Search for eta and eta ' invisible decays in J/psi -> phi eta and phi eta '

Abstract

Using a sample of (225.3 +/- 2.8) x 10(6) J/psi decays collected with the BESIII detector at BEPCII, searches for invisible decays of eta and eta ' in J/psi -> phi eta and phi eta ' are performed. Decays of phi -> K+K- are used to tag the eta and eta ' decays. No signals above background are found for the invisible decays, and upper limits at the 90% confidence level are determined to be 2.6 x 10(-4) for the ratio B(eta -> invisible)/B(eta ->gamma gamma) and 2.4 x 10(-2) for B(eta '-> invisible)/B(eta '->gamma gamma). These limits may be used to constrain light dark matter particles or spin-1 U bosons.