Study of B0 --> l+l'- decays (l,l' = e,mu)

Abstract

We present a search for the decays B0 --> e+e-, B0 --> mu+ mu- and B0 --> e mu using data collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e-collider at SLAC. Using a dataset corresponding to 384 x 10^6 BBbar pairs, we do not find evidence of any of the three decay modes. We obtain upper limit on the branching fractions, at 90% confidence level, of B(B0 --> e+e-)< 11.3 x 10^{-8}, B(B0 --> mu+ mu-) < 5.2 x 10^{-8}, and B(B0 --> e mu) < 9.2 x 10^{-8}.