Search for the rare decay B_s⁰ → φμ⁺ μ^- with the D0 detector

Authors

V. M. Abazov, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
Kenneth A. Bloom, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Gregory R. Snow, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
D0 Collaboration

Date of this Version

8-15-2006

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. D 74, 031107(R) (2006). http://prd.aps.org. Copyright © 2006 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

We present a search for the flavor-changing neutral current decay B_s⁰ → φμ⁺μ^- using about 0.45 fb^-1 of data collected in pp̅ collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We find an upper limit on the branching ratio of this decay normalized to B_s⁰ → J/ ψφ of [Ɓ(B_s⁰ → φμ⁺μ^-)] ÷ [Ɓ(B_s⁰ →J/ ψφ )]< 4.4 × 10^-3 at the 95% C.L. Using the central value of the world average branching fraction of B_s⁰ → J/ ψφ, the limit corresponds to Ɓ(B_s⁰ →φμ⁺μ^-) < 4.1 × 10^-6 at the 95% C.L., the most stringent upper bound to date.