Amplitude analysis of the $B_{(s)} \to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}$ decays and measurement of the branching fraction of the $B \to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}$ decay

Abstract

The $B^0 \to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}$ and $B^0_s \to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}$ decays are studied using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb$^{-1}$. An untagged and time-integrated amplitude analysis of $B^0_{(s)} \to (K^+π^-)(K^-π^+) $ decays in two-body invariant mass regions of 150 MeV$/c^2$ around the $K^{*0}$ mass is performed. A stronger longitudinal polarisation fraction in the ${B^0 \to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}}$ decay, ${f_L = 0.724 \pm 0.051 \,({\rm stat}) \pm 0.016 \,({\rm syst})}$, is observed as compared to ${f_L = 0.240 \pm 0.031 \,({\rm stat}) \pm 0.025 \,({\rm syst})}$ in the ${B^0_s\to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}}$ decay. The ratio of branching fractions of the two decays is measured and used to determine $\mathcal{B}(B^0 \to K^{*0} \overline{K}^{*0}) = (8.0 \pm 0.9 \,({\rm stat}) \pm 0.4 \,({\rm syst})) \times 10^{-7}$.

All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2019-004.html (LHCb public pages)