Search for the lepton flavour violating decay $τ^-\to μ^-μ^+μ^-$

Abstract

A search for the lepton flavour violating decay $τ^-\to μ^-μ^+μ^-$ is performed with the LHCb experiment. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $1.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $7\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$ and $2.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ at $8\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. No evidence is found for a signal, and a limit is set at $90\%$ confidence level on the branching fraction, $\mathcal{B}(τ^-\to μ^-μ^+μ^-) < 4.6 \times 10^{-8}$.

20 pages, 10 figures, published as JHEP 02 (2015) 121