Search for baryon-number-violating $\Xi_b^0$ oscillations

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Abstract

A search for baryon-number-violating $\Xi_b^0$ oscillations is performed with a sample of $pp$ collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$. The baryon number at the moment of production is identified by requiring that the $\Xi_b^0$ come from the decay of a resonance $\Xi_b^{*-} \to \Xi_b^0 \pi^-$ or $\Xi_b^{\prime-} \to \Xi_b^0 \pi^-$, and the baryon number at the moment of decay is identified from the final state using the decays $\Xi_b^0 \to \Xi_c^+ \pi^-, \Xi_c^+ \to p K^- \pi^+$. No evidence of baryon number violation is found, and an upper limit at the 95 confidence level is set on the oscillation rate of $\omega < 0.08$ ps$^{-1}$, where $\omega$ is the associated angular frequency.

Figures and captions

 (a) A non-BNV quark diagram for a $\Xi ^{\prime,* -}_ b \rightarrow \Xi ^0_ b \pi ^-$ strong decay followed by a $\Xi ^0_ b \rightarrow \Xi ^+_ c \pi ^-$ weak decay. (b) The corresponding BNV diagram with a $\Xi ^0_ b$ to $\overline \Xi {}_ b ^0$ oscillation followed by a decay to the final state $\overline \Xi {}_ c ^- \pi ^+$. feynma[..].pdf [10 KiB] HiDef png [87 KiB] Thumbnail [44 KiB] *.C file feynma[..].pdf [10 KiB] HiDef png [112 KiB] Thumbnail [60 KiB] *.C file Spectra of the mass difference $\delta m \equiv m(\Xi ^0_ b \pi) - m(\Xi ^0_ b ) - m_\pi$ in data after the full selection, for the opposite-sign (OS) sample (black points with error bars) and same-sign (SS) decays (red, hatched histogram). The blue curve is a fit to the OS data. The $\Xi ^{\prime -}_ b$ and $\Xi ^{*-}_ b$ peaks are at $\delta m \approx 3.7$ and $24$ ${\mathrm{ Me V /}c^2}$ , and the $\delta m$ resolution at these points is approximately $0.2$ and $0.5$ ${\mathrm{ Me V /}c^2}$ , respectively; the $\Xi ^{*-}_ b$ also has a non-negligible natural width of $\Gamma \approx 1.7$ $\mathrm{ Me V}$ [23]. Inset: detail of the region $2.0 < \delta m < 5.5$ ${\mathrm{ Me V /}c^2}$ . paperP[..].pdf [30 KiB] HiDef png [295 KiB] Thumbnail [234 KiB] *.C file Distribution of $\delta m$ vs decay time. The opposite-sign (OS) data are shown as grey points, and the same-sign (SS) data as larger red triangles. The vertical lines indicate the decay time bins. The horizontal lines are intended to guide the eye and indicate the $\Xi ^{\prime -}_ b$ and $\Xi ^{*-}_ b$ regions. Due to selection requirements, few candidates are present at short decay times. timeVsDm.pdf [48 KiB] HiDef png [307 KiB] Thumbnail [259 KiB] *.C file For illustration, plots of the decay time distribution of signal candidates. In these plots, the two resonance regions are combined, and background is subtracted with a simplified statistical procedure that, unlike the likelihood described in the text, allows negative SS yields. (upper) The OS and SS data. (lower) Detail of the SS data, along with the expected SS yields under various hypotheses for the angular frequency $\omega$ of the oscillations. decayT[..].pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [107 KiB] Thumbnail [113 KiB] *.C file decayT[..].pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [148 KiB] Thumbnail [146 KiB] *.C file Animated gif made out of all figures. PAPER-2017-023.gif Thumbnail

Supplementary Material [file]

 This ZIP file contains supplemetary material for the publication LHCb-PAPER-2017-023. The files are: LHCb-PAPER-2017-023-supplementary.pdf : An overview of the extra figures *.pdf, *.png, *.eps, *.C : The figures in variuous formats Fig1-S.pdf [15 KiB] HiDef png [128 KiB] Thumbnail [141 KiB] *C file Fig2-S.pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [80 KiB] Thumbnail [74 KiB] *C file LHCb-P[..].pdf [97 KiB] HiDef png [179 KiB] Thumbnail [120 KiB] *C file

Created on 10 August 2020.