Evidence for B+ --> tau+ nu_tau decays using hadronic B tags

TL;DR

This paper reports evidence for the decay B+ --> tau+ nu_tau using a large data sample, reconstructing one B- hadronically and searching for tau+ decay signatures, resulting in a measured branching fraction with 3.3 sigma significance.

Contribution

First evidence for B+ --> tau+ nu_tau decay with a measured branching fraction using hadronic B tags at B-factories.

Findings

Observed excess of events indicating B+ --> tau+ nu_tau decay.

Branching fraction measured as approximately 1.8 x 10^{-4}.

Significance of 3.3 sigma for the decay signal.

Abstract

We present a search for the decay B+ --> tau+ nu_tau using 467.8 x 10^6 B B-bar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II B-Factory. We select a sample of events with one completely reconstructed B- in an hadronic decay mode (B- --> D{(*)0}X- and B- --> J/psi X-). We examine the rest of the event to search for a B+ --> tau+ nu_tau decay. We identify the tau+ lepton in the following modes: tau+ --> e+ nu nu, tau+ --> mu+ nu nu, tau+ --> pi+ nu and tau+ --> rho nu. We find an excess of events with respect to expected background, which excludes the null signal hypothesis at the level of 3.3 sigma and can be converted to a branching fraction central value of B( B+ --> tau+ nu_tau )=( 1.80 +0.57 -0.54 (stat.) +-0.26 (syst.)) x 10^{-4}.