Measurement of the rare decay pi(0)-> e(+)e(-)
- Abouzaid, E
- Arenton, M
- Barker, AR
- Bellantoni, L
- Bellavance, A
- Blucher, E
- Bock, GJ
- Cheu, E
- Coleman, R
- Corcoran, MD
- Cox, B
- Erwin, AR
- Escobar, CO
- Glazov, A
- Golossanov, A
- Gomes, RA
- Gouffon, P
- Hanagaki, K
- Hsiung, YB
- Huang, H
- Jensen, DA
- Kessler, R
- Kotera, K
- Ledovskoy, A
- McBride, PL
- Monnier, E
- Nelson, KS
- Nguyen, H
- Niclasen, R
- Phillips, DG
- Ping, H
- Qi, XR
- Ramberg, EJ
- Ray, RE
- Ronquest, M
- Santos, E
- Shields, J
- Slater, W
- Smith, D
- Solomey, N
- Swallow, EC
- Toale, PA
- Tschirhart, R
- Velissaris, C
- Wah, YW
- Wang, J
- White, HB
- Whitmore, J
- Wilking, MJ
- Winstein, B
- Winston, R
- Worcester, ET
- Worcester, M
- Yamanaka, T
- Zimmerman, ED
- Zukanovich, RF
DOIAbstract
The branching ratio of the rare decay pi(0)-> e(+)e(-) has been measured precisely, using the complete data set from the KTeV E799-II experiment at Fermilab. We observe 794 candidate pi(0)-> e(+)e(-) events using K-L -> 3 pi(0) as a source of tagged pi(0)s. The expected background is 52.7 +/- 11.2 events, predominantly from high e(+)e(-) mass pi(0)-> e(+)e(-)gamma decays. We have measured B(pi(0)-> e(+)e(-),(m(e)(+)e(-)/m(pi)(0))(2)> 0.95)=(6.44 +/- 0.25(stat)+/- 0.22(syst))x10(-8), which is above the unitary bound from pi(0)->gamma gamma and within the range of theoretical expectations from the standard model.75
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