Search for the rare decays ${\pi }^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }\nu \bar{\nu }$ and ${\pi }^{+}\to e^{+}{\nu }_e\nu \bar{\nu }$

Abstract

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

Comments: 6 figures