English

Lepton universality violation from neutral pion decays in $R_{K^{(*)}}$ measurements

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2022-03-14 v2

Abstract

I show that the neutral pion decay in BK()π0γB \to K^{(*)} \pi^0 \gamma, with π0eeγ\pi^0 \to ee \gamma, might generate large sources of lepton flavor universality violation (LFUV) in measurements of the ratios, RK()R_{K^{(*)}}: If the photons in the K()eeγγK^{(*)} e e \gamma \gamma final state are reconstructed as Bremsstrahlung, the recovered electron-positron invariant mass can be pushed into the 11-66 GeV2^{2} signal region, artificially enhancing the measured BK()eeB \to K^{(*)} e e branching ratio compared to BK()μμB \to K^{(*)} \mu\mu. I present a conservative estimate and simulation of the BKπ0γB \to K \pi^0 \gamma LFUV background at LHCb, that together suggest this effect could reduce the recovered RKR_K up to several percent. A reliable assessment of the size of this effect will require dedicated simulations within experimental frameworks themselves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2110.11209,
  title  = {Lepton universality violation from neutral pion decays in $R_{K^{(*)}}$ measurements},
  author = {Dean J. Robinson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.11209},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

6 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; published version; includes estimates for effects of lepton $p_T$ thresholds and magnetic bending power enhancements