Observation of $B_s^0 \to \overline{D}^{*0} ϕ$ and search for $B^0 \to \overline{D}^0 ϕ$ decays

Abstract

The first observation of the $B_s^0 \to \overline{D}^{*0} ϕ$ decay is reported, with a significance of more than seven standard deviations, from an analysis of $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of $7$ and $8$ TeV. The branching fraction is measured relative to that of the topologically similar decay $B^0 \to \overline{D}^0 π^+π^-$ and is found to be $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to \overline{D}^{*0} ϕ) = (3.7 \pm 0.5 \pm 0.3 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-5}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, and the third from the branching fraction of the $B^0 \to \overline{D}^0 π^+π^-$ decay. The fraction of longitudinal polarisation in this decay is measured to be ${f_{\rm L} =(73 \pm 15 \pm 3)\%}$. The most precise determination of the branching fraction for the $B_s^0 \to \overline{D}^{0} ϕ$ decay is also obtained, $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \to \overline{D}^{0} ϕ) = (3.0 \pm 0.3 \pm 0.2 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-5}$. An upper limit, $\mathcal{B}(B^0 \to \overline{D}^{0} ϕ) < 2.0 \ (2.2) \times 10^{-6}$ at $90\%$ (95\%) confidence level is set. A constraint on the $ω-ϕ$ mixing angle $δ$ is set at $|δ| < 5.2^\circ~ (5.5^\circ)$ at $90\%$ ($95\%$) confidence level.

All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2018-015.html