Search for W Boson Decays to Three Charged Pions


Sirunyan A. M., Tumasyan A., Adam W., Ambrogi F., Asilar E., Bergauer T., ...More

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, vol.122, no.15, 2019 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 122 Issue: 15
  • Publication Date: 2019
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physrevlett.122.151802
  • Journal Name: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

For the first time, a search for the rare decay of the W boson to three charged pions has been performed. Proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 77.3 fb(-1), have been analyzed. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation. An upper limit of 1.01 x 10(-6) is set at 95% confidence level on the branching fraction of the W boson to three charged pions. This provides a strong motivation for theoretical calculations of this branching fraction.