Search for the rare decays $π^+ \to μ^+ν_μν\barν$ and $π^+ \to e^+ν_eν\barν$
hep-ex
/ Authors
A. Aguilar-Arevalo, M. Aoki, M. Blecher, D. I. Britton, D. vom Bruch, D. A. Bryman, S. Chen, J. Comfort, S. Cuen-Rochin, L. Doria
and 16 more authors
P. Gumplinger, A. Hussein, Y. Igarashi, S. Ito, S. Kettell, L. Kurchaninov, L. S. Littenberg, C. Malbrunot, R. E. Mischke, T. Numao, D. Protopopescu, A. Sher, T. Sullivan, D. Vavilo, D. Gorbunov, D. Kalashnikov
/ Abstract
The rare pion decays $π^+{\rightarrow}μ^+ν_μν\barν$ and $π^+{\rightarrow}e^+ν_{e}ν\barν$ are allowed in the Standard Model but highly suppressed. These decays were searched for using data from the PIENU experiment. A first result for $Γ(π^+{\rightarrow}μ^+ν_μν\barν)/Γ(π^+{\rightarrow}μ^+ν_μ)<8.6{\times}10^{-6}$, and an improved measurement $Γ(π^+{\rightarrow}{e}^+ν_{e}ν\barν)/Γ(π^+{\rightarrow}μ^+ν_μ)<1.6{\times}10^{-7}$ were obtained.