First observation of the electromagnetic Dalitz decay $ψ(3686) \rightarrow μ^+ μ^- η^\prime$

Abstract

Utilizing $(2712.4 {\pm} 14.3)\times10^{6}~ψ(3686)$ events collected by the BESIII detector at the symmetric $e^+ e^-$ collider BEPCII, we report the first observation of the electromagnetic Dalitz decay $ψ(3686) \to μ^+ μ^-η^{\prime} $ with a statistical significance of 6.1$σ$. The branching fraction is determined to be $\mathcal{B}(ψ(3686) \to μ^+ μ^- η^{\prime})=(4.1 \pm 1.0_{\rm stat.} \pm 0.4_{\rm syst.})\times 10^{-7}$. The ratio to the branching fraction of the radiative decay $ψ(3686) \to γη^{\prime}$ is estimated to be $(3.3\pm0.9)\times10^{-3}$, which is consistent with the prediction of the vector meson dominance model within $1σ$. Furthermore, using the branching fraction of $ψ(3686) \to e^+ e^- η^{\prime}$ previously measured by the BESIII experiment, the ratio between the muon and the electron channels is evaluated to be $0.22\pm0.07$, which is consistent with the calculation of the vector meson dominance model within $1σ$, and no significant violation of lepton flavor universality is found.