Search for the decay modes B[superscript ±]→h[superscript ±]τℓ

• Main Authors: Cowan, Ray Franklin (Contributor), Dujmic, Denis (Contributor), Sciolla, Gabriella (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2012-10-22T17:14:58Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 We present a search for the lepton flavor violating decay modes B[superscript ±]→h[superscript ±]τℓ (h=K, π; ℓ=e, μ) using the BABAR data sample, which corresponds to 472×10[superscript 6] B[bar over B] pairs. The search uses events where one B meson is fully reconstructed in one of several hadronic final states. Using the momenta of the reconstructed B, h, and ℓ candidates, we are able to fully determine the τ four-momentum. The resulting τ candidate mass is our main discriminant against combinatorial background. We see no evidence for B[superscript ±]→h[superscript ±]τℓ decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on each branching fraction at the level of a few times 10[superscript -5].