Observation of the B_c Meson in p-bar p Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation of the B_c meson in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV, measuring its mass, lifetime, and production rate using the CDF detector at Fermilab.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of the B_c meson, including measurements of its mass, lifetime, and production cross section relative to B+ mesons.

Findings

Observed 20.4 B_c events with 4.8 sigma significance.

Measured B_c mass to be 6.40 GeV/c^2.

Determined B_c lifetime to be approximately 0.46 ps.

Abstract

We have observed bottom-charm mesons B_c via the decay mode Bc -> J/psi lepton neutrino in 1.8 TeV p-bar p collisions using the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. A fit of background and signal contributions to the J/psi + lepton mass distribution yielded 20.4 +6.2 -5.5 events from B_c mesons. A fit to the same distribution with background alone was rejected at the level of 4.8 standard deviations. We measured the B_c mass to be 6.40 +- 0.39 +- 0.13 GeVc^2 and the B_c lifetime to be tau(B_c) = 0.46 +0.18 -0.16 +- 0.03 ps. We measured the production cross section times branching ratio for B_c -> J/psi lepton neutrino relative to that for B+ -> J/psi K to be 0.132 +0.041 -0.037 (stat) +- 0.031 (syst) +0.032 -0.020 (lifetime).