Evidence for the Decay B+- --> K*+- pi0

TL;DR

This paper reports the measurement of the branching fraction and charge asymmetry for the decay B+- --> K*+- pi0, based on a large dataset from the BaBar experiment, providing evidence for this decay mode.

Contribution

First measurement of the B+- --> K*+- pi0 decay branching fraction and charge asymmetry using BaBar data, with statistical significance of 3.6 sigma.

Findings

Branching fraction BR(B+- --> K*+- pi0) = (6.9 +- 2.4) x10^-6

Charge asymmetry measured as 0.04 +- 0.30

Evidence for the decay with 3.6 sigma significance

Abstract

We have measured the process B+- --> (K*+- --> K+- pi0) pi0 based on 232 million Y(4S) --> BBbar decays collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. From a signal yield of 89 +- 26 events we obtain the branching fraction BR(B+- --> K*+- pi0)=[6.9 +- 2.0 (stat) +- 1.3 (syst)] x10^-6 with a statistical significance of 3.6 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties, and a charge asymmetry of 0.04 +- 0.29 (stat) +- 0.05 (syst).