First evidence for the two-body charmless baryonic decay $B^0 \to p \bar{p}$
R. Aaij
,
Y. Amhis
(1)
,
S. Barsuk
(1)
,
O. Callot
(1)
,
J. He
(1)
,
O. Kochebina
(1)
,
J. Lefrançois
(1)
,
F. Machefert
(1)
,
A. Martin Sanchez
(1)
,
M. Nicol
(1)
,
P. Robbe
(1)
,
M.-H. Schune
(1)
,
M. Teklishyn
(1)
,
A. Vallier
(1)
,
B. Viaud
(1)
,
E. Ben-Haim
(2)
,
M. Benayoun
(2)
,
P. David
(2)
,
L. del Buono
(2)
,
A. Martens
(2)
,
D.A. Milanes
(2)
,
F. Polci
(2)
,
I. de Bonis
(3)
,
D. Decamp
(3)
,
N. Déléage
(3)
,
Ph. Ghez
(3)
,
J.-P. Lees
(3)
,
I.V. Machikhiliyan
(3)
,
M.-N. Minard
(3)
,
B. Pietrzyk
(3)
,
W. Qian
(3)
,
S. t'Jampens
(3)
,
V. Tisserand
(3)
,
E. Tournefier
(3)
,
Ziad Zj Ajaltouni
(4)
,
M. Baalouch
(4)
,
E. Cogneras
(4)
,
O. Deschamps
(4)
,
I. El Rifai
(4)
,
M. Grabalosa Gándara
(4)
,
Pierre Henrard
(4)
,
M. Hoballah
(4)
,
R. Lefèvre
(4)
,
L. Li Gioi
(4)
,
J. Maratas
(4)
,
S. Monteil
(4)
,
V. Niess
(4)
,
Pascal Perret
(4)
,
Diego Alejandro Roa Romero
(4)
,
C. Adrover
(5)
,
E. Aslanides
(5)
,
J. Cogan
(5)
,
W. Kanso
(5)
,
R. Legac
(5)
,
O. Leroy
(5)
,
G. Mancinelli
(5)
,
E. Maurice
(5)
,
A. Mordà
(5)
,
M. Perrin-Terrin
(5)
,
M. Sapunov
(5)
,
J. Serrano
(5)
,
A. Tsaregorodtsev
(5)
R. Aaij
- Function : Author
J. He
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 756138
- ORCID : 0000-0001-8179-417X
L. del Buono
- Function : Author
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A. Martens
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 738690
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S. t'Jampens
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 736045
- IdHAL : stephane-tjampens
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4249-6641
Ziad Zj Ajaltouni
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 903794
E. Cogneras
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 743220
- IdHAL : eric-cogneras
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8933-9427
O. Deschamps
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 12089
- IdHAL : olivier-deschamps
- ORCID : 0000-0002-7047-6042
- IdRef : 161447368
Pierre Henrard
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 829303
M. Hoballah
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 1174785
- IdHAL : mostafa-adam-hoballah-hobart
Pascal Perret
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 739797
- IdHAL : pascal-perret
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5732-4343
Diego Alejandro Roa Romero
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 769524
- IdRef : 172096839
J. Cogan
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 750510
- IdHAL : julien-cogan
- ORCID : 0000-0001-7194-7566
- IdRef : 078779014
O. Leroy
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 171866
- IdHAL : olivier-leroy
- ORCID : 0000-0002-2589-240X
- IdRef : 169871835
M. Perrin-Terrin
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 741779
- IdHAL : perrin-terrin
- ORCID : 0000-0002-3568-1956
- IdRef : 179269666
J. Serrano
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 175327
- IdHAL : justine-serrano
- ORCID : 0000-0003-2489-7812
- IdRef : 127525521
Abstract
The results of a search for the rare two-body charmless baryonic decays $B^0 \to p \bar{p}$ and $B_s^0 \to p \bar{p}$ are reported. The analysis uses a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.9 fb$^{-1}$, of $pp$ collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. An excess of $B^0 \to p \bar{p}$ candidates with respect to background expectations is seen with a statistical significance of 3.3 standard deviations. This is the first evidence for a two-body charmless baryonic $B^0$ decay. No significant $B_s^0 \to p \bar{p}$ signal is observed, leading to an improvement of three orders of magnitude over previous bounds. If the excess events are interpreted as signal, the 68.3% confidence level intervals on the branching fractions are {eqnarray} \cal{B}(B^0 \to p \bar{p}) & = & (1.47 \,^{+0.62}_{-0.51} \,^{+0.35}_{-0.14}) \times 10^{-8} \,, *{0.3cm} \cal{B}(B_s^0 \to p \bar{p}) & = & (2.84 \,^{+2.03}_{-1.68} \,^{+0.85}_{-0.18}) \times 10^{-8} \,, {eqnarray} where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.