Observation of a resonance in B+→K+μ +μ- decays at low recoil

Abstract

A broad peaking structure is observed in the dimuon spectrum of B +→K+μ+μ- decays in the kinematic region where the kaon has a low recoil against the dimuon system. The structure is consistent with interference between the B+→K +μ+μ- decay and a resonance and has a statistical significance exceeding six standard deviations. The mean and width of the resonance are measured to be 4191-8+9 MeV/c2 and 65-16+22 MeV/c2, respectively, where the uncertainties include statistical and systematic contributions. These measurements are compatible with the properties of the ψ(4160) meson. First observations of both the decay B+→ψ (4160)K+ and the subsequent decay ψ(4160)→μ +μ- are reported. The resonant decay and the interference contribution make up 20% of the yield for dimuon masses above 3770 MeV/c2. This contribution is larger than theoretical estimates. © 2013 CERN, for the LHCb Collaboration Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.