Evidence of the $h_c\to K_S^0{K}^{+}{\pi }^{-}+c.c.$ decay

Abstract

Based on $(2.712\pm 0.014)\times 10^9$ $\psi (3686)$ events collected by the BESIII collaboration, evidence of the hadronic decay $h_c\to K_S^0{K}^{+}{\pi }^{-}+c.c.$ is found with a significance of $4.3\sigma$ in the $\psi (3686)\to {\pi }^0{h}_c$ process. The branching fraction of $h_c\to K_S^0{K}^{+}{\pi }^{-}+c.c.$ is measured to be $(7.3\pm 0.8\pm 1.8)\times 10^{-4}$, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. Combining with the exclusive decay width of ${\eta }_c\to K\bar{K}\pi$, our result indicates inconsistencies with both pQCD and NRQCD predictions.