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Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models

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Published on: November 15, 2013

Search for Lepton Flavor Violation in ϒ(3S)→e^{±}μ^{∓}.

J P Lees¹, V Poireau¹, V Tisserand¹

¹Laboratoire d'Annecy-le-Vieux de Physique des Particules (LAPP), Université de Savoie, CNRS/IN2P3, F-74941 Annecy-Le-Vieux, France.

Physical Review Letters

|March 18, 2022

Summary

Researchers searched for electron-muon lepton flavor violation (LFV) inUpsilon(3S) meson decays. No evidence was found, setting a new limit on this rare decay process and constraining new physics models.

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Area of Science:

Particle Physics
High Energy Physics
Flavor Physics

Background:

Lepton flavor is a fundamental symmetry in the Standard Model of particle physics.
Extensions to the Standard Model predict lepton flavor violation (LFV) in rare decays.
Searches for LFV provide sensitive probes of new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Purpose of the Study:

To perform the first search for electron-muon lepton flavor violation (LFV) in the decay of a b quark-antiquark bound state, specifically the Upsilon(3S) meson.
To set a limit on the branching fraction of the decay Upsilon(3S) -> e+/- mu-/+.
To constrain the energy scale of potential new physics contributing to LFV.

Main Methods:

Analysis of 118 million Upsilon(3S) mesons collected by the BABAR detector.
Data collected at the SLAC PEP-II e+e- collider with a center-of-mass energy of 10.36 GeV.
Search for the specific LFV decay Upsilon(3S) -> e+/- mu-/+.

Main Results:

No evidence for the electron-muon lepton flavor violating decay Upsilon(3S) -> e+/- mu-/+ was observed.
A new upper limit on the branching fraction was set: B[Upsilon(3S) -> e+/- mu-/+] < 3.6 x 10^-7 at 90% confidence level.
This result places a limit on new physics: Lambda_NP / g_NP^2 > 80 TeV.

Conclusions:

The absence of a signal in this search provides stringent constraints on theories beyond the Standard Model.
The obtained limit on LFV in Upsilon(3S) decays contributes to the broader effort to understand lepton flavor.
This result highlights the sensitivity of heavy quarkonium decays to new physics phenomena.