Observation of Radiative Decay $D^0 \to ϕγ$

Abstract

We report the observation of the decay $D^{0} \to ϕγ$ with a statistical significance of $5.4σ$ in $78.1 \ifb$ of data collected by the Belle experiment at the KEKB $e^+ e^-$ collider. This is the first observation of a flavor-changing radiative decay of a charmed meson. The Cabibbo- and color-suppressed decays $D^0 \to ϕπ^0$, $ϕη$ are also observed for the first time. We measure branching fractions $\br(D^{0} \to ϕγ) = [ 2.60^{+0.70}_{-0.61} \stat {}^{+0.15}_{-0.17} \syst ] \times 10^{-5}$, $\br(D^{0} \to ϕπ^{0}) = [ 8.01 \pm 0.26 \stat \pm 0.47 \syst ] \times 10^{-4}$, and $\br(D^{0} \to ϕη) = [ 1.48 \pm 0.47 \stat \pm 0.09 \syst ] \times 10^{-4}$.

9 pages, 4 figures, Belle Preprint 2003-24, KEK Preprint 2003-75, updated version of BELLE-CONF-0346 (contributed paper to the XXI International Symposium on Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies,Fermilab Aug 11-16,2003). to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett