Evidence for the decay $B^0\to p\bar{p}π^0$

Abstract

We report a search for the charmless baryonic decay $B^0\to p\bar{p}π^0$ with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 711~$\rm fb^{-1}$ containing $(772\pm 10)\times 10^6$ $B^0\bar{B}^0$ pairs. The data was collected by the Belle experiment running on the $Υ(4S)$ resonance at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider. We measure a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to p\bar{p}π^0)= (5.0\pm1.8\pm0.6 )\times 10^{-7}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The signal has a significance of 3.1 standard deviations and constitutes the first evidence for this decay mode. We also search for the intermediate two-body decays $B^{0}\toΔ^+\bar{p}$ and $B^0\to\barΔ^-p$, and set an upper limit on the branching fraction: $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to Δ^+\bar{p})+\mathcal{B}(B^0\to\barΔ^-p)<1.6\times10^{-6}$ at 90% confidence level.

8 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. D (RC)