Evidence for B+ -> K0barK+ and B0 -> K0K0bar, and Measurement of the Branching Fraction and Search for Direct CP Violation in B+ -> K0pi+

TL;DR

This paper reports evidence for rare B meson decays involving K0 and K0bar, measures their branching fractions, and searches for direct CP violation in B+ -> K0pi+ decays, based on data from the BaBar experiment.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence for B+ -> K0barK+ and B0 -> K0K0bar decays and improves measurements of B+ -> K0pi+ branching fraction and CP asymmetry.

Findings

Evidence for B+ -> K0barK+ and B0 -> K0K0bar decays with significances of 3.5 and 4.5 sigma.

Measured branching fractions for B+ -> K0barK+ and B0 -> K0K0bar.

Improved measurement of B+ -> K0pi+ branching fraction and CP asymmetry.

Abstract

We present evidence for the b -> d penguin-dominated decays B+ -> K0barK+ and B0 -> K0K0bar with significances of 3.5 and 4.5 standard deviations, respectively. The results are based on a sample of 227 million Y(4S) -> BBbar decays collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at SLAC. We measure the branching fractions Br(B+ -> K0barK+) = (1.5 +- 0.5 +- 0.1) x 10^{-6} (< 2.4 x 10^{-6}) and Br(B0 -> K0K0bar) = (1.19^{+0.40}_{-0.35} +- 0.13) x 10^{-6}, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively, and the upper limit on the branching fraction for K0barK+ is at the 90% confidence level. We also present improved measurements of the charge-averaged branching fraction Br(B+ -> K0pi+) = (26.0 +- 1.3 +- 1.0) x 10^{-6} and CP-violating charge asymmetry A_CP(K0pi+) = -0.09 +- 0.05 +- 0.01, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.