Test of lepton flavor universality with measurements of $R(D^{+})$ and $R(D^{*+})$ using semileptonic $B$ tagging at the Belle II experiment

Abstract

We report measurements of the ratios of branching fractions ${\cal R}(D^{(*)+}) = \frac{{\cal B}(\overline{B}{}^0 \to D^{(*)+} \,τ^- \, \overlineν_τ)}{{\cal B}(\overline{B}{}^0 \to D^{(*)+} \, \ell^- \, \overlineν_\ell)}$, where $\ell$ denotes either an electron or a muon. These ratios test the universality of the charged-current weak interaction. The results are based on a $365\, \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ data sample collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB $e^+e^-$ collider, which operates at a center-of-mass energy corresponding to the $Υ(4S)$ resonance, just above the threshold for $B\overline{B}{}$ production. Signal candidates are reconstructed by selecting events in which the companion $B$ meson from the $Υ(4S) \to B\overline{B}{}$ decay is identified in semileptonic modes. The $τ$ lepton is reconstructed via its leptonic decays. We obtain ${\cal R}(D^+) = 0.418 \pm 0.074 ~({\mathrm{stat}}) \pm 0.051 ~({\mathrm{syst}})$ and ${\cal R}(D^{*+}) = 0.306 \pm 0.034 ~({\mathrm{stat}}) \pm 0.018 ~({\mathrm{syst}})$, which are consistent with world average values. Accounting for the correlation between them, these values differ from the Standard Model expectation by a collective significance of $1.7$ standard deviations.