Measurement of the $K^+\to\pi^+\gamma\gamma$ decay

The NA62 collaboration Cortina Gil, Eduardo ; Minucci, Elisa ; Padolski, Sergey ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 850 (2024) 138513, 2024.
Inspire Record 2718968 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.147259

A sample of 3984 candidates of the $K^+\to\pi^+\gamma\gamma$ decay, with an estimated background of $291\pm14$ events, was collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN during 2017-2018. In order to describe the observed di-photon mass spectrum, the next-to-leading order contribution in chiral perturbation theory was found to be necessary. The decay branching ratio in the full kinematic range is measured to be $(9.61\pm0.17)\times10^{-7}$. The first search for production and prompt decay of an axion-like particle with gluon coupling in the process $K^+\to\pi^+a$, $a\to\gamma\gamma$ is also reported.

5 data tables

See caption of Figure 6.

Upper limits at 90% CL of $B(K^+\to\pi^+a)\times B(a\to\gamma\gamma)$ in the prompt ALP decay assumption.

See caption of Figure 9.

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Search for $K^+$ decays into the $\pi^+e^+e^-e^+e^-$ final state

The NA62 collaboration Cortina Gil, Eduardo ; Minucci, Elisa ; Padolski, Sergey ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 846 (2023) 138193, 2023.
Inspire Record 2676523 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.144587

The first search for ultra-rare $K^+$ decays into the $\pi^+e^+e^-e^+e^-$ final state is reported, using a dataset collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2017-2018. An upper limit of $1.4\times 10^{-8}$ at 90% CL is obtained for the branching ratio of the $K^+\to\pi^+e^+e^-e^+e^-$ decay, predicted in the Standard Model to be $(7.2\pm0.7)\times 10^{-11}$. Upper limits at 90% CL are obtained at the level of $10^{-9}$ for the branching ratios of two prompt decay chains involving pair-production of hidden-sector mediators: $K^+\to\pi^+aa$, $a\to e^+e^-$ and $K^+\to\pi^+S$, $S\to A^\prime A^\prime$, $A^\prime\to e^+e^-$.

1 data table

See caption of Fig 4.


Search for dark photon decays to $\mu^+\mu^-$ at NA62

The NA62 collaboration Cortina Gil, Eduardo ; Jerhot, Jan ; Kleimenova, Alina ; et al.
JHEP 09 (2023) 035, 2023.
Inspire Record 2642398 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.144533

The NA62 experiment at CERN, designed to study the ultra-rare decay $K^+ \to \pi^+\nu\overline{\nu}$, has also collected data in beam-dump mode. In this configuration, dark photons may be produced by protons dumped on an absorber and reach a decay volume beginning 80 m downstream. A search for dark photons decaying in flight to $\mu^+\mu^-$ pairs is reported, based on a sample of $1.4 \times 10^{17}$ protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed. A region of the parameter space is excluded at 90% CL, improving on previous experimental limits for dark photon masses between 215 and 550 MeV$/c^2$.

2 data tables

90% CL upper limit in dark photon coupling vs mass parameter space.

90% CL upper limit in \(BR(B \rightarrow K a, a \rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^-)\) vs lifetime \(\tau \) parameter space.