Novel method for identifying the heaviest QED atom

  • Jing Hang Fu
  • , Sen Jia
  • , Xing Yu Zhou
  • , Yu Jie Zhang*
  • , Cheng Ping Shen
  • , Chang Zheng Yuan
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

QED atoms are composed of unstructured and point-like lepton pairs bound together by the electromagnetic force. The smallest and heaviest QED atom is formed by a τ+τ- pair. Currently, the only known atoms of this type are the e+e- and μ+e- atoms, which were discovered 64 years ago and remain the sole examples found thus far. We demonstrate that the Jτ+τ- atom with JPC=1) atom signal can be observed with a significance larger than 5σ including both statistical and systematic uncertainties, via. the process e+e-→X+Y-Ɇ (X,Y=e,μ,π,K, or ρ, and Ɇ is the missing energy due to unobserved neutrinos) with 1.5ab-1 data taken around the τ pair production threshold. The τ lepton mass can be measured with a precision of 1 keV with the same data sample. This is within one year's running time of the proposed super tau-charm facility in China or super charm-tau factory in Russia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1386-1391
Number of pages6
JournalScience Bulletin
Volume69
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 May 2024

Keywords

  • QED atom
  • SCTF
  • STCF
  • Tau lepton
  • ee annihilation

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