Measurement of B0->Ds(*)+D*- branching fractions and polarization in the decay B0->Ds*+D*- with a partial reconstruction technique

TL;DR

This paper measures the branching fractions and polarization in B0 decays to Ds(*)+D*- using partial reconstruction, providing results consistent with theoretical predictions and employing data from the BABAR detector.

Contribution

First measurement of B0->Ds(*)+D*- branching fractions and polarization using a partial reconstruction technique.

Findings

Branching fraction BR(B0->Ds+D*-) = (1.03 +- 0.14 +- 0.13 +- 0.26)%

Branching fraction BR(B0->Ds*+D*-) = (1.97 +- 0.15 +- 0.30 +- 0.49)%

Longitudinal polarization fraction = (51.9 +- 5.0 +- 2.8)%

Abstract

We present measurements of the decays B0->Ds(*)+D*-, using data recorded by the BABAR detector in 1999 and 2000, consisting of 20.8 fb^-1. The analysis is conducted with a partial reconstruction technique, in which only the Ds(*)+ and the soft pion from the D*- decay are reconstructed. From the observed rates, we measure the branching fractions BR(B0->Ds+D*-) = (1.03 +- 0.14 +- 0.13 +- 0.26)% and BR(B0->Ds*+D*-) = (1.97 +- 0.15 +- 0.30 +- 0.49)%, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is the error due to the Ds+->phi pi+ branching fraction uncertainty. From the B0->Ds*+D*- angular distributions, we measure the fraction of longitudinal polarization Gamma_L/Gamma = (51.9 +- 5.0 +- 2.8)%, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction, based on factorization. These results are preliminary.