Measurement of the $Ω_c^0$ baryon lifetime

Abstract

We report a measurement of the lifetime of the $Ω_c^0$ baryon using proton-proton collision data at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8~TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. The sample consists of about 1000 $Ω_b^-\toΩ_c^0μ^-\barν_μ X$ signal decays, where the $Ω_c^0$ baryon is detected in the $pK^-K^-π^+$ final state and $X$ represents possible additional undetected particles in the decay. The $Ω_c^0$ lifetime is measured to be $τ_{Ω_c^0} = 268\pm24\pm10\pm2$ fs, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and from the uncertainty in the $D^+$ lifetime, respectively. This value is nearly four times larger than, and inconsistent with, the current world-average value.

7 pages, 2 figures. 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-2018-028.html