Test of lepton-flavor universality in ${B\to K^\ast\ell^+\ell^-}$ decays at Belle
Belle Collaboration: S. Wehle, I. Adachi, K. Adamczyk, H. Aihara, D., M. Asner, H. Atmacan, V. Aulchenko, T. Aushev, R. Ayad, V. Babu, P. Behera,, M. Berger, V. Bhardwaj, J. Biswal, A. Bozek, M. Bra\v{c}ko, T. E. Browder, M., Campajola, L. Cao, M.-C. Chang, A. Chen, B. G. Cheon

TL;DR
This paper reports measurements of lepton-flavor universality in B meson decays to K* and dileptons, including the first measurement of the charged B decay ratio, using Belle data, with results consistent with the Standard Model.
Contribution
First measurement of the lepton-flavor universality ratio $R_{K^*}$ for charged B mesons, along with absolute branching fractions in various $q^2$ bins, using a large Belle dataset.
Findings
Results are consistent with Standard Model predictions.
First measurement of $R_{K^{*+}}$ for charged B decays.
Provides detailed branching fractions across $q^2$ bins.
Abstract
We present a measurement of , the branching fraction ratio / , for both charged and neutral mesons. The ratio for the charged case, , is the first measurement ever performed. In addition, we report absolute branching fractions for the individual modes in bins of the squared dilepton invariant mass, . The analysis is based on a data sample of , containing events, recorded at the resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy collider. The obtained results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.
| , | Signal shape | Peaking backgrounds | Charmonium backgrounds | efficiency | Classifier | MC size | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All modes | |||||||
| 0.025 | 0.026 | 0.001 | 0.027 | 0.030 | 0.006 | 0.054 | |
| 0.033 | 0.070 | 0.013 | 0.065 | 0.038 | 0.008 | 0.109 | |
| 0.002 | 0.054 | 0.051 | 0.058 | 0.024 | 0.005 | 0.098 | |
| 0.014 | 0.003 | 0.003 | 0.090 | 0.047 | 0.012 | 0.103 | |
| 0.008 | 0.031 | 0.023 | 0.061 | 0.026 | 0.004 | 0.077 | |
| modes | |||||||
| 0.005 | 0.049 | 0.001 | 0.024 | 0.112 | 0.007 | 0.125 | |
| 0.062 | 0.070 | 0.012 | 0.082 | 0.062 | 0.010 | 0.140 | |
| 0.019 | 0.033 | 0.018 | 0.058 | 0.049 | 0.006 | 0.087 | |
| 0.012 | 0.007 | 0.001 | 0.091 | 0.032 | 0.013 | 0.099 | |
| 0.018 | 0.031 | 0.021 | 0.073 | 0.033 | 0.006 | 0.090 | |
| modes | |||||||
| 0.060 | 0.006 | 0.000 | 0.033 | 0.060 | 0.013 | 0.092 | |
| 0.060 | 0.086 | 0.009 | 0.045 | 0.092 | 0.010 | 0.147 | |
| 0.040 | 0.048 | 0.107 | 0.060 | 0.023 | 0.010 | 0.140 | |
| 0.041 | 0.008 | 0.002 | 0.089 | 0.052 | 0.028 | 0.115 | |
| 0.018 | 0.025 | 0.023 | 0.044 | 0.015 | 0.005 | 0.061 |
| in | All modes | modes | modes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
The Belle Collaboration
Test of lepton-flavor universality in decays at Belle
S. Wehle
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
I. Adachi
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
K. Adamczyk
H. Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Krakow 31-342
H. Aihara
Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033
D. M. Asner
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973
H. Atmacan
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
V. Aulchenko
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
T. Aushev
Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow 101000
R. Ayad
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71451
V. Babu
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
P. Behera
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036
M. Berger
Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Vienna 1090
V. Bhardwaj
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, SAS Nagar, 140306
J. Biswal
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
A. Bozek
H. Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Krakow 31-342
M. Bračko
University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
T. E. Browder
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
M. Campajola
INFN - Sezione di Napoli, 80126 Napoli
Università di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli
L. Cao
University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn
M.-C. Chang
Department of Physics, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei 24205
A. Chen
National Central University, Chung-li 32054
B. G. Cheon
Department of Physics and Institute of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763
K. Chilikin
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
K. Cho
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Daejeon 34141
Y. Choi
Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419
S. Choudhury
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Telangana 502285
D. Cinabro
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202
S. Cunliffe
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
N. Dash
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036
G. De Nardo
INFN - Sezione di Napoli, 80126 Napoli
Università di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli
F. Di Capua
INFN - Sezione di Napoli, 80126 Napoli
Università di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli
S. Dubey
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
S. Eidelman
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
D. Epifanov
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
T. Ferber
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
B. G. Fulsom
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352
R. Garg
Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014
V. Gaur
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
N. Gabyshev
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
A. Garmash
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
A. Giri
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Telangana 502285
P. Goldenzweig
Institut für Experimentelle Teilchenphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76131 Karlsruhe
D. Greenwald
Department of Physics, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching
Y. Guan
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
J. Haba
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
O. Hartbrich
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
K. Hayasaka
Niigata University, Niigata 950-2181
H. Hayashii
Nara Women’s University, Nara 630-8506
M. T. Hedges
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
T. Higuchi
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8583
W.-S. Hou
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617
C.-L. Hsu
School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006
T. Iijima
Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602
Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602
K. Inami
Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602
G. Inguglia
Institute of High Energy Physics, Vienna 1050
A. Ishikawa
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
R. Itoh
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
M. Iwasaki
Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585
Y. Iwasaki
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
W. W. Jacobs
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408
S. Jia
Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE) and Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200443
Y. Jin
Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033
D. Joffe
Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia 30144
J. Kahn
Institut für Experimentelle Teilchenphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76131 Karlsruhe
A. B. Kaliyar
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005
G. Karyan
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
H. Kichimi
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
D. Y. Kim
Soongsil University, Seoul 06978
K. T. Kim
Korea University, Seoul 02841
S. H. Kim
Seoul National University, Seoul 08826
Y.-K. Kim
Yonsei University, Seoul 03722
K. Kinoshita
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
I. Komarov
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
S. Korpar
University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
D. Kotchetkov
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
R. Kroeger
University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677
P. Krokovny
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
T. Kuhr
Ludwig Maximilians University, 80539 Munich
R. Kulasiri
Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia 30144
R. Kumar
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004
K. Kumara
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202
A. Kuzmin
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
Y.-J. Kwon
Yonsei University, Seoul 03722
J. S. Lange
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 35392 Gießen
J. Y. Lee
Seoul National University, Seoul 08826
S. C. Lee
Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566
Y. B. Li
Peking University, Beijing 100871
J. Libby
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036
Z. Liptak
Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Hiroshima 731-5193
D. Liventsev
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
T. Luo
Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE) and Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200443
J. MacNaughton
University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192
M. Masuda
Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0032
Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University, Osaka 567-0047
T. Matsuda
University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192
J. T. McNeil
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
M. Merola
INFN - Sezione di Napoli, 80126 Napoli
Università di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli
F. Metzner
Institut für Experimentelle Teilchenphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76131 Karlsruhe
H. Miyata
Niigata University, Niigata 950-2181
R. Mizuk
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow 101000
G. B. Mohanty
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005
T. J. Moon
Seoul National University, Seoul 08826
R. Mussa
INFN - Sezione di Torino, 10125 Torino
M. Nakao
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
A. Natochii
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
M. Nayak
School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978
C. Niebuhr
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
M. Niiyama
Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto 603-8555
N. K. Nisar
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973
S. Nishida
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
K. Ogawa
Niigata University, Niigata 950-2181
S. Ogawa
Toho University, Funabashi 274-8510
H. Ono
Nippon Dental University, Niigata 951-8580
Niigata University, Niigata 950-2181
Y. Onuki
Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033
P. Pakhlov
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
Moscow Physical Engineering Institute, Moscow 115409
G. Pakhlova
Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow 101000
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
H. Park
Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566
S.-H. Park
Yonsei University, Seoul 03722
T. K. Pedlar
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa 52101
R. Pestotnik
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
L. E. Piilonen
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
T. Podobnik
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
V. Popov
Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow 101000
E. Prencipe
Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich
M. T. Prim
Institut für Experimentelle Teilchenphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76131 Karlsruhe
P. K. Resmi
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036
M. Ritter
Ludwig Maximilians University, 80539 Munich
A. Rostomyan
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
N. Rout
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036
G. Russo
Università di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli
D. Sahoo
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005
Y. Sakai
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
S. Sandilya
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
A. Sangal
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
L. Santelj
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
V. Savinov
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
O. Schneider
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015
G. Schnell
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 48080 Bilbao
IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao
J. Schueler
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
C. Schwanda
Institute of High Energy Physics, Vienna 1050
A. J. Schwartz
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
Y. Seino
Niigata University, Niigata 950-2181
K. Senyo
Yamagata University, Yamagata 990-8560
M. E. Sevior
School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010
M. Shapkin
Institute for High Energy Physics, Protvino 142281
J.-G. Shiu
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617
B. Shwartz
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
E. Solovieva
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
M. Starič
J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana
J. F. Strube
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352
T. Sumiyoshi
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0397
W. Sutcliffe
University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn
M. Takizawa
Showa Pharmaceutical University, Tokyo 194-8543
J-PARC Branch, KEK Theory Center, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
U. Tamponi
INFN - Sezione di Torino, 10125 Torino
K. Tanida
Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Naka 319-1195
Y. Tao
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611
F. Tenchini
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
K. Trabelsi
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab, 91405 Orsay
M. Uchida
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550
T. Uglov
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow 101000
Y. Unno
Department of Physics and Institute of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763
S. Uno
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
Y. Ushiroda
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba 305-0801
SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama 240-0193
S. E. Vahsen
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
R. Van Tonder
University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn
G. Varner
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
K. E. Varvell
School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006
V. Vorobyev
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
C. H. Wang
National United University, Miao Li 36003
M.-Z. Wang
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617
P. Wang
Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
X. L. Wang
Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE) and Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200443
E. Won
Korea University, Seoul 02841
X. Xu
Soochow University, Suzhou 215006
S. B. Yang
Korea University, Seoul 02841
H. Ye
Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg
J. H. Yin
Korea University, Seoul 02841
C. Z. Yuan
Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
Z. P. Zhang
Department of Modern Physics and State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026
V. Zhilich
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
V. Zhukova
P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991
V. Zhulanov
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk 630090
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090
Abstract
We present a measurement of , the branching fraction ratio / , for both charged and neutral mesons. The ratio for the charged case, , is the first measurement ever performed. In addition, we report absolute branching fractions for the individual modes in bins of the squared dilepton invariant mass, . The analysis is based on a data sample of , containing events, recorded at the resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy collider. The obtained results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.
††preprint:
Belle Preprint 2020-14
KEK Preprint 2020-16
In the Standard Model (SM), the coupling of gauge bosons to leptons is independent of lepton-flavor, a concept known as lepton-flavor universality (LFU). Therefore, experimental tests of LFU are excellent probes for New Physics (NP). In this Letter, we present a test of LFU in decays, where is either or . These decays have been studied by several experiments, and some results suggest an intriguing possibility that the underlying transition may be affected by physics beyond the SM in modes involving muons Wehle et al. (2017); Aaij et al. (2019, 2016, 2017); Lees et al. (2012); Wei:2009zv . The ratio of branching fractions,
[TABLE]
is well suited to test LFU Hiller and Schmaltz (2015). The theoretical predictions for are robust Hiller and Schmaltz (2015); Bobeth:2007dw ; Bordone:2016gaq , as uncertainties related to form factors cancel out in the ratio. This observable is expected to be close to unity in the SM.
For this measurement, we reconstruct the decay channels , , , and . The meson is reconstructed in the , , and decay modes. The inclusion of charge-conjugate states is implied throughout this paper. Compared to the previous analysis Wei:2009zv , the full data sample containing events, recorded with the Belle detector BelleDetektor at the KEKB asymmetric-energy collider kekb , is used.
Belle is a large-solid-angle magnetic spectrometer that consists of a silicon vertex detector, a 50-layer central drift chamber (CDC), an array of aerogel threshold Cherenkov counters (ACC), a barrel-like arrangement of time-of-flight scintillation counters (TOF), and an electromagnetic calorimeter comprised of CsI(Tl) crystals (ECL). All these components are located inside a superconducting solenoid coil that provides a 1.5 T magnetic field. An iron flux return placed outside of the coil is instrumented with resistive plate chambers to detect mesons and muons (KLM).
The analysis is validated and optimized with simulated Monte Carlo (MC) data samples, from which also the selection efficiencies are derived. The EvtGen Lange (2001) and PYTHIA Sjöstrand et al. (2001) packages are used to generate decay chains, where the final-state-radiation effect is incorporated with PHOTOS Barberio et al. (1991). The detector response is simulated with GEANT3 geant .
All tracks, except for those from decays, need to satisfy requirements on their impact parameter with respect to the interaction point along the axis () and in the transverse - plane (). The axis is in the direction opposite to that of the beam. We calculate a particle identification (PID) likelihood for each track using energy loss in the CDC, information from the TOF, number of the photoelectrons from the ACC, the transverse shower shape and energy in the ECL, and hit information from the KLM. Electrons are identified using the likelihood ratio , where is the PID likelihood for the particle type . Charged tracks satisfying are accepted as electron candidates. Energy losses due to bremsstrahlung are recovered by adding the momenta of photons to that of the electron’s momentum if they lie within rad of the initial track direction. Tracks are selected as muon candidates if they satisfy , where is the analogous likelihood ratio for muons. For electron (muon) candidates we require the momentum to be greater than 0.4 (0.7) so that they can reach the ECL (KLM), which improves the PID. These requirements select electron (muon) candidates with an efficiency greater than 86% (92%) while rejecting more than 99% of pions. Charged kaons are distinguished from pions (and vice versa) by requiring the likelihood ratio to be greater than 0.1 (smaller than 0.9). This requirement retains more than 99% of kaons (pions) while reducing the misidentification rate of pions (kaons) by 94% (86%).
The candidates are reconstructed with an efficiency of from two oppositely charged tracks (treated as pions) by applying selection criteria on their invariant mass and vertex-fit quality Chen and other (2005). We reconstruct candidates from photon pairs, where each photon is required to have an energy greater than . Furthermore, the invariant mass of the photon pair is required to be in the range, which corresponds to approximately times the reconstructed-mass resolution. We form candidates from , , and combinations with an invariant mass lying in the range . We also apply a requirement on the vertex-fit quality to reduce background. The candidates are combined with two oppositely charged leptons to form meson candidates.
The dominant background is due to incorrect combinations of tracks. This combinatorial background is suppressed by applying requirements on the beam-energy-constrained mass, , and the energy difference, , where is the beam energy, and and are the energy and momentum, respectively, of the reconstructed -meson candidate. All of these quantities are calculated in the center-of-mass frame. Correctly reconstructed signal events peak near the -meson mass Zyla and other (2018) in and at zero in . The distribution is wider for electron modes as some bremsstrahlung photons are not reconstructed. We retain decay candidates that satisfy and in the electron (muon) mode.
Large irreducible background contributions arise in the and distributions from the decays and , where the charmonium states further decay into two leptons. We veto this background by rejecting candidates with and for the electron (muon) channel. In the electron case, the veto is applied twice: before and after the bremsstrahlung-recovery treatment. This is done to prevent charmonium backgrounds from shifting out of the veto region when an incorrect photon is combined with the electron.
A multivariate analysis technique is developed to suppress combinatorial background. A dedicated neural network classifier is trained with MC samples to identify each particle type used in the decay chain, from which a signal probability is calculated for each candidate. The neural networks dedicated to identifying the particles , , , and are identical to those used in Ref. Feindt et al. (2011). The networks for selection use input variables related to the daughter particles. Most of the discrimination of the selection comes from vertex-fit information, decay-product neural-network outputs, and momenta of the decay products. The final signal selection is performed with a dedicated neural network for each decay channel. The inputs to these -decay classifiers include event-shape variables (modified Fox-Wolfram moments Lee et al. (2003)), vertex-fit information, and kinematic variables such as the reconstructed mass of the and the angle between its momentum vector and the initial direction extracted from the vertex fit. The most discriminating of these input variables are , the reconstructed mass, the product of the network outputs for all daughter particles, and the distance between the two leptons projected onto the axis as derived from a fit to the -decay vertex. The final selection requirement on the -decay classifier output value is optimized by maximizing a figure of merit, , where () is the expected number of signal (background) events calculated from MC samples in the region .
Less than 2% of events contain multiple candidates. In such cases, we choose the one with the highest signal probability, estimated from the neural network output values. This procedure selects the correct candidate with an efficiency between 82% and 92%, depending on the channel. Individual decay channels in these samples are normalized according to the branching fraction values reported in Ref. Zyla and other (2018).
We extract signal yields in various regions of the squared dilepton invariant mass, , using an unbinned extended maximum-likelihood fit to the distribution of candidates. We consider four different components in the likelihood fit. First, a signal component is parametrized by a Crystal Ball function Skwarnicki , with the shape parameters determined from candidates that fail the veto in data. Second, a combinatorial background component is described by an ARGUS function Albrecht et al. (1994). Third, there is a component from events in which charmonium decays pass the veto when they are misreconstructed; for example, when the bremsstrahlung recovery fails to detect photons. This background component is studied using an MC sample with 100 times higher statistics than that expected from the charmonium decays in the data sample. The shape of the charmonium background is determined via kernel density estimation (KDE) Cranmer (2001). Lastly, a peaking background component from double misidentification of particle type, where two particles have been assigned the wrong hypothesis such as , is studied using MC samples, with the shape parametrized via KDE. As the expected yields of charmonium and double-mis-identification backgrounds are small, their yields are fixed in the fit to values obtained from MC simulation.
The determination of signal efficiency is verified by measuring the well-known branching fractions, which are found to be compatible with world averages Zyla and other (2018). As a cross-check, the LFU ratio of and is measured to be , where the first error is statistical and the second due to uncertainty in data-MC corrections for lepton identification. This cross-check neglects contributions from the channel in the control region.
The reconstruction procedure for this analysis is optimized for maximal statistical sensitivity to , at the cost of systematic uncertainties due to the use of multivariate selections in particle identification. Systematic uncertainties arises from the determination of the signal yield and reconstruction efficiency. All considered systematic uncertainties for are listed in Table 1. The uncertainty due to the signal yield is evaluated by varying the Crystal Ball shape parameters within their uncertainties. The maximum yield deviation is taken as the systematic uncertainty. The normalizations of peaking and charmonium backgrounds are varied in the fit by and ; these ranges are chosen according to the maximum uncertainties on the branching fractions used to generate the respective MC samples. The resulting signal-yield deviations are included as part of the systematic uncertainty. We correct for differences in the lepton-identification efficiency between data and MC by using the results obtained from a control sample of two-photon events. The input distributions used by the top-level classifiers are compared between data and simulation, and no significant differences are found. In order to estimate the resulting uncertainty, the ratio of branching fractions between data and MC is obtained in bins of the classifier output. The obtained ratio is propagated as classifier output-dependent weights to candidates in all fits to distributions, and changes in the resulting signal yields are taken as systematic uncertainties. The statistical uncertainty of this reweighting procedure is evaluated in simulations on signal MC samples, and this adds 1-2% additional uncertainty. Further uncertainties arise from limited MC statistics. Effects due to migration of events between different bins are studied using MC events and found to be negligible. In the case of results for the full region of , the different veto regions for the electron and muon channels need to be accounted for in the determination of reconstruction efficiency. This introduces model dependence to our signal simulation, which uses form factors from Ref. Ali et al. (2000). We estimate the systematic uncertainty due to this model dependence using different signal MC samples generated with form factors from QCD sum rules Colangelo:1995jv and quark models Melikhov:1997zu . The maximum difference in selection efficiency with respect to the nominal model, in each region, is taken as our estimate for the size of this effect. This results on average in a difference of with a maximum of 6.5%, depending on the mode and region. As discussed in the beginning, this uncertainty only applies to the branching fractions not to the LFU ratios. The systematic uncertainty for hadron identification and selection is covered in the uncertainty for the top-level classifiers due to the multivariate selection approach. For the branching fraction measurements additional uncertainties from tracking (0.35% per track) and the total number of events in data are taken into account. The dominant uncertainty originates from lepton identification, ranging between 5% and 10% depending on the mode and region, as also here a more conservative estimation of uncertainty is performed to account for residual correlations with the top-level classifiers.
In the range we find () events in the electron (muon) channels. Example fits are presented in Fig. 1. Using the fitted signal yields we construct the LFU ratio for all signal channels combined, as well as separate ratios for the and decays, and . Our measurement of is the first ever performed. Results are shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2.
The branching fractions are calculated assuming equal production of and mesons and the results are presented in Table 3.
In summary, all our results are consistent with the SM expectations Capdevila et al. (2016, 2018). Global analyses of measurements of mediated decays prefer NP models that predict values smaller than unity Capdevila et al. (2018). The largest deviation along this direction is observed in the lowest bin, in the same region where LHCb reports a measurement deviating from the SM Aaij et al. (2017). Our separate results for the -meson isospin partners, and , are statistically compatible, which would also be expected if contributions from NP arise from the transition. The Belle II experiment Abe:2010gxa ; Kou:2018nap is expected to record a 50 times larger data sample than Belle, providing ideal conditions to precisely study lepton flavour universality in these modes.
We thank the KEKB group for the excellent operation of the accelerator; the KEK cryogenics group for the efficient operation of the solenoid; and the KEK computer group, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) computing group for strong computing support; and the National Institute of Informatics, and Science Information NETwork 5 (SINET5) for valuable network support. We acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and the Tau-Lepton Physics Research Center of Nagoya University; the Australian Research Council including grants DP180102629, DP170102389, DP170102204, DP150103061, FT130100303; Austrian Science Fund (FWF); the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Contracts No. 11435013, No. 11475187, No. 11521505, No. 11575017, No. 11675166, No. 11705209; Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-SLH011; the CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics (CCEPP); the Shanghai Pujiang Program under Grant No. 18PJ1401000; the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under Contract No. LTT17020; the Carl Zeiss Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Excellence Cluster Universe, and the VolkswagenStiftung; the Department of Science and Technology of India; the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy; National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea Grant Nos. 2016R1D1A1B01010135, 2016R1D1A1B02012900, 2018R1A2B3003643, 2018R1A6A1A06024970, 2018R1D1A1B07047294, 2019K1A3A7A09033840, 2019R1I1A3A01058933; Radiation Science Research Institute, Foreign Large-size Research Facility Application Supporting project, the Global Science Experimental Data Hub Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and KREONET/GLORIAD; the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the National Science Center; the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Agreement 14.W03.31.0026; University of Tabuk research grants S-1440-0321, S-0256-1438, and S-0280-1439 (Saudi Arabia); the Slovenian Research Agency; Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Spain; the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan; and the United States Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
The reference list from the paper itself. Each links out to its DOI / PubMed record.
- 1Wehle et al. (2017) S. Wehle et al. (Belle Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 , 111801 (2017) . · doi ↗
- 2Aaij et al. (2019) R. Aaij et al. (LH Cb Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 , 191801 (2019) . · doi ↗
- 3Aaij et al. (2016) R. Aaij et al. (LH Cb Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 , 011802 (2020) . · doi ↗
- 4Aaij et al. (2017) R. Aaij et al. (LH Cb Collaboration), JHEP 08 , 055 (2017) . · doi ↗
- 5Lees et al. (2012) J. P. Lees et al. (Ba Bar Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 86 , 032012 (2012) . · doi ↗
- 6(6) J. Wei et al. (Belle Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 , 171801 (2009) . · doi ↗
- 7Hiller and Schmaltz (2015) G. Hiller and M. Schmaltz, JHEP 02 , 055 (2015) , ar Xiv:1411.4773 [hep-ph] . · doi ↗
- 8(8) C. Bobeth, G. Hiller and G. Piranishvili, JHEP 12 , 040 (2007) , ar Xiv:0709.4174 [hep-ph] . · doi ↗
