POSITRONIUM PHYSICS BEYOND THE STANDARD MODEL

Abstract

Possible manifestations of new physics in rare (exotic) decays of orthopositronium (o - Ps) are briefly reviewed. It is pointed out that models with infinite additional dimension(s) of Randall–Sundrum type predict disappearance of orthopositronium into additional dimension(s). The experimental signature of this effect is the invisible decay of orthopositronium. We point out that this process may occur at a rate within two or three orders of magnitude of the present experimental upper limit. We also propose a model with a light weakly interacting boson leading to o - Ps → invisible decays at the experimentally interesting rate. We discuss this in details and stress that the existence of invisible decay of orthopositronium in vacuum could explain the o - Ps decay rate puzzle. Thus, our result enhances the existing motivation and justifies efforts for a more sensitive search for o - Ps → invisible decay in a near future experiment.