Observation of $B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-$

TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation of the rare decay $B o K^* \, \ell^+ \ell^-$ and provides an improved measurement of $B \to K \, \ell^+ \ell^-$ using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of data from the Belle detector, advancing understanding of flavor-changing neutral currents.

Contribution

It presents the first observation of the decay $B \to K^* \, \ell^+ \ell^-$ and refines the measurement of $B \to K \, \ell^+ \ell^-$ branching fractions, using a large data sample from Belle.

Findings

First observation of $B \to K^* \, \ell^+ \ell^-$ decay.

Measured branching fractions: $(11.5^{+2.6}_{-2.4} \pm 0.8 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-7}$ for $B \to K^* \, \ell^+ \ell^-$.

Improved measurement of $B \to K \, \ell^+ \ell^-$ branching fraction.

Abstract

We report the first observation of the flavor-changing neutral current decay $B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-$ and an improved measurement of the decay $B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-$, where $\ell$ represents an electron or a muon, with a data sample of 140 fb${}^{-1}$ accumulated at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. The results for the branching fractions are ${\cal B}(B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-)=(11.5^{+2.6}_{-2.4} \pm 0.8 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-7}$ and ${\cal B}(B \to K \ell^+ \ell^-)=(4.8^{+1.0}_{-0.9} \pm 0.3 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{-7}$, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic and the third is from model dependence.