Studies of the decays D⁰ → K⁰SK⁻π⁺ and D⁰ → K⁰SK⁺π

• Published in: Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, 2012-05, Vol.85 (9)
• Main Authors: Insler, J., Muramatsu, H., Park, C. S., Pearson, L. J., Thorndike, E. H., Ricciardi, S., Thomas, C., Artuso, M., Blusk, S., Mountain, R., Skwarnicki, T., Stone, S., Wang, J. C., Zhang, L. M., Bonvicini, Giovanni, Cinabro, David A., Smith, M. J., Zhou, Peng, Gershon, T., Naik, P., Rademacker, J., Edwards, K. W., Randrianarivony, K., Briere, R. A., Vogel, H., Onyisi, P. U., Rosner, J. L., Alexander, J. P., Cassel, D. G., Das, S., Ehrlich, R., Gibbons, L., Gray, S. W., Hartill, D. L., Kreinick, D. L., Kuznetsov, V. E., Patterson, J. R., Peterson, D., Riley, D., Ryd, A., Sadoff, A. J., Shi, X., Sun, W. M., Yelton, John, Rubin, P., Lowrey, N., Mehrabyan, S., Selen, M., Wiss, J., Libby, J., Kornicer, M., Mitchell, R. E., Besson, Dave, Pedlar, Todd K., Cronin-Hennessy, D., Hietala, J., Dobbs, Sean, Metreveli, Zaza, Seth, Kamal, Tomaradze, Amiran, Xiao, Ting, Johnson, D., Malde, S., Martin, L., Powell, A., Wilkinson, G., Asner, David M., Tatishvili, Gocha, Ge, J. Y., Miller, D. H., Shipsey, I. P., Xin, B., Adams, G. S., Napolitano, J., Ecklund, K. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: B meson decay
• ISSN: 1550-7998; 1550-2368
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.85.092016

The first measurements of the coherence factor RK⁰SKπ and the average strong–phase difference δK⁰SKπD in D⁰ → K⁰S K∓π± decays are reported. These parameters can be used to improve the determination of the unitary triangle angle in B⁻ → D¯K⁻ decays, where D¯ is either a D⁰ or a D¯⁰ meson decaying to the same final state, and also in studies of charm mixing. The measurements of the coherence factor and strong-phase difference are made using quantum-correlated, fully reconstructed D⁰D¯⁰ pairs produced in e⁺e⁻ collisions at the ψ(3770) resonance. The measured values are RK⁰SKπ = 0.73 ± 0.08 and δK⁰SKπD = (8.3 ± 15.2)° for an unrestricted kinematic region and RK*K = 1.00 ± 0.16 and δK*KD = (26.5 ± 15.8)° for a region where the combined K⁰Sπ± invariant mass is within 100 MeV/c² of the K*(892)± mass. These results indicate a significant level of coherence in the decay. In addition, isobar models are presented for the two decays, which show the dominance of the K*(892)± resonance. The branching ratio B(D⁰ → K⁰S K⁺π⁻)/B(D⁰ → K⁰S K⁻π⁺) is determined to be 0.592 ± 0.044(stat.) ± 0.018(syst.), which is more precise than previous measurements.