IMPROVED UPPER LIMIT ON MUONIUM TO ANTIMUONIUM CONVERSION

A new experiment has been set up at the Paul Scherrer Institut to sear ch for muonium to antimuonium conversion. No event was found to fulfil the requested signature which consists of the coincident detection of both constituents of the antiatom in its decay. Assuming an effective (V - A) x (V - A) type interaction an improved upper limit is establi shed for the conversion probability of P(<M(M)over bar>) less than or equal to 8 x 10(-9) (90% C.L.), which is almost 2 orders of magnitude lower compared to previous results and provides a sensitive test for t heoretical extensions of the standard model.