An improved $\pi$K atom lifetime measurement

This note describes details of analysis of data samples collected by DIRAC experiment on a Pt target in 2007 and Ni targets in 2008–2010 in order to estimate the lifetime of πK atoms. Experimental results consist of eight distinct data samples: both charge combinations ( π + K − and K + π − atoms) obtained in different experimental conditions corresponding to each year of data taking. Estimations of systematic errors are presented. Taking into account both statistical and systematic uncertainties, the lifetime of πK atoms is estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The above sample comprises the total statistics, available for the analysis, thus the improvement over the previous estimation [1,3] of the πK atom lifetime is achieved.