Journal Article

Testing the hypothesis of vector X17 boson by D $$D$$ meson, charmonium, and ϕ $$\\phi $$ meson decays

Uyen, Lam Thi Thuc, Lin, Guey-Lin, Lee, Fei-Fan

2026

Overview

The recent ATOMKI experiments provided evidence pointing towards the existence of an X17 boson in the anomalous nuclear transitions of Beryllium-8, Helium-4, and Carbon-12. In this work, we consider X17 boson contributions to the previously measured D meson decays which include Ds∗+→Ds+e+e- , Ds∗+→Ds+γ , D∗0→D0e+e- , and D∗0→D0γ , as well as the measured decays of ψ(2S)→ηce+e- , ψ(2S)→ηcγ , ϕ→ηe+e- , and ϕ→ηγ . Using the data of the above meson decays, we perform a fitting to the coupling parameters εu,εc , and εs by treating the couplings εu and εc as independent from each other rather than assuming the generation universality εu=εc . It is found that the above fitting renders |εc|=7.6×10-3 , |εs|=2.4×10-3 and a huge magnitude for εu , which is in serious tension with εu determined from ATOMKI measurements. Using our fitted range for εc and the range for εd from ATOMKI measurements, we predict the range for D∗+→D+e+e- decay rate.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Beryllium / Carbon 12 / Couplings / Decay rate / Documents / Experiments / Hypotheses / Particle decay / Quarks