Search for π0 decays to invisible particles

Cortina Gil, E. et al. (2021) Search for π0 decays to invisible particles. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2021(2), 201. (doi: 10.1007/JHEP02(2021)201)

Abstract

The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports a study of a sample of 4 × 109 tagged π0 mesons from K+ → π+π0(γ), searching for the decay of the π0 to invisible particles. No signal is observed in excess of the expected background fluctuations. An upper limit of 4.4 × 10−9 is set on the branching ratio at 90% confidence level, improving on previous results by a factor of 60. This result can also be interpreted as a model- independent upper limit on the branching ratio for the decay K+ → π+X, where X is a particle escaping detection with mass in the range 0.110–0.155 GeV/c2 and rest lifetime greater than 100 ps. Model-dependent upper limits are obtained assuming X to be an axion-like particle with dominant fermion couplings or a dark scalar mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Angelucci, Dr Bruno and Protopopescu, Dr Dan and Britton, Professor David and Graham, Connor
• Authors: Cortina Gil, E., Kleimenova, A., Minucci, E., Padolski, S., Petrov, P., Shaikhiev, A., Volpe, R., Numao, T., Velghe, B., Bryman, D., Fu, J., Husek, T., Jerhot, J., Kampf, K., Zamkovsky, M., Aliberti, R., Khoriauli, G., Kunze, J., Lomidze, D., Marchevski, R., Peruzzo, L., Vormstein, M., Wanke, R., Dalpiaz, P., Fiorini, M., Neri, I., Norton, A., Petrucci, F., Wahl, H., Cotta Ramusino, A., Gianoli, A., Iacopini, E., Latino, G., Lenti, M., Parenti, A., Bizzeti, A., Bucci, F., Antonelli, A., Georgiev, G., Kozhuharov, V., Lanfranchi, G., Martellotti, S., Moulson, M., Spadaro, T., Ambrosino, F., Capussela, T., Corvino, M., Di Filippo, D., Massarotti, P., Mirra, M., Napolitano, M., Saracino, G., Anzivino, G., Brizioli, F., Imbergamo, E., Lollini, R., Piandani, R., Santoni, C., Barbanera, M., Cenci, P., Checcucci, B., Lubrano, P., Lupi, M., Pepe, M., Piccini, M., Costantini, F., Di Lella, L., Doble, N., Giorgi, M., Giudici, S., Lamanna, G., Lari, E., Pedreschi, E., Sozzi, M., Cerri, C., Fantechi, R., Pontisso, L., Spinella, F., Mannelli, I., D’Agostini, G., Raggi, M., Biagioni, A., Leonardi, E., Lonardo, A., Valente, P., Vicini, P., Ammendola, R., Bonaiuto, V., Fucci, A., Salamon, A., Sargeni, F., Arcidiacono, R., Bloch-Devaux, B., Boretto, M., Menichetti, E., Migliore, E., Soldi, D., Biino, C., Filippi, A., Marchetto, F., Engelfried, J., Estrada-Tristan, N., Bragadireanu, A. M., Ghinescu, S. A., Hutanu, O. E., Baeva, A., Baigarashev, D., Emelyanov, D., Enik, T., Falaleev, V., Kekelidze, V., Korotkova, A., Litov, L., Madigozhin, D., Misheva, M., Molokanova, N., Movchan, S., Polenkevich, I., Potrebenikov, Y., Shkarovskiy, S., Zinchenko, A., Fedotov, S., Gushchin, E., Khotyantsev, A., Kudenko, Y., Kurochka, V., Medvedeva, M., Mefodev, A., Kholodenko, S., Kurshetsov, V., Obraztsov, V., Ostankov, A., Semenov, V., Sugonyaev, V., Yushchenko, O., Bician, L., Blazek, T., Cerny, V., Kucerova, Z., Bernhard, J., Ceccucci, A., Danielsson, H., De Simone, N., Duval, F., Döbrich, B., Federici, L., Gamberini, E., Gatignon, L., Guida, R., Hahn, F., Holzer, E. B., Jenninger, B., Koval, M., Laycock, P., Lehmann Miotto, G., Lichard, P., Mapelli, A., Massri, K., Noy, M., Palladino, V., Perrin-Terrin, M., Pinzino, J., Ryjov, V., Schuchmann, S., Venditti, S., Bache, T., Brunetti, M. B., Duk, V., Fascianelli, V., Fry, J. R., Gonnella, F., Goudzovski, E., Iacobuzio, L., Lazzeroni, C., Lurkin, N., Newson, F., Parkinson, C., Romano, A., Sergi, A., Sturgess, A., Swallow, J., Heath, H., Page, R., Trilov, S., Angelucci, B., Britton, D., Graham, C., Protopopescu, D., Carmignani, J., Dainton, J. B., Jones, R. W. L., Ruggiero, G., Fulton, L., Hutchcroft, D., Maurice, E., Wrona, B., Conovaloff, A., Cooper, P., Coward, D., and Rubin, P.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1126-6708
• ISSN (Online): 1029-8479
• Published Online: 23 February 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of High Energy Physics 2021(2): 201
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License