Absolute Measurement of Hadronic Branching Fractions of the D_s^+ Meson

Abstract

The branching fractions of D_s meson decays serve to normalize many measurements of processes involving charm quarks. Using 298 /pb of e+ e- collisions recorded at a center of mass energy of 4.17 GeV, we determine absolute branching fractions for eight D_s decays with a double tag technique. In particular we determine the branching fraction B(D_s -> K- K+ pi+) = (5.50 +- 0.23 +- 0.16)%, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic respectively. We also provide partial branching fractions for kinematic subsets of the K- K+ pi+ decay mode.

6 pages, postscript also available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/2007/, revised