Abstract

The η meson provides a laboratory to study isospin violation and search for new flavor-conserving sources of C and CP violation with a sensitivity approaching 10−6 of the isospin-conserving strong amplitude. Some of the most interesting rare η decays are the neutral modes, yet the effective loss of photons from the relatively common decay η → 3π0 → 6γ (33%) has largely obscured rare decays producing 3-5γ's. Particularly important relevant branches include the highly suppressed η → π0 2γ → 4γ, which provides a rare window on testing models of O (p 6 ) contributions in ChPTh, and η → 3γ and η → 2π0 γ → 5γ which provide direct constraints on C violation in flavor-conserving processes. The substitution of lead tungstate in the forward calorimeter of the GluEx setup in Jefferson Lab's new Hall D would allow dramatically improved measurements. The main niche of this facility, which we call the JLab Eta Factory (JEF), would be η decay neutral modes. However, this could likely be expanded to rare η′(958) decays for low energy QCD studies as well as η decays involving muons for new physics searches.

Highlights

  • IntroductionThe problem is that when photons from this dominant branch are lost out of the acceptance (or showers merge in the calorimeter), rare decays to 3-5 ’s can be overwhelmed by background

  • The meson provides a laboratory to study isospin violation and search for new flavor-conserving sources of C and CP violation. [1] Because the has an unusually small decay width [3], a branching ratio upper limit of O(10−6) corresponds to a partial width 11 orders of magnitude smaller than for example the total decay width

  • The substitution of lead tungstate in the forward calorimeter of the GluEx setup in Jefferson Lab’s new Hall D would allow dramatically improved measurements

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Summary

Introduction

The problem is that when photons from this dominant branch are lost out of the acceptance (or showers merge in the calorimeter), rare decays to 3-5 ’s can be overwhelmed by background. The appropriate figure of merit (FOM) to maximize is F OM ≡ N /fbkg. Note that an order of magnitude reduction in a BR upper limit requires an improvement in FOM of 100! The addition of a high resolution lead tungstate core to the GluEx forward lead-glass calorimeter would allow dramatically improved neutral mode measurements (a reduction of 1–1.5 orders of magnitude in the BR). The missing energy cut prevents feed-down from higher invariant masses into the invariant mass window, while a cut on co-planarity between the and recoil proton suppresses multistep decays like + p → 0 + X+ → 2 0 + p

Physics interest in rare all-neutral Eta decays
Physics beyond the standard model
Other potential applications of the JEF facility

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