Study of scalar meson $a_0(980)$ from $B \to a_0(980)\pi$ Decays

TL;DR

This study calculates branching ratios and CP asymmetries for B meson decays involving the scalar meson a_0(980) using perturbative QCD, suggesting the 2-quark model remains plausible given current experimental limits.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed perturbative QCD analysis of these specific B decay channels involving a_0(980), exploring the meson's quark structure implications.

Findings

Largest branching ratio for B^-→a_0(980)^0π^- is 2.8×10^-6

Direct CP asymmetry for B^-→a_0(980)^0π^- is about 14%

Large CP asymmetries (~70-80%) are predicted but are hard to measure due to small branching ratios

Abstract

In this paper, we calculate the branching ratios and the direct CP-violating asymmetries for decays $\bar{B}^0\to a^0_0(980)\pi^0, a^+_0(980)\pi^-, a^-_0(980)\pi^+$ and $B^-\to a^0_0(980)\pi^-, a^-_0(980)\pi^0$ by employing the perturbative QCD factorization approach. Although the light scalar meson $a_0(980)$ is widely perceived as primarily the four-quark bound states, the calculation shows that the 2-quark model supposition for $a_0(980)$ can not be ruled out by the currently available experiment upper limits. In these considered decays, the branching ratio for the $B^-\to a^0_0(980)\pi^-$ is the largest, $2.8\times 10^{-6}$, while its direct CP asymmetry is the smallest, $\sim 14%$. Although the direct CP asymmetries for the decays $\bar{B}^0\to a^0_0(980)\pi^0, B^-\to a^-_0(980)\pi^0$ are large, about $(70\thicksim80)%$, it is still difficult to measure them, since their branching ratios are small, around $(4\thicksim5)\times 10^{-7}$.