Evidence of the Singly Cabibbo Suppressed decay $Λ_c^+\to pπ^0$

Abstract

Evidence for the singly Cabibbo suppressed decay $Λ_c^+\to pπ^0$ is reported for the first time with a statistical significance of $3.7σ$ based on 6.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ collision data collected at center-of-mass energies between 4.600 and 4.843 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The absolute branching fraction of $Λ_c^+\to pπ^0$ is measured to be $(1.56^{+0.72}_{-0.58}\pm0.20)\times 10^{-4}$. Combining with the branching fraction of $Λ_c^+\to nπ^+$, $(6.6\pm1.3)\times10^{-4}$, the ratio of the branching fractions of $Λ_c^+\to nπ^+$ and $Λ_c^+\to pπ^0$ is calculated to be $3.2^{+2.2}_{-1.2}$. As an important input for the theoretical models describing the decay mechanisms of charmed baryons, our result indicates that the non-factorizable contributions play an essential role and their interference with the factorizable contributions should not be significant. In addition, the absolute branching fraction of $Λ_c^+\to pη$ is measured to be $(1.63\pm0.31_{\rm stat}\pm0.11_{\rm syst}) \times10^{-3}$.

9 pages, 3 figures