First measurement of the π + π - atom lifetime

The goal of the DIRAC experiment at CERN (PS212) is to measure the π+π− atom lifetime with 10% precision. Such a measurement would yield a precision of 5% on the value of the S‐wave ππ scattering lengths combination |a0 − a2|. Based on part of the collected data we present a first result on the lifetime, τ = [2.91 −0.62+0.49] × 10−15 s, and discuss the major systematic errors. This lifetime corresponds to |a0 − a2| = 0.264 −0.020+0.033 mπ−1.