The Radiative Leptonic Decays D^0 -> e^+ e^- gamma, mu^+ mu^- gamma in the Standard Model and Beyond

Abstract

We present a calculation of the rare decay modes D^0 -> e^+ e^- gamma and D^0 -> mu^+ mu^- gamma in the framework of Standard Model. For the short distance part, we have derived QCD corrections to the Wilson coefficients involved, including C_9. The latter is found to be strongly suppressed by the corrections, leading to diminished values for the c -> u l^+l^- branching ratios in the 10^(-10) range. Within SM the exclusive decays are dominated by long distance effects. Nonresonant contributions are estimated using heavy quark and chiral symmetries to be at the level of 10%, compared to the contributions arising from D^0-> V gamma->l^+ l^- gamma, with V=rho, omega, phi. The total SM branching ratio is predicted to be in the range (1-3) x 10^(-9). We also consider contributions coming from MSSM with and without R parity conservation. Effects from MSSM are significant only for the R-parity violating case. Such contributions enhance the branching ratio D^0-> mu^+ mu^- gamma to 0.5 x 10^(-7), based on appropriately allowed values for C_9 and C_{10}. This selects D^0->mu^+ mu^- gamma as a possible probe of new physics.