ARGUS results on lepton-baryon charge correlation in B decays and search for b → s transitions

Abstract

In 1987 the ARGUS collaboration discovered unexpectably large B ⁰ _d B ⁰ _d mixing [1] which is now confirmed by the CLEO collaboration [2]. Since that time different approaches have been analyzed to obtain new information on the mixing phenomenon. One of them is a study of lepton-baryon charge correlation in B meson decays. It is usually expected that in B decays stable baryons are either the decay products of the charmed baryon, or arise from hadronization processes involving the spectator quark to conserve baryon number. The sign of charmed baryon, as well as the sign of the primary lepton in semileptonic B decays, identifies whether the decaying meson was B or B. A charmed baryon and a high momentum primary lepton observed in the same ?(4S) → B B event must originate from the decay of different B mesons, because of energy conservation. Therefore there exists a strong charge correlation between the primary lepton and the baryon resulting from the charmed baryon decay.