We report on a search for the lepton flavor violating tau- -> mu- gamma and tau- -> e- gamma decays based on 535/fb of data accumulated at the Belle experiment. No signal is found and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching ratios Br(tau- -> mu- gamma) < 4.5x10^-8 and Br(tau- -> e- gamma) < 1.2x10^-7.
We present the first measurements of branching fractions of rare tau-lepton decays, $tau^- rightarrow pi^- u_{tau} ell^+ ell^-$ ($ell = e$ or $mu$), using a data sample corresponding to 562 fb$^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV
with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. The $tau^- rightarrow pi^- u_tau e^+ e^-$ decay is observed for the first time with 7.0$sigma$ significance. The partial branching fraction determined by the structure-dependent mechanisms mediated by either a vector or an axial-vector current for the mass region $M_{pi e e}>1.05$ GeV/$c^2$ is measured to be $mathcal{B}(tau^-rightarrow pi^- u_tau e^+ e^-)[M_{pi^- e^+ e^-}>1.05~{rm GeV}/c^2] = (5.90 pm 0.53 pm 0.85 pm 0.11) times 10^{-6}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the model dependence. In the full phase space, due to the different detection efficiencies for the structure-dependent mechanisms mediated by axial-vector and vector currents, the branching fraction varies from $mathcal{B}_{A}(tau^-rightarrow pi^- u_tau e^+ e^-) = (1.46 pm 0.13 pm 0.21) times 10^{-5}$ to $mathcal{B}_{V}(tau^-rightarrow pi^- u_tau e^+ e^-) = (3.01 pm 0.27 pm 0.43) times 10^{-5}$, respectively. An upper limit is set on the branching fraction of the $tau^- rightarrow pi^- u_tau mu^+ mu^-$ decay, $mathcal{B}(tau^-rightarrow pi^- u_tau mu^+ mu^-) < 1.14 times 10^{-5}$, at the 90% confidence level.
The size of the branching ratios for the $tau to mu gamma$ and $tau to mu gamma gamma$ decays induced by a lepton flavor violating Higgs interaction $Htau mu$ is studied in the frame of effective field theories. The best constraint on the $Htau mu$ v
ertex, derived from the know measurement on the muon anomalous magnetic moment, is used to impose the upper bounds $Br(tau to mu gamma)<2.5times 10^{-10}$ and $Br(tau to mu gamma gamma)<2.3times 10^{-12}$, which are more stringent than current experimental limits on this class of transitions.
We search for lepton-number- and baryon-number-violating decays $tau^{-}tooverline{p}e^{+}e^{-}$, $pe^{-}e^{-}$, $overline{p}e^{+}mu^{-}$, $overline{p}e^{-}mu^{+}$, $overline{p}mu^{+}mu^{-}$, and $pmu^{-}mu^{-}$ using 921 fb$^{-1}$ of data, equivalen
t to $(841pm12)times 10^6$ $tau^{+}tau^{-}$ events, recorded with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider. In the absence of a signal, $90%$ confidence-level upper limits are set on the branching fractions of these decays in the range $(1.8$-$4.0)times 10^{-8}$. We set the worlds first limits on the first four channels and improve the existing limits by an order of magnitude for the last two channels.
Charged lepton flavor violation is forbidden in the Standard Model but possible in several new physics scenarios. In many of these models, the radiative decays $tau^{pm}rightarrowell^{pm}gamma$ ($ell=e,mu$) are predicted to have a sizeable probabilit
y, making them particularly interesting channels to search at various experiments. An updated search via $tau^{pm}rightarrowell^{pm}gamma$ using full data of the Belle experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 988 fb$^{-1}$, is reported for charged lepton flavor violation. No significant excess over background predictions from the Standard Model is observed, and the upper limits on the branching fractions, $mathcal{B}(tau^{pm}rightarrow mu^{pm}gamma)$ $leq$ $4.2times10^{-8}$ and $mathcal{B}(tau^{pm}rightarrow e^{pm}gamma)$ $leq$ $5.6times10^{-8}$, are set at 90% confidence level.
In the framework of the seesaw models with triplets of fermions, we evaluate the decay rates of $mu to e gamma$ and $tau to l gamma$ transitions. We show that although, due to neutrino mass constraints, those rates are in general expected to be well
under the present experimental limits, this is not necessarily always the case. Interestingly enough, the observation of one of those decays in planned experiments would nevertheless contradict bounds stemming from present experimental limits on the $mu to eee$ and $tau to 3 l$ decay rates. Such detection of radiative decays would therefore imply that there exist sources of lepton flavour violation not associated to triplet fermions.