Measurement of the branching fraction of the singly Cabibbo-suppressed decay Λc+→ΛK+

Abstract

We report a branching fraction measurement of the singly Cabibbo-suppressed decay Λc+→ΛK+ using a data sample collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage ring. The data span center-of-mass energies from 4.599 to 4.950 GeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 6.44 fb−1. The branching fraction of Λc+→ΛK+ relative to that of the Cabibbo-favored decay Λc+→Λπ+ is measured to be R=B(Λc+→ΛK+)B(Λc+→Λπ+)=(4.78±0.34±0.20)%. Combining with the world-average value of B(Λc+→Λπ+), we obtain B(Λc+→ΛK+)=(6.21±0.44±0.26±0.34)×10−4. Here the first uncertainties are statistical, the second systematic, and the third comes from the uncertainty of the Λc+→Λπ+ branching fraction. This result, which is more precise than previous measurements, does not agree with theoretical predictions, and suggests that nonfactorizable contributions have been underestimated in current models.Received 9 August 2022Accepted 16 November 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.L111101Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasBranching fractionHadronic decaysParticle decaysPhysical SystemsCharmed baryonsTechniquesPrecision measurementsParticles & Fields