Measurement of the ${\Omega }_{c}^{0}$ Baryon Lifetime

31 August 2018

Abstract: We report a measurement of the lifetime of the ${\Omega }_{c}^{0}$ baryon using proton-proton collision data at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3.0\text{}\text{}{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. The sample consists of about $1000\text{}\text{}{\Omega }_{b}^{-}\to {\Omega }_{c}^{0}{\mu }^{-}{\overline{\nu }}_{\mu }X$ signal decays, where the ${\Omega }_{c}^{0}$ baryon is detected in the $p{K}^{-}{K}^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ final state and $X$ represents possible additional undetected particles in the decay. The ${\Omega }_{c}^{0}$ lifetime is measured to be ${\tau }_{{\Omega }_{c}^{0}}=268±24±10±2\text{}\text{}\mathrm{fs}$, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and from the uncertainty in the ${D}^{+}$ lifetime, respectively. This value is nearly four times larger than, and inconsistent with, the current world-average value.

Published in: Physical Review Letters 121 (2018)