Measurement of CP--violating asymmetries in D0 --> pi+ pi- and D0 --> K+K- decays at CDF

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of CP-violating asymmetries in D0 meson decays to pi+ pi- and K+K-, using data from the CDF experiment, finding results consistent with CP conservation and setting limits on D0 mixing.

Contribution

First precise measurement of CP asymmetries in D0 decays at a hadron collider, reducing systematic uncertainties with high-statistics control samples.

Findings

Measured Acp(D0 --> pi+ pi-) = (+0.22 +- 0.24 +- 0.11)%

Measured Acp(D0 --> K+ K-) = (-0.24 +- 0.22 +- 0.09)%

Set upper limit |Acp^{ind}(D0)|< 0.13% at 90% CL.

Abstract

We report on a measurement of CP-violating asymmetries (Acp) in the Cabibbo-suppressed D0 --> pi+ pi- and D0 --> K+K- decays reconstructed in a data sample corresponding to 5.9 fb-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab. We use the strong decay D*+ --> D0 pi+ to identify the flavor of the charmed meson at production and exploit CP-conserving strong c-cbar pair-production in p-pbar collisions. High-statistics samples of Cabibbo-favored D0 --> K- p+ decays with and without a D* tag are used to correct for instrumental effects and significantly reduce systematic uncertainties. We measure Acp(D0 --> pi+ pi-) = (+0.22 +- 0.24 (stat) +- 0.11 (syst))% and Acp(D 0 --> K+ K-) = (-0.24 +- 0.22 (stat) +- 0.09 (syst))%, in agreement with CP conservation. These are the most precise determinations from a single experiment to date. Under the assumption of negligible direct CP violation in D0 --> pi+ pi- and D0 --> K+K- decays, the results provide an upper limit to the CP-violating asymmetry in D0 mixing, |Acp^{ind}(D0)|< 0.13% at the 90% confidence level.