Precision measurement of the mass and lifetime of the $Ξ_b^0$ baryon

Abstract

Using a proton-proton collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$ collected by LHCb at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, about 3800 $Ξ_b^0\toΞ_c^+π^-$, $Ξ_c^+\to pK^-π^+$ signal decays are reconstructed. From this sample, the first measurement of the $Ξ_b^0$ baryon lifetime is made, relative to that of the $Λ_b^0$ baryon. The mass differences $M(Ξ_b^0)-M(Λ_b^0)$ and $M(Ξ_c^+)-M(Λ_c^+)$ are also measured with precision more than four times better than the current world averages. The resulting values are $\frac{τ_{Ξ_b^0}}{τ_{Λ_b^0}} = 1.006\pm0.018\pm0.010$, $M(Ξ_b^0) - M(Λ_b^0) = 172.44\pm0.39\pm0.17 MeV/c^2$, $M(Ξ_c^+) - M(Λ_c^+) = 181.51\pm0.14\pm0.10 MeV/c^2$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The relative rate of $Ξ_b^0$ to $Λ_b^0$ baryon production is measured to be $\frac{f_{Ξ_b^0}}{f_{Λ_b^0}}\frac{\cal{B}(Ξ_b^0\toΞ_c^+π^-)}{\cal{B}(Λ_b^0\toΛ_c^+π^-)}\frac{\cal{B}(Ξ_c^+\to pK^-π^+)}{\cal{B}(Λ_c^+\to pK^-π^+)} = (1.88\pm0.04\pm0.03)\times10^{-2}$, where the first factor is the ratio of fragmentation fractions, $b\toΞ_b^0$ relative to $b\toΛ_b^0$. Relative production rates as functions of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are also presented.

7 pages, 4 figures