First Evidence for Direct CP Violation in Beauty to Charmonium Decays

The CP asymmetry and branching fraction of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa-suppressed decay B^{+}→J/ψπ^{+} are precisely measured relative to the favored decay B^{+}→J/ψK^{+} using a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4  fb^{-1} recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV during 2016-2018. The results of the CP asymmetry difference and branching fraction ratio are ΔA^{CP}≡A^{CP}(B^{+}→J/ψπ^{+})-A^{CP}(B^{+}→J/ψK^{+})=(1.29±0.49±0.08)×10^{-2}, R_{π/K}≡[B(B^{+}→J/ψπ^{+})/B(B^{+}→J/ψK^{+})]=(3.852±0.022±0.018)×10^{-2}, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. A combination with previous LHCb results based on data collected at 7 and 8 TeV in 2011 and 2012 yields ΔA^{CP}=(1.42±0.43±0.08)×10^{-2} and R_{π/K}=(3.846±0.018±0.018)×10^{-2}. The combined ΔA^{CP} value deviates from zero by 3.2 standard deviations, providing the first evidence for direct CP violation in the amplitudes of beauty decays to charmonium final states.