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.
See caption of Figure 6.
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.
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