Search for production of an invisible dark photon in $\pi^0$ decays

The NA62 collaboration Cortina Gil, Eduardo ; Minucci, Elisa ; Padolski, Sergey ; et al.
JHEP 05 (2019) 182, 2019.
Inspire Record 1726101 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.102492

The results of a search for $\pi^0$ decays to a photon and an invisible massive dark photon at the NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS are reported. From a total of $4.12\times10^8$ tagged $\pi^0$ mesons, no signal is observed. Assuming a kinetic-mixing interaction, limits are set on the dark photon coupling to the ordinary photon as a function of the dark photon mass, improving on previous searches in the mass range 60--110 MeV/$c^2$. The present results are interpreted in terms of an upper limit of the branching ratio of the electro-weak decay $\pi^0 \to \gamma \nu \overline{\nu}$, improving the current limit by more than three orders of magnitude.

3 data tables

See caption of Fig 6.

See caption of Fig 6.

90% CL expected upper limit refers to absence of signal in the region of squared missing mass above 0.0054 GeV^2.