Observation of the Decay $D^0\to ρ^-μ^+ν_μ$

Abstract

By analyzing an $e^+e^-$ annihilation data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $2.93~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BESIII detector, we measure the branching fraction of the $D^0\to ρ^- μ^+ν_μ$ decay for the first time. We obtain ${\mathcal B}_{D^0\to ρ^- μ^+ν_μ}=(1.35\pm0.09_{\rm stat}\pm0.09_{\rm syst})\times 10^{-3}$. Using the world average of ${\mathcal B}_{D^0\to ρ^- e^+ν_e}$, we find a branching fraction ratio of ${\mathcal B}_{D^0\to ρ^- μ^+ν_μ}/{\mathcal B}_{D^0\to ρ^- e^+ν_e}=0.90\pm0.11$, which agrees with the theoretical expectation of lepton flavor universality within the uncertainty. Combining the world average of ${\mathcal B}_{D^+\to ρ^0 μ^+ ν_μ}$ and the lifetimes of $D^{0(+)}$, we obtain a partial decay width ratio of $Γ_{D^0\to ρ^- μ^+ ν_μ}/(2Γ_{D^+\to ρ^0 μ^+ ν_μ}) = 0.71\pm0.14$, which is consistent with the isospin symmetry expectation of one within $2.1σ$. For the reported values of ${\mathcal B}_{D^0\to ρ^- μ^+ν_μ}/{\mathcal B}_{D^0\to ρ^- e^+ν_e}$ and $Γ_{D^0\to ρ^- μ^+ ν_μ}/2Γ_{D^+\to ρ^0 μ^+ ν_μ}$, the uncertainty is the quadratic sum of the statistical and systematic uncertainties.

9 pages, 3 figures