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Search for invisible decay of orthopositronium

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters; (United States)
; ; ; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113 (Japan)

Orthopositronium ([ital o]-Ps) decay or conversion into invisible'' final states is searched for by measuring the energy deposited in a hermetic photon detector for each positron produced from [beta][sup +] decay of [sup 22]Na and stopped by an aerogel target. No invisible event is detected for a total of 10[sup 8] stopping positrons, thereby giving an upper limit of 2.8[times]10[sup [minus]6] on the [ital o]-Ps branching ratio, which is 200 times more stringent than previous limits. This experiment excludes an invisible decay as the origin of the reported discrepancy on [ital o]-Ps lifetime, provides a limit of [epsilon][lt]1.5[times]10[sup [minus]8] on the photon--mirror-photon mixing, and rules out millicharged particles lighter than 500 keV.

OSTI ID:
6872893
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 70:15; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English