Search for lepton-flavor-violating $τ^- \to \ell^-ϕ$ decays in 2019-2021 Belle II data
We report a search for lepton-flavor-violating decays $τ^- \to \ell^- ϕ$ ($\ell^- =e^-,μ^-$) at the Belle II experiment, using a sample of electron-positron data produced at the SuperKEKB collider in 2019-2021 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 190 fb$^{-1}$. We use a new untagged selection for $e^+e^- \to τ^+τ^-$ events, where the signal $τ$ is searched for as a neutrinoless final state of a single charged lepton and a $ϕ$ meson and the other $τ$ is not reconstructed in any specific decay mode, in contrast to previous measurements by the BaBar and Belle experiments. We find no evidence for $τ^- \to \ell^- ϕ$ decays and obtain upper limits on the branching fractions at 90% confidence level of 23 $\times 10^{-8}$ and 9.7$\times 10^{-8}$ for $τ^- \rightarrow e^-ϕ$ and $τ^- \rightarrow μ^-ϕ$, respectively