Search for rare or forbidden decays of the $D^{0}$ meson

Abstract

We present a search for nine lepton-number-violating and three lepton-flavor-violating neutral charm decays of the type $D^0\rightarrow h^{\prime -} h^{-}\ell^{\prime +} \ell^{+}$ and $D^0\rightarrow h^{\prime -} h^{+}\ell^{\prime\pm} \ell^{\mp}$, where $h$ and $h^{\prime}$ represent a $K$ or $\pi$ meson and $\ell$ and $\ell^{\prime}$ an electron or muon. The analysis is based on $468$ fb$^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ annihilation data collected at or close to the $Y(4S)$ resonance with the BaBar detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. No significant signal is observed for any of the twelve modes and we establish 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions in the range $(1.0 - 30.6)\times 10^{-7}$. The limits are between one and three orders of magnitude times more stringent than previous measurements.