Observation of the helicity-selection-rule suppressed decay of the χc2 charmonium state


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Ablikim M., Achasov M., Ahmed S., Ai X., Albayrak O., Albrecht M., ...More

Physical Review D, vol.96, no.11, 2017 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 96 Issue: 11
  • Publication Date: 2017
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physrevd.96.111102
  • Journal Name: Physical Review D
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Ankara University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The decays of χc2→K+K-π0, KSK±π, and π+π-π0 are studied with the ψ(3686) data samples collected with the Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII). For the first time, the branching fractions of χc2→K∗K̄, χc2→a2±(1320)π/a20(1320)π0, and χc2→ρ(770)±π are measured. Here, K∗K̄ denotes both K∗±K and its isospin-conjugated process K∗0K̄0+c.c., and K∗ denotes the resonances K∗(892), K2∗(1430), and K3∗(1780). The observations indicate a strong violation of the helicity selection rule in χc2 decays into vector and pseudoscalar meson pairs. The measured branching fractions of χc2→K∗(892)K̄ are more than ten times larger than the upper limit of χc2→ρ(770)±π, which is so far the first direct observation of a significant U-spin symmetry breaking effect in charmonium decays.