Search for Lepton Flavor Violation in ϒ(3S)→e^{±}μ^{∓}

Lees, J P; Poireau, V; Tisserand, V; Grauges, E; Palano, A; Eigen, G; Brown, D N; Kolomensky, Yu G; Fritsch, M; Koch, H; Schroeder, T; Cheaib, R; Hearty, C; Mattison, T S; Mckenna, J A; R Y, So; Blinov, V E; Buzykaev, A R; Druzhinin, V P; Golubev, V B; Kozyrev, E A; Kravchenko, E A; Onuchin, A P; Serednyakov, S I; Skovpen, Yu I; Solodov, E P; Todyshev, K Yu; Lankford, A J; Dey, B; Gary, J W; Long, O; Eisner, A M; Lockman, W S; Panduro Vazquez, W; Chao, D S; Cheng, C H; Echenard, B; Flood, K T; Hitlin, D G; Kim, J; Li, Y; Lin, D X; Middleton, S; Miyashita, T S; Ongmongkolkul, P; Oyang, J; Porter, F C; Röhrken, M; Huard, Z; Meadows, B T; Pushpawela, B G; Sokoloff, M D; Sun, L; Smith, J G; Wagner, S R; Bernard, D; Verderi, M; Bettoni, D; Bozzi, C; Calabrese, R; Cibinetto, G; Fioravanti, E; Garzia, I; Luppi, E; Santoro, V; Calcaterra, A; de Sangro, R; Finocchiaro, G; Martellotti, S; Patteri, P; Peruzzi, I M; Piccolo, M; Rotondo, M; Zallo, A; Passaggio, S; Patrignani, C; Shuve, B J; Lacker, H M; Bhuyan, B; Mallik, U; Chen, C; Cochran, J; Prell, S; Gritsan, A V; Arnaud, N; Davier, M; Le Diberder, F; Lutz, A M; Wormser, G; Lange, D J; Wright, D M; Coleman, J P; Gabathuler, E; Hutchcroft, D E; Payne, D J; Touramanis, C; Bevan, A J; Di Lodovico, F; Sacco, R; Cowan, G; Banerjee, Sw; Brown, D N; Davis, C L; Denig, A G; Gradl, W; Griessinger, K; Hafner, A; Schubert, K R; Barlow, R J; Lafferty, G D; Cenci, R; Jawahery, A; Roberts, D A; Cowan, R; Robertson, S H; Seddon, R M; Neri, N; Palombo, F; Cremaldi, L; Godang, R; Summers, D J; Taras, P; De Nardo, G; Sciacca, C; Raven, G; Jessop, C P; Losecco, J M; Honscheid, K; Kass, R; Gaz, A; Margoni, M; Posocco, M; Simi, G; Simonetto, F; Stroili, R; Akar, S; Ben-Haim, E; Bomben, M; Bonneaud, G R; Calderini, G; Chauveau, J; Marchiori, G; Ocariz, J; Biasini, M; Manoni, E; Rossi, A; Batignani, G; Bettarini, S; Carpinelli, M; Casarosa, G; Chrzaszcz, M; Forti, F; Giorgi, M A; Lusiani, A; Oberhof, B; Paoloni, E; Rama, M; Rizzo, G; Walsh, J J; Zani, L; Smith, A J S; Anulli, F; Faccini, R; Ferrarotto, F; Ferroni, F; Pilloni, A; Piredda, G; Bünger, C; Dittrich, S; Grünberg, O; Heß, M; Leddig, T; Voß, C; Waldi, R; Adye, T; Wilson, F F; Emery, S; Vasseur, G; Aston, D; Cartaro, C; Convery, M R; Dorfan, J; Dunwoodie, W; Ebert, M; Field, R C; Fulsom, B G; Graham, M T; Hast, C; Innes, W R; Kim, P; Leith, D W G S; Luitz, S; Macfarlane, D B; Muller, D R; Neal, H; Ratcliff, B N; Roodman, A; Sullivan, M K; Va'Vra, J; Wisniewski, W J; Purohit, M V; Wilson, J R; Randle-Conde, A; Sekula, S J; Ahmed, H; Bellis, M; Burchat, P R; Puccio, E M T; Alam, M S; Ernst, J A; Gorodeisky, R; Guttman, N; Peimer, D R; Soffer, A; Spanier, S M; Ritchie, J L; Schwitters, R F; Izen, J M; Lou, X C; Bianchi, F; De Mori, F; Filippi, A; Gamba, D; Lanceri, L; Vitale, L; Martinez-Vidal, F; Oyanguren, A; Albert, J; Beaulieu, A; Bernlochner, F U; King, G J; Kowalewski, R; Lueck, T; Nugent, I M; Roney, J M; Sobie, R J; Tasneem, N; Gershon, T J; Harrison, P F; Latham, T E; Prepost, R; S L, Wu

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.091804

We report on the first search for electron-muon lepton flavor violation (LFV) in the decay of a b quark and b antiquark bound state. We look for the LFV decay Upsilon(3S) -> e(+/-) mu(-/+) in a sample of 118 million gamma(3S) mesons from 27 fb(-1) of data collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II e(+) e(-) collider operating with a 10.36 GeV center-of-mass energy. No evidence for a signal is found, and we set a limit on the branching fraction B[Upsilon(3S) -> e(+/-) mu(-/+)] < 3.6 x 10(-7) at 90% C. L. This result can be interpreted as a limit Lambda(NP)/g(NP)(2) > 80 TeV on the energy scale Lambda(NT) divided by the coupling-squared g(NP)(2) of relevant new physics (NP).