Abstract
We present the result of a search for the charged-lepton-flavor violating decay τ− → μ−μ+μ− using a 424 fb−1 sample of data recorded by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB e+e− collider. The selection of e+e− → τ+τ− events is based on an inclusive reconstruction of the non-signal tau decay, and on a boosted decision tree to suppress background. We observe one signal candidate, which is compatible with the expectation from background processes. We set a 90% confidence level upper limit of 1.9 × 10−8 on the branching fraction of the τ− → μ−μ+μ− decay, which is the most stringent bound to date.
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Acknowledgments
This work, based on data collected using the Belle II detector, which was built and commissioned prior to March 2019, was supported by Higher Education and Science Committee of the Republic of Armenia Grant No. 23LCG-1C011; Australian Research Council and Research Grants No. DP200101792, No. DP210101900, No. DP210102831, No. DE220100462, No. LE210100098, and No. LE230100085; Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Austrian Science Fund No. P 34529, No. J 4731, No. J 4625, and No. M 3153, and Horizon 2020 ERC Starting Grant No. 947006 “InterLeptons”; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Compute Canada and CANARIE; National Key R&D Program of China under Contract No. 2022YFA1601903, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Research Grants No. 11575017, No. 11761141009, No. 11705209, No. 11975076, No. 12135005, No. 12150004, No. 12161141008, and No. 12175041, and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project ZR2022JQ02; the Czech Science Foundation Grant No. 22-18469S; European Research Council, Seventh Framework PIEF-GA-2013-622527, Horizon 2020 ERC-Advanced Grants No. 267104 and No. 884719, Horizon 2020 ERC-Consolidator Grant No. 819127, Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 700525 “NIOBE” and No. 101026516, and Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie RISE project JENNIFER2 Grant Agreement No. 822070 (European grants); L’Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) du CNRS and L’Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under grant ANR-21-CE31-0009 (France); BMBF, DFG, HGF, MPG, and AvH Foundation (Germany); Department of Atomic Energy under Project Identification No. RTI 4002, Department of Science and Technology, and UPES SEED funding programs No. UPES/R&D-SEED-INFRA/17052023/01 and No. UPES/R&D-SOE/20062022/06 (India); Israel Science Foundation Grant No. 2476/17, U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation Grant No. 2016113, and Israel Ministry of Science Grant No. 3-16543; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the Research Grants BELLE2; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grants No. 16H03968, No. 16H03993, No. 16H06492, No. 16K05323, No. 17H01133, No. 17H05405, No. 18K03621, No. 18H03710, No. 18H05226, No. 19H00682, No. 20H05850, No. 20H05858, No. 22H00144, No. 22K14056, No. 22K21347, No. 23H05433, No. 26220706, and No. 26400255, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of Japan; National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea Grants No. 2016R1D1A1B02012900, No. 2018R1A2B3003643, No. 2018R1A6A1A06024970, No. 2019R1I1A3A01058933, No. 2021R1A6A1A03043957, No. 2021R1F1A1060423, No. 2021R1F1A1064008, No. 2022R1A2C1003993, and No. RS-2022-00197659, Radiation Science Research Institute, Foreign Large-Size Research Facility Application Supporting project, the Global Science Experimental Data Hub Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and KREONET/GLORIAD; Universiti Malaya RU grant, Akademi Sains Malaysia, and Ministry of Education Malaysia; Frontiers of Science Program Contracts No. FOINS-296, No. CB-221329, No. CB-236394, No. CB-254409, and No. CB-180023, and SEP-CINVESTAV Research Grant No. 237 (Mexico); the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the National Science Center; the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the HSE University Basic Research Program, Moscow; University of Tabuk Research Grants No. S-0256-1438 and No. S-0280-1439 (Saudi Arabia); Slovenian Research Agency and Research Grants No. J1-9124 and No. P1-0135; Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, Spain Grant No. RYC2020-029875-I and Generalitat Valenciana, Spain Grant No. CIDEGENT/2018/020; National Science and Technology Council, and Ministry of Education (Taiwan); Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics; TUBITAK ULAKBIM (Turkey); National Research Foundation of Ukraine, Project No. 2020.02/0257, and Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine; the U.S. National Science Foundation and Research Grants No. PHY-1913789 and No. PHY-2111604, and the U.S. Department of Energy and Research Awards No. DE-AC06-76RLO1830, No. DE-SC0007983, No. DE-SC0009824, No. DE-SC0009973, No. DE-SC0010007, No. DE-SC0010073, No. DE-SC0010118, No. DE-SC0010504, No. DE-SC0011784, No. DE-SC0012704, No. DE-SC0019230, No. DE-SC0021274, No. DE-SC0021616, No. DE-SC0022350, No. DE-SC0023470; and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) under Grants No. NVCC.05.12/22-23 and No. DL0000.02/24-25.
These acknowledgements are not to be interpreted as an endorsement of any statement made by any of our institutes, funding agencies, governments, or their representatives.
We thank the SuperKEKB team for delivering high-luminosity collisions; the KEK cryogenics group for the efficient operation of the detector solenoid magnet; the KEK Computer Research Center for on-site computing support; the NII for SINET6 network support; and the raw-data centers hosted by BNL, DESY, GridKa, IN2P3, INFN, and the University of Victoria.
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The Belle II collaboration., Adachi, I., Aggarwal, L. et al. Search for lepton-flavor-violating τ− → μ−μ+μ− decays at Belle II. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 62 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2024)062
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2024)062