Search for lepton-flavor-violating $τ$ decays into a lepton and a vector meson using the full Belle data sample

Abstract

Charged-lepton-flavor-violation is predicted in several new physics scenarios. We update the analysis of $τ$ lepton decays into a light charged lepton ($\ell$ = $e^{\pm}$ or $μ^{\pm}$) and a vector meson ($V^0$ = $ρ^0$, $ϕ$, $ω$, $K^{\ast0}$, or $\overline{K}{}^{\ast0}$) using 980 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB collider. No significant excess of such signal events is observed, and thus 90% credibility level upper limits are set on the $τ\rightarrow \ell V^0$ branching fractions in the range of (1.7--$4.3) \times 10^{-8}$. These limits are improved by 30% on average from the previous results.

19 pages, 5 figures; added one sentence in Acknowledgments; added a systematic uncertainty about the number of background estimation, and corrected some sentences