A study of B-meson decays to eta_c K* and eta_c gamma K(*)

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of specific B-meson decay modes involving charmonium states, using data from the BABAR detector, providing new branching ratio results for these rare decays.

Contribution

It presents the first measurements of B-meson decays to eta_c and h_c charmonium states with improved precision and new decay channel observations.

Findings

Measured BR(B0 -> eta_c K*0)=(6.1+-0.8+-1.1)*10^-4

Set upper limits on BR(B+ -> h_c K+) * BR(h_c -> eta_c gamma)

Set upper limits on BR(B0 -> h_c K*0) * BR(h_c -> eta_c gamma)

Abstract

We present preliminary results of a study of the two-body B-meson decays to a charmonium state (ccbar) and a K+ or K*0(892) meson using a sample of about 349 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. Here ccbar indicates either the eta_c state, reconstructed in the K_S K+- pi-+ and K+K-pi0 decay channels, or the h_c state, reconstructed in its decay to eta_c gamma. We measure BR(B0 -> eta_c K*0)=(6.1+-0.8_stat +- 1.1_syst) * 10-4, BR(B+ -> h_c K+) * BR(h_c -> eta_c gamma)<5.2 * 10-5 and BR(B0 -> h_c K*0) * BR(h_c -> eta_c gamma)<2.41 * 10^-4, at the 90% C.L.