹⁴SUPA—School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
¹⁵Theoretical Physics Division, Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 60th October anniversary prospect, 7a, Moscow, 117312 Russia
¹⁶Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutsky lane 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, 141700, Russia

^*Corresponding author. s-ito@okayama-u.ac.jp
^†Present address: Faculty of Science, Okayama University, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.
^‡Present address: LPNHE, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, Paris, France.
^§Present address: Experimental Physics Department, CERN, Genève 23, CH-1211, Switzerland.
^∥Present address: Department of Physics, University of Victoria, Victoria BC V8P 5C2, Canada.

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Phys. Rev. D 102, 012001 – Published 1 July, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.012001

Abstract

The rare pion decays $π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ} ν \bar{ν}$ and $π^{+} \to e^{+} ν_{e} ν \bar{ν}$ are allowed in the Standard Model but highly suppressed. These decays were searched for using data from the PIENU experiment. A first result for $Γ (π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ} ν \bar{ν}) / Γ (π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ}) < 8.6 \times 10^{- 6}$ and an improved measurement $Γ (π^{+} \to e^{+} ν_{e} ν \bar{ν}) / Γ (π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ}) < 1.6 \times 10^{- 7}$ were obtained.

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References (17)

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Phys. Rev. D 102, 012001– Published 1 July, 2020

Vol. 102, Iss. 1 — 1 July 2020

Received 1 June 2020
Accepted 23 June 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.012001

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physical Review D

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Search for the rare decays $π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ} ν \bar{ν}$ and $π^{+} \to e^{+} ν_{e} ν \bar{ν}$

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Search for the rare decays $π^{+} \to μ^{+} ν_{μ} ν \bar{ν}$ and $π^{+} \to e^{+} ν_{e} ν \bar{ν}$