Search for the rare charmless hadronic decay B+ -> a0+ pi0

TL;DR

This paper searches for a rare charmless decay of B+ mesons into an a0+ scalar meson and a pi0, using data from the Babar detector, but finds no significant signal and sets an upper limit on the decay rate.

Contribution

First search for B+ -> a0+ pi0 decay with a detailed analysis and upper limit setting based on Babar data.

Findings

No significant signal observed.

Upper limit on branching fraction set at 1.4x10^-6.

Analysis constrains models predicting this decay.

Abstract

We present a search for B decays to a charged scalar meson a0+ and a pi0 where the a0+ decays to an eta meson and a pi+. The analysis was performed on a data sample consisting of 383x10-6 BBbar pairs collected with the Babar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. We find no significant signal and set an upper limit on the product branching fraction BF[(B+ -> a0+ pi0) x (a0+ -> eta pi+)] of 1.4x10-6 at the 90% confidence level.