Evidence for the singly-Cabibbo-suppressed decay $Λ_{c}^{+} \to pη$ and search for $Λ_{c}^{+} \to pπ^{0}$

Abstract

We study the singly-Cabibbo-suppressed decays $Λ_c^{+}\to pη$ and $Λ_{c}^{+}\to pπ^{0}$ using $Λ_{c}^{+}Λ_{c}^{+}$ pairs produced by $e^+e^-$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 4.6\; GeV$. The data sample was collected by the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 567 $pb^{-1}$. We find the first evidence for the decay $Λ_{c}^{+}\to p η$ with a statistical significance of $4.2σ$ and measure its branching fraction to be $\mathcal{B}(Λ_c^+\to pη)= (1.24\pm0.28({\rm{stat.}})\pm0.10({\rm{syst.}}))\times10^{-3}$. No significant $Λ_c^+ \to pπ^0$ signal is observed. We set an upper limit on its branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(Λ_c^+ \to pπ^{0}) < 2.7 \times 10^{-4}$ at the 90% confidence level.

7 pages, 2 figures