Search for Anomalous Photonic Events with Missing Energy in e+e- Collisions at Ecm = 130, 136 and 183 GeV

Abstract

Photonic events with large missing energy have been observed in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130, 136 and 183 GeV collected in 1997 using the OPAL detector at LEP. Results are presented for event topologies with a single photon and missing transverse energy or with an acoplanar photon pair. Cross-section measurements are performed within the kinematic acceptance of each selection. These results are compared with the expectations from the Standard Model process e+e- to nunubar + photon(s). No evidence is observed for new physics contributions to these final states. Using the data at Ecm = 183 GeV, upper limits on sigma(e+e- to X.Y)*BR(X to Y gamma) and sigma(e+e- to X.X)*BR(X to Y gamma)**2 are derived for the case of stable and invisible Y. These limits apply to single and pair production of excited neutrinos (X = nu*, Y = nu), to neutralino production (X = Chi_2^0, Y = Chi_1^0) and to supersymmetric models in which X = chi_1^0 and Y is a light gravitino.