Observation of B_{c}^{+}→D^{0}K^{+} Decays

Area of Science:

• Particle Physics
• High-Energy Physics
• Hadron Spectroscopy

Background:

• The B_{c}^{+} meson is a doubly heavy flavored hadron containing both a charm and a bottom quark.
• Understanding the decays of B_{c}^{+} mesons provides crucial tests for theoretical models of quark interactions.
• Previous observations of B_{c}^{+} decays have primarily involved semileptonic or charmless hadronic modes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report the first observation of the B_{c}^{+}→D^{0}K^{+} decay.
• To measure the branching fraction of this decay mode relative to the production rates of B_{c}^{+} and B^{+} mesons.
• To probe the dynamics of weak annihilation and penguin amplitudes in B_{c}^{+} decays.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb detector at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV.
• Integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb^{-1} was utilized for the analysis.
• Normalization to the well-measured B^{+}→D^{0}π^{+} decay channel to determine the relative production rates and branching fraction.

Main Results:

• The B_{c}^{+}→D^{0}K^{+} decay was observed with a statistical significance of 5.1 standard deviations.
• The quantity R_{D^{0}K} = (f_{c}/f_{u})×B(B_{c}^{+}→D^{0}K^{+}) was measured to be (9.3_{-2.5}^{+2.8}±0.6)×10^{-7}.
• This represents the first observation of a B_{c}^{+} decay proceeding predominantly through weak annihilation and penguin amplitudes.

Conclusions:

• The observation of B_{c}^{+}→D^{0}K^{+} opens a new window into the study of B_{c}^{+} meson decays.
• This result provides valuable data for refining theoretical predictions of non-leptonic B_{c}^{+} decay mechanisms.
• Further studies of this and similar decays will enhance our understanding of fundamental particle interactions.