Search for the 𝐾 𝐿 → 𝜋 0 $𝜈\bar{𝜈}$ Decay at the J-PARC KOTO Experiment
We performed a search for the 𝐾 𝐿 → 𝜋 0 $𝜈\bar{𝜈}$ decay using the data taken in 2021 at the J-PARC KOTO experiment. With newly installed counters and new analysis method, the expected background was suppressed to 0.252 ± 0.055 stat $^{+0.052}_{{−0.067^{syst}}}$. With a single event sensitivity of (9.33 ± 0.06 stat ±0.84 syst ) × 10 −10 , no events were observed in the signal region. An upper limit on the branching fraction for the decay was set to be 2.2 ×10 −9 at the 90% confidence level (C.L.), which improved the previous upper limit from KOTO by a factor of 1.4. With the same data, a search for 𝐾 𝐿 → 𝜋 0 𝑋 0 was also performed, where 𝑋 0 is an invisible boson with a mass ranging from 1 to 260 MeV/𝑐 2 . For 𝑋 0 with a mass of 135 MeV/𝑐 2 , an upper limit on the branching fraction of 𝐾 𝐿 → 𝜋 0 𝑋 0 was set to be 1.6 ×10 −9 at the 90% C.L.