Test of lepton universality with B 0 → K *0 ℓ + ℓ − decays

By L. C. R. Aaij, B. Adeva, M. Adinolfi, Z. Ajaltouni, S. Akar, J. Albrecht, F. Alessio, M. Alexander, S. Ali, G. Alkhazov and 776 more. 2017

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A test of lepton universality, performed by measuring the ratio of the branching fractions of the B 0 → K *0 μ + μ − and B 0 → K *0 e + e − decays, $$ {R}_{K^{*0}} $$ , is presented. The K *0 meson is reconstructed in the final state K + π −, which is required to have an invariant mass within 100 MeV/c 2 of the known K *(892)0 mass. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 3 fb−1, collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The ratio is measured in two regions of the dilepton invariant mass squared, q 2, to be $$ {R}_{K^{*0}}=\left\{\begin{array}{l}{0.66_{-}^{+}}_{0.07}^{0.11}\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 0.03\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\kern1em \mathrm{f}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{r}\kern1em 0.045<{q}^2<1.1\kern0.5em {\mathrm{GeV}}^2/{c}^4,\hfill \\ {}{0.69_{-}^{+}}_{0.07}^{0.11}\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 0.05\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\kern1em \mathrm{f}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{r}\kern1em 1.1<{q}^2<6.0\kern0.5em {\mathrm{GeV}}^2/{c}^4.\hfill \end{array}\right. $$ The corresponding 95.4% confidence level intervals are [0.52, 0.89] and [0.53, 0.94]. The results, which represent the most precise measurements of $$ {R}_{K^{*0}} $$ to date, are compatible with the Standard Model expectations at the level of 2.1–2.3 and 2.4–2.5 standard deviations in the two q 2 regions, respectively.

Subfields: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d7af7423acbc983ee1f884a71f3c2a94d0452e66