0000000000115049
AUTHOR
M. Blecher
Search for heavy neutrinos in \(\pi ^{ + } \to \mu ^{ + }\nu \) decay and status of lepton universality test in the PIENU experiment
International audience; In the present work of the PIENU experiment, heavy neutrinos were sought in pion decays \(\pi ^{ + } \to \mu ^{ + }\nu \). No evidence for extra peak was found in the muon kinetic energy spectrum and 90% confidence level upper limits were set on the neutrino mixing matrix \(|U_{\mu i}|^{2}\) in the mass range of 15.7 to 33.8 MeV/c^2, improving an order of magnitude over previous experiments. Current status of lepton universality test is also reported.
Improved search for two body muon decay μ+→e+XH
Charged lepton flavor violating muon decay ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}{X}_{H}$, where ${X}_{H}$ is a massive neutral boson, was sought by searching for extra peaks in the muon decay ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}\ensuremath{\nu}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}$ energy spectrum in the ${m}_{{X}_{H}}$ mass region $47.8--95.1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}/{c}^{2}$. No signal was found and 90% confidence level upper limits were set on the branching ratio $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}({\ensuremath{\mu}}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}{X}_{H})/\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}({\ensuremath{\mu}}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}\ensuremath{\nu}\overline{…
Search for heavy neutrinos in → Decay
In the present work of the PIENU experiment, heavy neutrinos were sought in pion decays π+→μ+ν at rest by examining the observed muon energy spectrum for extra peaks in addition to the expected peak for a light neutrino. No evidence for heavy neutrinos was observed. Upper limits were set on the neutrino mixing matrix |Uμi|2 in the neutrino mass region of 15.7–33.8 MeV/c$^{2}$, improving on previous results by an order of magnitude.
Improved search for heavy neutrinos in the decay π→eν
A search for massive neutrinos has been made in the decay π+→e+ν. No evidence was found for extra peaks in the positron energy spectrum indicative of pion decays involving massive neutrinos (π→e+νh). Upper limits (90% C.L.) on the neutrino mixing matrix element |Uei|2 in the neutrino mass region 60–135 MeV/c2 were set and are an order of magnitude improvement over previous results.
Search for three body pion decays π+→l+νX
The three body pion decays π+→l+νX(l=e,μ), where X is a weakly interacting neutral boson, were searched for using the full data set from the PIENU experiment. An improved limit on Γ(π+→e+νX)/Γ(π+→μ+νμ) in the mass range 0<mX<120 MeV/c2 and a first result for Γ(π+→μ+νX)/Γ(π+→μ+νμ) in the region 0<mX<33.9 MeV/c2 were obtained. The Majoron-neutrino coupling model was also constrained using the current experimental result of the π+→e+νe(γ) branching ratio.
Improved search for heavy neutrinos in the decay π→eν
A search for massive neutrinos has been made in the decay π+→e+ν. No evidence was found for extra peaks in the positron energy spectrum indicative of pion decays involving massive neutrinos (π→e+νh). Upper limits (90% C.L.) on the neutrino mixing matrix element |Uei|2 in the neutrino mass region 60–135 MeV/c2 were set and are an order of magnitude improvement over previous results.
Initial results from the PIENU experiment
The pion branching ratio, $R_{\pi } = \frac { {\Gamma }(\pi ^{+} \rightarrow e^{+} \nu _{e} + \pi ^{+}\rightarrow e^{+} \nu _{e} \gamma )}{\Gamma (\pi ^{+} \rightarrow \mu ^{+} \nu _{\mu } + \pi ^{+} \rightarrow \mu ^{+} \nu _{\mu } \gamma )}$ , provides a sensitive test of lepton universality and constraints on many new physics scenarios. The theoretical uncertainty on the Standard Model prediction of R π is 0.02 %, a factor of twenty smaller than the experimental uncertainty. The analysis of a subset of data taken by the PIENU experiment will be presented. The result, R π = (1.2344 ± 0.0023(s t a t) ± 0.0019(s y s t)) ⋅ 10−4 [1], is consistent with the Standard Model prediction and repres…