Measurements of $\Lambda^+_c$ Branching Fractions of Cabibbo-Suppressed Decay Modes involving $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma^{0}$

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of branching ratios for Cabibbo-suppressed and favored decay modes of the $\Lambda^+_c$ baryon involving $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma^{0}$ particles, using data from the BABAR detector.

Contribution

It provides improved accuracy measurements of specific $\Lambda^+_c$ decay branching ratios and sets upper limits on certain rare decay modes.

Findings

Measured branching ratios for $\Lambda^+_c o \Lambda K^+$ and $\Sigma^{0} K^+$ decays.

Set upper limits on $\Lambda^+_c$ decays to $\Lambda K^+ \pi^+\pi^-$ and $\Sigma^{0} K^+ \pi^+\pi^-$.

Determined the branching fraction of $\Lambda^+_c o \Sigma^{0} \pi^+$ relative to $\Lambda^+_c o \Lambda \pi^+$.

Abstract

We measure the branching ratios of the Cabibbo-suppressed decays $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Lambda$ $K^+$ and $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Sigma^{0}$ $K^+$ %(measured with improved accuracy). relative to the Cabibbo-favored decay modes $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Lambda$ $\pi^+$ and $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Sigma^{0}$ $\pi^+$ to be $ 0.044 \pm 0.004 (\textnormal{stat.}) \pm 0.003 \ (\textnormal{syst.})$ and $ 0.039 \pm 0.005 (\textnormal{stat.}) \pm 0.003 (\textnormal{syst.})$, respectively. We set an upper limit on the branching ratio at 90 % confidence level for $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Lambda$ $K^+ \pi^+ \pi^-$ to be $ 4.1 \times 10^{-2}$ relative to $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Lambda$ $\pi^+$ and for $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Sigma^{0}$ $K^+ \pi^+ \pi^-$ to be $ 2.0 \times 10^{-2}$ relative to $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Sigma^{0}$ $\pi^+$. We also measure the branching fraction for the Cabibbo-favored mode $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Sigma^{0}$ $\pi^+$ relative to $\Lambda^+_c$ $\to$ $\Lambda$ $\pi^+$ to be $0.977 \pm 0.015 (\textnormal{stat.}) \pm 0.051 (\textnormal{syst.})$. This analysis was performed using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 125 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the $BABAR$ detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy $B$ factory at SLAC.