English

Comprehensive ALP Searches in Meson Decays

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2025-07-29 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of axion-like particles (ALPs) in meson decays, combining effective field theory and ultraviolet models within the open-source tool ALPaca. The analysis accounts for running and matching effects across energy scales, including non-perturbative QCD corrections via chiral perturbation theory. We discuss several benchmark models, both flavour-universal and non-universal, using the most up-to-date theoretical computations for ALP decays and branching ratios. Experimental signatures such as prompt, displaced, and invisible decays are included. A dedicated analysis of the Belle II anomaly in the decay B+K+ννˉB^+ \to K^+ \nu \bar{\nu} is performed. Our results highlight the power of flavour observables in constraining ALPs and provide a versatile foundation for future searches.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.19578,
  title  = {Comprehensive ALP Searches in Meson Decays},
  author = {Jorge Alda and Marta Fuentes Zamoro and Luca Merlo and Xavier Ponce Díaz and Stefano Rigolin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.19578},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

74 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables. Source code available at https://github.com/alp-aca/alp-aca. Comments and suggestions are welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:19:28.335Z