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Observation of excited $\Omega_c^0$ baryons in $\Omega_b^- \to \Xi_c^+ K^-\pi^-$decays

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Abstract

The first observation of the $\Omega_b^- \to \Xi_c^+ K^- \pi^-$ decay is reported using $pp$ collision data at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 $\mathrm{TeV}$ collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. Four excited $\Omega_c^0$ baryons are observed in the $\Xi_c^+ K^-$ mass projection of the $\Omega_b^- \to \Xi_c^+ K^- \pi^-$ decays with the significance of each exceeding five standard deviations. They coincide with the states previously observed in prompt \proton\proton and $e^+e^-$ production. Relative production rates, masses and natural widths of the states are measured, and a test of spin hypotheses is performed. Moreover, the branching ratio of $\Omega_b^- \to \Xi_c^+ K^- \pi^-$ is measured relative to the $\Omega_b^- \to \Omega_c^0 \pi^-$ decay mode and a precise measurement of the $\Omega_b^-$ mass of $6044.3 \pm 1.2 \pm 1.1^{ +0.19}_{ -0.22} \mathrm{MeV}$ is obtained.

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Distribution of the reconstructed invariant mass (left) $m(\Xi ^+_ c K ^- \pi ^- )$ with $\Xi ^+_ c \rightarrow p K ^- \pi ^+ $ and (right) $m(\Omega ^0_ c \pi ^- )$ with $\Omega ^0_ c \rightarrow p K ^- K ^- \pi ^+ $ for all candidates passing the selection requirements. The black symbols show the data. The result of a fit is overlaid (solid red line). The missing particles in partially reconstructed decays are indicated in grey in the legends.

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Dalitz plot distribution of $\Omega ^-_ b \rightarrow \Xi ^+_ c K ^- \pi ^- $ candidates in the signal region, including background contributions. The inset shows an expanded view of the upper left corner where the vertical bands correspond to excited $\Omega ^0_ c $ states.

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Distribution of the reconstructed mass difference between the $\Xi ^+_ c $ $ K ^-$ invariant mass and the $\Xi ^+_ c $ and $ K ^-$ masses. The four peaking structures are consistent with being the previously observed $\Omega_{ c }(3000)^{0}$ , $\Omega_{ c }(3050)^{0}$ , $\Omega_{ c }(3065)^{0}$ and $\Omega_{ c }(3090)^{0}$ baryons. The distribution shows an enhancement at the threshold, as seen in the previous analysis \cite{LHCb-PAPER-2017-002}. The total fit is overlaid in red. The background distribution (grey shaded area) is the combination of the combinatorial and nonresonant $\Xi ^+_ c $ $ K ^-$ backgrounds.

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Distributions of the $\Omega_ c ^{**0}$ helicity angle ($\theta$) in the $\Omega ^-_ b $ decay. Solid, dashed and dot-dashed lines indicate the expectations under the spin hypotheses, $J=1/2$, $3/2$, and $5/2$, respectively. The grey shaded area shows the cumulative distribution of the combinatorial and nonresonant $\Xi ^+_ c $ $ K ^-$ backgrounds.

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Distribution of the reconstructed invariant mass (left) $m(\Xi ^+_ c K ^- \pi ^- )$ with $\Xi ^+_ c \rightarrow p K ^- \pi ^+ $ and (right) $m(\Omega ^0_ c \pi ^- )$ with $\Omega ^0_ c \rightarrow p K ^- K ^- \pi ^+ $ using a logarithmic scale for all candidates passing the selection requirements. The black symbols show the selected signal candidates. The result of a fit is overlaid (solid red line). The missing particles in partially reconstructed decays are indicated in grey in the legends.

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Distribution of the reconstructed invariant mass $m(\Xi ^+_ c K ^- \pi ^- )$ with $\Xi ^+_ c \rightarrow p K ^- \pi ^+ $, where the simulation used to train the BDT classifier has a requirement of $m(\Xi ^+_ c K ^- ) < 3.3\text{ Ge V} $.

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Measurements of the $\Omega ^-_ b $ mass from the LHCb experiment, the LHCb average and the PDG average, which includes the two previous LHCb measurements and one measurement from the CDF collaboration \cite{PDG2020}.

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Efficiency map in the $[\Delta M, \cos\theta]$ plane. Positions of the four narrow $\Omega_ c ^{**0} $ states are shown by the red lines.

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Values of the spin-hypothesis estimators $t_{J=1/2|J=3/2}$ and $t_{J=3/2|J=5/2}$. The red point shows the value measured in the default fit to the data. The colored ellipses give the $67 \%$ and $95 \%$ confidence intervals in the probability density for spin hypotheses with $J=1/2$, $3/2$, and $5/2$ as indicated in the legend. The rejection significance of every spin-$J$ hypothesis are shown in the legend for the default fit. The values with systematic studies included are summarised in the Table ??? of the main text.

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Animated gif made out of all figures.

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Tables and captions

Results on the $\Omega ^-_ b $ mass, relative branching fraction of the $\Xi ^+_ c K ^- \pi ^- $ decay mode, measured mass differences ($\Delta M$), masses ($m$), natural widths ($\Gamma$) and production fraction ($\cal{P}$) of $\Omega_ c ^{**0}$ baryons where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The third asymmetric uncertainty on the $\Omega ^-_ b $ and $\Omega_ c ^{**0}$ masses is due to the uncertainty in the $\Xi ^+_ c $ mass. Upper limits are given for the width of the $\Omega_{ c }(3050)^{0}$ state and the production rate of the $\Omega_{ c }(3120)^{0}$ baryon, which are measured to be consistent with zero. The results of the spin analysis are also listed ($J$ rejection).

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Systematic uncertainties in the $\Omega ^-_ b $ mass, relative branching fraction $\mathcal{R}$ , and relative production rate $\mathcal{P}_{}$ of the $\Omega_ c ^{**0}$ states.

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Systematic uncertainties in the resonance parameters of the $\Omega_ c ^{**0}$ states. For the width of the $\Omega_{ c }(3050)^{0}$ baryon, the systematic uncertainties are embedded in the upper limit.

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Created on 26 April 2024.