Measurement of branching fractions of charmless four-body $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\Xi_b^0$ decays

TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation and measurement of several charmless four-body decay modes of the $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\Xi_b^0$ baryons using LHCb data, expanding knowledge of baryon decay processes.

Contribution

It presents the first observation and measurement of four specific charmless four-body decay modes of $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\Xi_b^0$ baryons, with branching fractions relative to a known decay.

Findings

Six decay modes observed, four of which are first-time observations.

Branching fractions measured relative to $\Lambda_b^0 o \Lambda_c^+ \pi^-$ decay.

Provides new data on charmless baryon decays.

Abstract

A search for charmless four-body decays of $\Lambda_{b}^{0}$ and $\Xi_{b}^{0}$ baryons with a proton and three charged mesons (either kaons or pions) in the final state is performed. The data sample used was recorded in 2011 and 2012 with the LHCb experiment and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$. Six decay modes are observed, among which $\Lambda_{b}^{0} \to pK^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$, $\Lambda_{b}^{0} \to pK^{-}K^{+}K^{-}$, $\Xi_{b}^{0} \to pK^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $\Xi_{b}^{0} \to pK^{-} \pi^{+}K^{-}$ are established for the first time. Their branching fractions (including the ratio of hadronisation fractions in the case of the $\Xi_{b}^{0}$ baryon) are determined relative to the $\Lambda_{b}^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+}\pi^{-}$ decay.