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Title: Precision measurement of the neutral pion lifetime
The explicit breaking of the axial symmetry by quantum fluctuations gives rise to the so-called axial anomaly. This phenomenon is solely responsible for the decay of the neutral pion π 0 into two photons (γγ), leading to its unusually short lifetime. We precisely measured the decay width Γ of the π 0 →   γ γ process. The differential cross sections for π 0 photoproduction at forward angles were measured on two targets, carbon-12 and silicon-28, yielding Γ ( π 0 →   γ γ ) = 7.798 ± 0.056 ( stat . ) ± 0.109 ( syst . )  eV , where stat. denotes the statistical uncertainty and syst. the systematic uncertainty. We combined the results of this and an earlier experiment to generate a weighted average of Γ ( π 0 →   γ γ ) = 7.802 ± 0.052 ( stat . ) ± 0.105 ( syst . )  eV . Our final result has a total uncertainty of 1.50% and confirms the prediction based on the chiral anomaly in quantum chromodynamics.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1812396
PAR ID:
10169162
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Science
Volume:
368
Issue:
6490
ISSN:
0036-8075
Page Range / eLocation ID:
506 to 509
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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