Precision measurement of the mass and lifetime of the $Ξ_b^0$ baryon
hep-ex
/ Authors
LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, B. Adeva, M. Adinolfi, A. Affolder, Z. Ajaltouni, S. Akar, J. Albrecht, F. Alessio, M. Alexander
and 695 more authors
S. Ali, G. Alkhazov, P. Alvarez Cartelle, A. A. Alves, S. Amato, S. Amerio, Y. Amhis, L. An, L. Anderlini, J. Anderson, R. Andreassen, M. Andreotti, J. E. Andrews, R. B. Appleby, O. Aquines Gutierrez, F. Archilli, A. Artamonov, M. Artuso, E. Aslanides, G. Auriemma, M. Baalouch, S. Bachmann, J. J. Back, A. Badalov
/ Abstract
Using a proton-proton collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$ collected by LHCb at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, about 3800 $Ξ_b^0\toΞ_c^+π^-$, $Ξ_c^+\to pK^-π^+$ signal decays are reconstructed. From this sample, the first measurement of the $Ξ_b^0$ baryon lifetime is made, relative to that of the $Λ_b^0$ baryon. The mass differences $M(Ξ_b^0)-M(Λ_b^0)$ and $M(Ξ_c^+)-M(Λ_c^+)$ are also measured with precision more than four times better than the current world averages. The resulting values are $\frac{τ_{Ξ_b^0}}{τ_{Λ_b^0}} = 1.006\pm0.018\pm0.010$, $M(Ξ_b^0) - M(Λ_b^0) = 172.44\pm0.39\pm0.17 MeV/c^2$, $M(Ξ_c^+) - M(Λ_c^+) = 181.51\pm0.14\pm0.10 MeV/c^2$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The relative rate of $Ξ_b^0$ to $Λ_b^0$ baryon production is measured to be $\frac{f_{Ξ_b^0}}{f_{Λ_b^0}}\frac{\cal{B}(Ξ_b^0\toΞ_c^+π^-)}{\cal{B}(Λ_b^0\toΛ_c^+π^-)}\frac{\cal{B}(Ξ_c^+\to pK^-π^+)}{\cal{B}(Λ_c^+\to pK^-π^+)} = (1.88\pm0.04\pm0.03)\times10^{-2}$, where the first factor is the ratio of fragmentation fractions, $b\toΞ_b^0$ relative to $b\toΛ_b^0$. Relative production rates as functions of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are also presented.