Search for the baryon- and lepton-number violating decays $B^0\to p\mu^-$ and $B^0_s\to p\mu^-$

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for baryon- and lepton-number violating decays of B mesons into a proton and muon, setting new upper limits on their branching fractions using LHCb data.

Contribution

The study provides the first experimental limits on the rare decays $B^0 o p\mu^-$ and $B_s^0 o p\mu^-$, constraining new physics models that violate baryon and lepton number.

Findings

No significant signals observed for the decays.

Upper limits on branching fractions are set at 2.6×10^{-9} and 12.1×10^{-9}.

First limits on these decay modes to date.

Abstract

A search for the baryon- and lepton-number violating decays $B^0\to p\mu^-$ and $B^0_s\to p\mu^-$ is performed at the LHCb experiment using data collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7, 8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1, 2 and 6 fb$^{-1}$, respectively. No significant signal for $B^0\to p\mu^-$ and $B^0_s\to p\mu^-$ decays is found and the upper limits on the branching fractions are determined to be ${\cal B}(B^0\to p\mu^-)<2.6\,(3.1)\times10^{-9}$ and ${\cal B}(B^0_s\to p\mu^-)<12.1\,(14.0)\times10^{-9}$, respectively, at 90$\%$ (95$\%$) confidence level. These are the first limits on these decays to date.