The MECO experiment: A search for lepton flavor violation in muonic atoms

TL;DR

The MECO experiment aims to detect lepton flavor violation in muonic atoms by searching for rare muon-to-electron conversion with unprecedented sensitivity, significantly surpassing current experimental limits.

Contribution

This paper introduces the MECO experiment, which proposes a novel, highly sensitive method to search for muon-electron flavor violation in muonic atoms, improving detection limits by orders of magnitude.

Findings

Expected sensitivity of R_{μe} < 5×10^{-17} at 90% CL

Potential to improve current limits by 3-4 orders of magnitude

Overview of experimental design and methodology

Abstract

MECO will search for direct evidence of muon and electron flavor violation in the decay of muons in Coulomb bound states via coherent recoil of the nucleus and decay electron. The expected sensitivity to the $\mu^{-} {\rm N} \to e^{-} + {\rm N}$ branching fraction relative to muon capture $\mu^{-} {\rm N}(A,Z) \to \nu_{\mu} + {\rm N}(A,Z-1)$ is $R_{\mu e} < 5\times 10^{-17}$ at 90% confidence level, roughly three to four orders of magnitude lower than current limits. This article provides an overview of the experiment.