Observation of the Rare Decay of the η Meson to Four Muons

Authors

A. Hayrapetyan, CMS Collaboration

Date of this Version

9-1-2023

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 131, 091903 (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.091903

Comments

Used by permission.

Abstract

A search for the rare η → μ⁺μ⁻μ⁺μ⁻ double-Dalitz decay is performed using a sample of proton-proton collisions, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC with high-rate muon triggers during 2017 and 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb⁻¹. A signal having a statistical significance well in excess of 5 standard deviations is observed. Using the η → μ⁺μ⁻ decay as normalization, the branching fraction β(η → μ⁺μ⁻μ⁺μ⁻) = [5.0 ± 0.8(stat) ± 0.7(syst) ± 0.7(β2μ)] × 10⁻⁹ is measured, where the last term is the uncertainty in the normalization channel branching fraction. This work achieves an improved precision of over 5 orders of magnitude compared to previous results, leading to the first measurement of this branching fraction, which is found to agree with theoretical predictions.