First observation of the decay $B_{c}^{+}\to J/ψK^+$

Abstract

The decay $B_c^+\to J/ψK^+$ is observed for the first time using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 ${\,fb}^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $7\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. A yield of $46\pm12$ events is reported, with a significance of 5.0 standard deviations. The ratio of the branching fraction of $B_c^+\to J/ψK^+$ to that of $B_c^+\to J/ψπ^+$ is measured to be $0.069\pm0.019\pm0.005$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.

16 pages including author list, 2 figures