Search for D0 to p e- and D0 to pbar e+

TL;DR

This study searches for rare baryon and lepton number violating decays of the D^0 meson using CLEO-c data, setting upper limits on their branching fractions to constrain new physics models.

Contribution

First search for specific baryon and lepton number violating D^0 decays with experimental data, establishing upper limits on their branching fractions.

Findings

Branching fraction upper limit for D^0 --> p-bar e^+ is 1.1×10^{-5}.

Branching fraction upper limit for D^0 --> p e^- is 1.2×10^{-5}.

No evidence found for the targeted decays.

Abstract

Using data recorded by CLEO-c detector at CESR, we search for simultaneous baryon and lepton number violating decays of the D^0 meson, specifically, D^0 --> p-bar e^+, D^0-bar --> p-bar e^+, D^0 --> p e^- and D^0-bar --> p e^-. We set the following branching fraction upper limits: D^0 --> p-bar e^+ (D^0-bar --> p-bar e^+) < 1.1 *10^{-5} and D^0 --> p e^- (D^0-bar --> p e^-) < 1.2 * 10^{-5}, both at 90% confidence level.