# Observation of CP Violation in 𝐾_𝐿→𝜋⁺⁢𝜋⁻⁢𝑒⁺⁢𝑒⁻ Decays

The KTeV E799 experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory recently reported the first observation  of the four body decay mode $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$. Based on 2% of the data, a branching ratio of $`3.2\pm 0.6(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.4(\mathrm{syst})\times 10^7`$ was measured. In this paper, we report an analysis of the entire KTeV E799 data from which the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ signal (shown in Fig. 1) of 1811 events above background was obtained after the analysis cuts described below. We observed in these $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ data a CP-violating asymmetry in the CP- and T-odd variable $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$,

$$A=\frac{N_{\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi >0.0}N_{\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi <0.0}}{N_{\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi >0.0}+N_{\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi <0.0}}$$
(1)   
where $`\varphi `$ is the angle between the $`e^+e^{}`$ and $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ planes in the $`K_L`$ cms. This asymmetry implies, with mild assumptions, time reversal symmetry violation as well. The quantity $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ is given by $`(\widehat{n}_{ee}\times \widehat{n}_{\pi \pi })\widehat{z}(\widehat{n}_{ee}\widehat{n}_{\pi \pi })`$, where the $`\widehat{n}^{}s`$ are the unit normals and $`\widehat{z}`$ is the unit vector in the direction of the $`\pi \pi `$ in the $`K_L`$ cms.

The observed asymmetry $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ shown in Fig. 2 was $`23.3\pm 2.3(\mathrm{stat})`$% before corrections. Inspection of Fig. 2 shows that the asymmetry between the bins near $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi =\pm 0.5`$ is considerably larger. As discussed below, this cannot be explained by asymmetries due to either the spectrometer acceptance or detector elements. Using the model of Ref.  to correct for regions of $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ phase space outside the acceptance of the KTeV spectrometer (which have small asymmetry), an asymmetry integrated over the entire phase space of the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ mode of $`13.6\pm 2.5(\mathrm{stat})`$% was obtained, the largest such CP- (and T-) violating effect yet observed. In comparison, CPLEAR recently reported a $`0.66\pm 0.13(\mathrm{stat})`$% T-violating asymmetry  between $`K^0\overline{K}^0`$ and $`\overline{K}^0K^0`$ transition rates.

The $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ data were accumulated during the ten weeks of E799 operation. A proton beam with intensity typically in the range $`3.03.5\times 10^{12}`$ protons per 23 second spill incident at an angle of 4.8 mr on a BeO target was employed to produce two nearly parallel $`K_L`$ beams for E799. The configuration of the KTeV E799 spectrometer consisted of a vacuum decay region, a magnetic spectrometer with four drift chambers, photon vetoes, eight transition radiation chambers, a CsI electromagnetic calorimeter, and a muon detector. A total of $`2.7\times 10^{11}`$ $`K_L`$ decays were accumlated during the E799 run. Details of the KTeV detector are given in Ref. .

The KTeV four track trigger  selected $`1.3\times 10^8`$ events. Candidate $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ events were extracted from these triggers by requiring events with four tracks that passed track quality cuts and had a common vertex with a good vertex $`\chi ^2`$. To be designated as $`e^\pm `$, two of the tracks were required to have opposite charges and $`0.95\mathrm{E}/\mathrm{p}1.05`$ where E was the energy deposited by the track in the CsI and p was the momentum obtained from magnetic deflection. To be consistent with a $`\pi ^\pm `$ pair, the other two tracks were required to have $`\mathrm{E}/\mathrm{p}0.90`$ and opposite charges.

To reduce backgrounds arising from other types of $`K_L`$ decays in which decay products have been missed, the candidate $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ were required to have transverse momentum $`P_t^2`$ of the four tracks relative to the direction of the $`K_L`$ be less than $`0.6\times 10^4\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$. This cut was 91.8% efficient for retaining $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$.

The major background to the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ mode was $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi _D^0`$ where $`\pi _D^0`$ was a Dalitz decay, $`\pi ^0\gamma e^+e^{}`$, in which the photon was not observed in the CsI calorimeter or the photon vetos. To reduce this background, all $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ candidate events were interpreted as $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi _D^0`$ decays. Under this assumption, the momentum squared $`P_{\pi ^0}^2`$ of the assumed $`\pi ^0`$ can be calculated in the frame in which the momentum of $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ is transverse to the $`K_L`$ direction. $`P_{\pi ^0}^2`$ was mostly greater than zero for $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi _D^0`$ decays except for cases where finite detector resolution produces a $`P_{\pi ^0}^20`$. In contrast, most of the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ decays had $`P_{\pi ^0}^20`$. The requirement that all $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ had $`(P_{\pi ^0})^20.00625\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ minimized the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi _D^0`$ background while retaining 94.8% of the signal.

Other backgrounds were relatively minor. The largest of these was due to $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma `$ decays in which the photon converted in the material of the spectrometer. These events, which reconstructed to the $`K_L`$ mass and survived the $`P_t^2`$ and $`P_{\pi ^0}^2`$ cuts, were eliminated by requiring $`M_{e^+e^{}}2.0\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$. The $`M_{e^+e^{}}`$ cut retained 95.3% of the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ events. A third background due to accidental coincidence of two $`K_L\pi ^\pm e^{}\nu `$ decays ($`K_{e_3}`$) whose decay vertices overlap was minimized by track and vertex $`\chi ^2`$ cuts. A fourth background due to $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi _D^0`$ where the proton from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay was misidentified as a $`\pi ^+`$ was made negligible by $`K^0`$ momentum and vertex $`\chi ^2`$ cuts. Finally, a fifth background due to $`K_S\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ decays was eliminated by requiring the energy of the $`\pi \pi ee`$ be $``$200 GeV/$`c^2`$.

The final requirement of the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ events was $`492\mathrm{MeV}/c^2M_{\pi \pi ee}504\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$. The magnitude of the background under the $`K_L`$ peak was determined by a fit to the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ mass distribution outside the signal region. From this fit, a $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ signal of $`1811\pm 43(\mathrm{stat})`$ events above a background of $`45\pm 11`$ events was obtained in the signal region. The 45 event background was composed of residual $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi _D^0`$ (36 events), $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma `$ (4.0 events), overlapping $`K_{e_3}`$ (3.5 events), cascade decays (1.3 events) and $`K_S\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ (0.2 events).

Possible sources of false asymmetries were considered, including those due to backgrounds and asymmetries in the detector. To check for detector asymmetries, the copious $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi _D^0`$ decay mode, which has a similar topology to $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ except for the presence of an extra photon in the CsI, was used. This mode is expected to have no asymmetry in the $`\varphi `$ distribution formed using the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$. In a sample of approximately five million Dalitz decays, an asymmetry of $`0.02\pm 0.05`$% was observed. The small background under the $`K_L`$ was determined not to contribute significantly to the asymmetry in the $`K_L`$ mass region since the asymmetry of the sideband regions below and above the $`K_L`$ mass was measured to be $`3.1\pm 5.1`$% and $`2.3\pm 9.2`$% respectively.

To perform an acceptance correction for loss of events due to spectrometer geometry, trigger, reconstruction efficiency, and analysis cuts, we modeled the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ decays and simulated the response of the KTeV detector elements. The $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ decay mode is expected  to proceed via both CP-violating and conserving amplitudes and exhibit both direct and indirect CP-violation. The dominant CP-violating amplitude is indirect and proceeds via an initial decay of the $`K_L`$ into $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ followed by one of the pions undergoing inner bremsstrahlung with the resulting photon internally converting to an $`e^+e^{}`$ pair. The dominant CP-conserving amplitude is the emission of an M1 photon at the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ decay vertex followed by internal conversion. The interference between two amplitudes shown in Fig. 3a and b respectively generates the $`\varphi `$ asymmetry (Monte Carlo simulations with the phases of the bremsstralung and M1 amplitudes set so that no interference takes place exhibit no $`\varphi `$ asymmetry).

Using this model, the angular distribution in $`\varphi `$ is

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{d\varphi }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_1\mathrm{cos}^2\varphi +\mathrm{\Gamma }_2\mathrm{sin}^2\varphi +\mathrm{\Gamma }_3\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi $$
(2)   
where the T-odd $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ term contains the interference between the M1 and bremsstrahlung amplitudes.

Two other processes that contribute small amounts to the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ decay were taken into account: the indirect CP-violating E1 photon emission (Fig. 3c) and the CP-conserving $`K^0`$ charge radius process (Fig. 3d) in which the $`K_LK_S`$ via emission of a photon.

The Monte Carlo simulation incorporated the amplitudes shown in Fig. 3a-d. To obtain agreement with the virtual photon energy spectrum $`E_\gamma ^{}=E_{e^+}+E_e^{}`$ of the data (Fig. 4a), a form factor was required in the M1 virtual photon emission amplitude of Fig. 3b. We turn now to a detailed discussion of this form factor.

Such a form factor has been required  to explain the energy spectrum of the M1 photon emitted in the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma `$ decay. In order to incorporate a similar form factor, we have modified the coupling $`g_{M1}`$ of the M1 amplitude, including a form factor

$$F=\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}[1+\frac{a_1/a_2}{(M_\rho ^2M_K^2)+2M_K(E_{e^+}+E_e^{})}]$$
(3)   
similar to that used to describe $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma `$ where $`M_\rho `$ is the mass of the $`\rho `$ meson (770 MeV/$`c^2`$) and the photon energy has been replaced by $`E_{e^+}+E_e^{}`$. The ratio $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ were determined by fitting the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ data using the likelihood function

$$L(a_1/a_2,\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1})=\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }_{k=1}^NP_M^k(a_1/a_2,\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1})P_a^k}{(_{ps}P_M(a_1/a_2,\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1})P_a(a_1/a_2,\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}))^N}$$
(4)   
The probability $`P_M^k`$ of a given event is based on the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ matrix element and is a function of the five independent variables: $`\varphi `$, $`\theta _{e^+}`$ (the angle between the $`e^+`$ and the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ direction in the $`e^+e^{}`$ cms), $`\theta _{\pi ^+}`$ (the angle between the $`\pi ^+`$ and the $`e^+e^{}`$ direction in the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ cms), $`M_{\pi ^+\pi ^{}}`$, and $`M_{e^+e^{}}`$. It is calculated using the particular values of the parameters $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ and nominal values from the PDG  or Ref.  for the other model parameters. The likelihood of an event is the product of $`P_M^k`$ times $`P_a^k`$, the acceptance times efficiency of the event, normalized by the product of $`P_M`$ and $`P_a`$ integrated over the entire phase space (ps).

The result of the likelihood calculation is shown in Fig. 4b. The maximum of the likelihood occurs at $`a_1`$/$`a_2=0.720\pm 0.028\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|=1.35_{0.17}^{+0.20}`$ where the errors represent the excursions of the likelihood function at the point where the log of the likelihood has decreased by one half unit (39% CL). The $`E_\gamma ^{}`$ spectrum predicted by the Monte Carlo with these parameters is shown in Fig. 4a, together with the prediction for a constant $`|g_{M1}|`$. Figure 2 shows the good agreement obtained using these parmeters between the observed $`\varphi `$ and $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ angular distributions and the Monte Carlo. When this form factor is included in the M1 amplitude, the constant $`|g_{M1}|=0.76`$ used in Ref.  can no longer be directly compared to the new $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ obtained in the likelihood fit. Rather, the average of the form factor $`F`$ of equation  over the range of $`E_{e^+}+E_e^{}`$ must be compared with the constant $`|g_{M1}|`$ value of $`0.76\pm 0.11`$. An average for $`F`$ of $`0.84\pm 0.10`$ was found, consistent within errors with 0.76. The branching ratio calculated using the form factor was increased by 5.7% compared with that obtained using $`|g_{M1}|`$ = 0.76.

Using the acceptance obtained from the Monte Carlo generated with the maximum likelihood values of $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ and $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$, the asymmetry of the acceptance corrected $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ distribution is found to be $`13.6\pm 2.5(\mathrm{stat})`$%. The contours of acceptance corrected asymmetry shown superimposed on the likelihood contours of $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ in Fig. 4 were determined from the $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ distribution of the data, corrected for acceptances determined using the particular $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ values.

We have considered whether the asymmetry was due to final state interactions. Because of the symmetry of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ state, electromagnetic or strong final state interactions, while they can modify the $`\varphi `$ distribution, cannot generate an T-odd asymmetry. The interference between the bremsstrahlung (I=0 $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$) and the M1 (I=1 $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$) amplitudes, which is responsible for the CP violating asymmetry, depends on the difference of the I=0 and I=1 strong interaction phase shifts but this difference can only modulate, not generate the asymmetry.

Systematic errors on $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ due to analysis cuts, resolutions and variations of parameters of the Monte Carlo were studied. By varying each analysis cut over a reasonable range and observing the variation of $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$, $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ systematic errors of $`\pm 0.008\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ and $`\pm 0.04`$ were obtained.

To determine the systematic errors due to resolution, resolution functions in the five variables were estimated by comparing generated and reconstructed Monte Carlo events. Using these functions to smear each independent variable for each data event, one thousand passes through the 1811 $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ signal events were made. The one thousand smeared data samples were refit, and $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ were determined for each of the samples. The variation of $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ for these samples resulted in errors of $`\pm 0.002\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ and $`\pm 0.01`$ for $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$.

The systematic errors in $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ due to uncertainties  in the magnitude and phase of $`\eta _+`$, and the uncertainties in $`|g_{E1}|`$ and $`|g_{CR}|`$, estimated by varying the magnitude of the ratio of $`|g_{E1}|`$ to $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ from 0.0 to 0.05 (nominal 0.038) and $`|g_{CP}|`$ from 0.10 to 0.17 (nominal 0.15), resulted in systematic errors in $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ of $`\pm 0.004\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ and $`\pm 0.01`$ respectively.

All systematic errors in $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ were added in quadrature to obtain an overall error of $`\pm 0.009\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ and $`\pm 0.04`$ in $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ respectively.

The systematic error in the $`\varphi `$ asymmetry due to variations in the corrections for acceptance arising from the systematic errors of the $`a_1`$/$`a_2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|`$ and one sigma uncertainties of other parameters of the MC model discussed above was determined to be $`\pm 0.7`$%. The variation in asymmetry due to analysis cuts was also estimated to be $`\pm 0.7`$%. Finally, the systematic error due to resolution effects was determined to be $`\pm 0.7`$% using generated tracks from the Monte Carlo rather than reconstructed tracks in the analysis. Adding in quadrature the systematic errors from these three sources, a total systematic error of $`\pm 1.2`$% was obtained for the acceptance corrected asymmetry of the $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ distribution.

In conclusion, the KTeV experiment has observed a CP-violating asymmetry in the distribution of T-odd angle $`\varphi `$ in $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ decays. This effect, the largest CP violation effect yet observed and the first in an angular variable, is T-violating barring possible exotic phenomena  such as direct CPT violation in the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ matrix element. The magnitude of the acceptance corrected asymmetry is $`13.6\pm 2.5(\mathrm{stat})\pm 1.2(\mathrm{syst})`$%, consistent with the theoretically expected asymmetry . In addition, the M1 photon emission amplitude requires a vector form factor as given in equation (3) with $`a_1`$/$`a_2=0.720\pm 0.028(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.009(\mathrm{syst})\mathrm{GeV}^2/c^2`$ and $`|\stackrel{~}{g}_{M1}|=1.35_{0.17}^{+0.20}(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.04(\mathrm{syst})`$. The rich structure of the $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}e^+e^{}`$ mode has provided a new opportunity for the study of novel CP- and T-violation effects. In the future, it may be possible to use this mode to search for direct CP violation  and more exotic phenomena .

We thank Fermilab, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Japan for their support.

To whom correspondence should be addressed.   
Electronic address: cox@uvahep.phys.virginia.edu   
On leave from C.P.P. Marseille/C.N.R.S., France