Discovering True Muonium at LHCb


Abstract in English

We study the potential of the LHCb experiment to discover, for the first time, the $mu^+mu^-$ true muonium bound state. We propose a search for the vector $1^3S_1$ state, $mathcal{T!M}$, which kinetically mixes with the photon and dominantly decays to $e^+e^-$. We demonstrate that a search for $eta to gamma mathcal{T!M}$, $mathcal{T!M}to e^+e^-$ in a displaced vertex can exceed a significance of 5 standard deviations assuming statistical uncertainties. We present two possible searches: an inclusive search for the $e^+e^-$ vertex, and an exclusive search which requires an additional photon and a reconstruction of the $eta$ mass.

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