Observation of ${B}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}p\overline{p}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}$, ${B}^{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}p\overline{p}{K}^{0}$, and ${B}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}p\overline{p}{K}^{*+}$

Observation of $B^{+} \to p \bar{p} π^{+}$ , $B^{0} \to p \bar{p} K^{0}$ , and $B^{+} \to p \bar{p} K^{* +}$

M.-Z. Wang et al. (Belle Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 131801 – Published 1 April 2004

Abstract

We report the first observation of a $b \to u$ type charmless baryonic $B$ decay, $B^{+} \to p \bar{p} π^{+}$ , as well as $b \to s$ type $B^{0} \to p \bar{p} K^{0}$ and $B^{+} \to p \bar{p} K^{* +}$ decays. The analysis is based on a $78 {fb}^{- 1}$ data sample recorded on the $Υ (4 S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. We find $B (B^{+} \to p \bar{p} π^{+}) = ({3.06}_{- 0.62}^{+ 0.73} \pm 0.37) \times 10^{- 6}$ , $B (B^{0} \to p \bar{p} K^{0}) = ({1.88}_{- 0.60}^{+ 0.77} \pm 0.23) \times 10^{- 6}$ , and $B (B^{+} \to p \bar{p} K^{* +}) = ({10.3}_{- 2.8 - 1.7}^{+ 3.6 + 1.3}) \times 10^{- 6}$ . We also update $B (B^{+} \to p \bar{p} K^{+}) = ({5.66}_{- 0.57}^{+ 0.67} \pm 0.62) \times 10^{- 6}$ and present an upper limit on $B (B^{0} \to p \bar{p} K^{* 0})$ at the 90% confidence level. A common feature of the observed decay modes is threshold peaking in baryon pair invariant mass.