Measurement of Prominent eta Decay Branching Fractions

Abstract

The decay psi(2S) --> eta J/psi is used to measure, for the first time, all prominent eta-meson branching fractions with the same experiment in the same dataset, thereby providing a consistent treatment of systematics across branching fractions. We present results for eta decays to gamma gamma, pi+pi-pi0, 3 pi0, pi+ pi- gamma, and e+ e- gamma, accounting for 99.9% of all eta decays. The precisions for several of the branching fractions and their ratios are improved. Two channels, pi+ pi- gamma and e+ e- gamma, show results that differ at the level of three standard deviations from those previously determined.

11 pages postscript,also available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/2007/, Submitted to PRL