Observation of the Decay Ξb- →pK-K-

Abstract

Decays of the Ξb- and Ωb- baryons to the charmless final states ph-h′-, where h(′) denotes a kaon or pion, are searched for with the LHCb detector. The analysis is based on a sample of proton-proton collision data collected at center-of-mass energies s=7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb-1. The decay Ξb-→pK-K- is observed with a significance of 8.7 standard deviations, and evidence at the level of 3.4 standard deviations is found for the Ξb-→pK-π- decay. Results are reported, relative to the B-→K+K-K- normalization channel, for the products of branching fractions and b-hadron production fractions. The branching fractions of Ξb-→pK-π- and Ξb-→pπ-π- relative to Ξb-→pK-K- decays are also measured.