Search for the decay D0 to π+ π- μ+ μ-
hep-ex
/ Authors
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, B. Adeva, M. Adinolfi, C. Adrover, A. Affolder, Z. Ajaltouni, J. Albrecht, F. Alessio, M. Alexander
and 650 more authors
S. Ali, G. Alkhazov, P. Alvarez Cartelle, A. A. Alves, S. Amato, S. Amerio, Y. Amhis, L. Anderlini, J. Anderson, R. Andreassen, J. E. Andrews, R. B. Appleby, O. Aquines Gutierrez, F. Archilli, A. Artamonov, M. Artuso, E. Aslanides, G. Auriemma, M. Baalouch, S. Bachmann, J. J. Back, A. Badalov, C. Baesso, V. Balagura
/ Abstract
A search for the D0 to π+ π- μ+ μ- decay, where the muon pair does not originate from a resonance, is performed using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb-1 recorded by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. No signal is observed and an upper limit on the relative branching fraction with respect to the resonant decay mode D0 to π+ π- φ(to μ+ μ-), under the assumption of a phase-space model, is found to be B(D0 to π+ π- mu+ mu-)/B(D0 to π+ π- φ(to μ+ μ-)) < 0.96 at the 90% confidence level. The upper limit on the absolute branching fraction is evaluated to be B(D0 to π+ π- μ+ μ-) < 5.5 x 10-7 at 90% confidence level. This is the most stringent to date.