Search for $B_{(s)}^{0}\to\mu^+\mu^-$ in $B_c^+\to\pi^+\mu^+\mu^-$ decays

• Main Authors: Albrecht, J, Amey, J. L, Anderlini, L, Ao, D, Da Silva, R. Ataíde, Bachmann, S, Barlow, R. J, Basels, J. M, Behling, N. A, Belyaev, I, Blake, T, Bolzonella, R, Bovill, M, Buonaura, A, Burr, C, Butter, J. S, Caillet, A. C, Ramirez, S. Calderon, Caravaca-Mora, R, Caspary, R, Chahrour, I, Chobanova, V, Chulikov, V, Collins, P, Contu, A, Daniel, J, De Lucia, E, de Vries, J. A, Dobishuk, V, Durham, J. M, Ene, A, Esen, S, Fleuret, F, Gandelman, M, Giasemis, F. I, Golobardes, E, Golubkov, D, Gong, G, Graziani, G, Grillo, L, Gromov, S, Hadavizadeh, T, Hamilton, P. M, Mendizabal, G. Hijano, Hu, J, Hu, X, Hutchcroft, D, Jage, H, Jans, E, Juszczak, I, Karacson, M, Karpenkov, D, Ketel, T, Koppenburg, P, Kubat, J, Lacarrere, D, Langenbruch, C, Legotin, S, Lesiak, T, Loi, A, Luppi, E, Maccolini, S, Mack, B, Malczewski, J. J, Marconi, U, Matteuzzi, C, Morris, A. B, Oldeman, R, Oliva, F, Pappenheimer, C, Passalacqua, B, Perro, A, Ponce, S, Qin, N, García, M. Ramírez, Pernas, M. Ramos, Ratnikov, F, Romanovskiy, V, Romolini, G, Santacesaria, R, Sarpis, G, Satriano, C, Scarabotto, A, Scherl, S, Schune, M. H, Shang, Y, Sharma, R. S, Shears, T, Sheng, S, Smallwood, J. C, Sriskaran, V, Stanislaus, S, Terentev, A, Tobin, M, Valenti, G, Figueras, E. Vilella, Vincent, P, Williams, Z, Wormser, G, Wyllie, K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 25-09-2024
• Subjects: Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2409.17209

A search for the very rare $B^{*0}\to\mu^+\mu^-$ and
$B_{s}^{*0}\to\mu^+\mu^-$ decays is conducted by analysing the $B_c^+\to
\pi^+\mu^+\mu^-$ process. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data
collected with the LHCb detector between 2011 and 2018, corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of 9$\text{\,fb}^{-1}$. The signal signatures correspond
to simultaneous peaks in the $\mu^+\mu^-$ and $\pi^+\mu^+\mu^-$ invariant
masses. No evidence for an excess of events over background is observed for
either signal decay mode. Upper limits at the $90\%$ confidence level are set
on the branching fractions relative to that for $B_c^+\to J\mskip -3mu/\mskip
-2mu\psi\pi^+$ decays, \begin{align*}
{\cal R}_{B^{*0}(\mu^+\mu^-)\pi^+/J\mskip -3mu/\mskip -2mu\psi\pi^+} &<
3.8\times 10^{-5}\ \text{ and }
{\cal R}_{B_{s}^{*0}(\mu^+\mu^-)\pi^+/J\mskip -3mu/\mskip -2mu\psi\pi^+} &<
5.0\times 10^{-5}\,. \end{align*}