First observation and study of the $K^{\pm} \rightarrow \pi^{0} \pi^{0} \mu^{\pm} \nu$ decay

The NA48/2 experiment at CERN reports the first observation of the K$^{±}$ → π$^{0}$π$^{0}$μ$^{±}$ν decay based on a sample of 2437 candidates with 15% background contamination collected in 2003–2004. The decay branching ratio in the kinematic region of the squared dilepton mass above 0.03 GeV$^{2}$/c$^{4}$ is measured to be (0.65 ± 0.03) × 10$^{−6}$. The extrapolation to the full kinematic space, using a specific model, is found to be (3.45 ± 0.16) × 10$^{−6}$, in agreement with chiral perturbation theory predictions.