Evidence of the Singly Cabibbo Suppressed decay $\Lambda_c^+\to p\pi^0$

TL;DR

This paper reports the first evidence of the decay $oldsymbol{ ext{Lambda}_c^+ o p ext{pi}^0}$ with a significance of 3.7 sigma, measuring its branching fraction and analyzing implications for decay mechanisms of charmed baryons.

Contribution

First experimental evidence and measurement of the $oldsymbol{ ext{Lambda}_c^+ o p ext{pi}^0}$ decay branching fraction, providing insights into non-factorizable contributions in charmed baryon decays.

Findings

Evidence for $ ext{Lambda}_c^+ o p ext{pi}^0$ decay at 3.7 sigma significance.

Measured branching fraction of $ ext{Lambda}_c^+ o p ext{pi}^0$ as $(1.56^{+0.72}_{-0.58} ext{(stat)} \\pm 0.20) imes 10^{-4}$.

The ratio of $ ext{Lambda}_c^+ o n ext{pi}^+$ to $ ext{Lambda}_c^+ o p ext{pi}^0$ is approximately 3.2.

Abstract

Evidence for the singly Cabibbo suppressed decay $\Lambda_c^+\to p\pi^0$ is reported for the first time with a statistical significance of $3.7\sigma$ based on 6.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ collision data collected at center-of-mass energies between 4.600 and 4.843 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The absolute branching fraction of $\Lambda_c^+\to p\pi^0$ is measured to be $(1.56^{+0.72}_{-0.58}\pm0.20)\times 10^{-4}$. Combining with the branching fraction of $\Lambda_c^+\to n\pi^+$, $(6.6\pm1.3)\times10^{-4}$, the ratio of the branching fractions of $\Lambda_c^+\to n\pi^+$ and $\Lambda_c^+\to p\pi^0$ is calculated to be $3.2^{+2.2}_{-1.2}$. As an important input for the theoretical models describing the decay mechanisms of charmed baryons, our result indicates that the non-factorizable contributions play an essential role and their interference with the factorizable contributions should not be significant. In addition, the absolute branching fraction of $\Lambda_c^+\to p\eta$ is measured to be $(1.63\pm0.31_{\rm stat}\pm0.11_{\rm syst}) \times10^{-3}$.