Search for the h_c meson in B^+- ->h_c K^+-

We report a search for the $h_c$ meson via the decay chain $B^{\pm}\to h_c K^{\pm}$, \etac \gamma with $\eta_c \to K_S^0 K^{\pm} \pi^{\mp}$ and $p\bar{p}$. No significant signals are observed. We obtain upper limits on the branching fractions for $B^{\pm} \to \eta_c\gamma K^{\pm}$ in bins of the $\eta_c\gamma$ invariant mass. The results are based on an analysis of 253 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Search for B^0-> p p-bar, Lambda Lambda-bar and B^+ -> p Lambda-bar at Belle

We report on a new search for two-body baryonic decays of the B meson. Improved sensitivity compared to previous Belle results is obtained from 414 fb^-1 of data that corresponds to 449 million B B-bar pairs, which were taken on the Upsilon(4S) resonance and collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e^+e^- collider. No significant signals are observed and we set the 90% confidence level upper limits: Br(B^0-> p pbar) Lambda Lambda-bar) p Lambda-bar) < 3.2X10^-7.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR

Search for B+ -> D*+ pi0 decay

We report on a search for the doubly Cabibbo suppressed decay B+ -> D*+ pi0, based on a data sample of 657 million BBbar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy e+ e- collider. We find no significant signal and set an upper limit of Br(B+ -> D*+ pi0) < 3.6 x 10^-6 at the 90% confidence level. This limit can be used to constrain the ratio between suppressed and favored B -> D* pi decay amplitudes, r < 0.051, at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 5pages, 2figures, submitted to PRL (v1); PRL published version (v2: minor corrections in the text

Time-Dependent CP Asymmetries in B0 -> Ks pi0 gamma transitions

We report measurements of CP violation parameters in B0->Ks pi0 gamma transitions based on a data sample of 535x10^6 BB pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+ e- collider. One neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in the B0->Ks pi0 gamma mode. The flavor of the accompanying B meson is identified from its decay products. For a Ks pi0 invariant mass up to 1.8 GeV/c^2, we obtain S = -0.10 +- 0.31 +- 0.07 and A = -0.20 +- 0.20 +- 0.06. For a Ks pi0 invariant mass near the K*0(892) resonance, we obtain S = -0.32 +0.36-0.33 +-0.05 and A=-0.20 +-0.24 +-0.05.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted by PR

Improved search for D^0 mixing using semileptonic decays at Belle

A search for mixing in the neutral D meson system has been performed using semileptonic D0 -> K(*)- e+ \nu and D0 -> K(*)- \mu+ \nu decays. Neutral D mesons from D*+ -> D0 \pi_s^+ decays are used and the flavor at production is tagged by the charge of the slow pion. The measurement is performed using 492 fb^-1 of data recorded by the Belle detector. From the yield of right-sign and wrong-sign decays arising from non-mixed and mixed events, respectively, we measure the ratio of the time-integrated mixing rate to the unmixed rate to be R_M = (1.3 +- 2.2 +- 2.0) x 10^-4. This corresponds to an upper limit of R_M < 6.1 x 10^-4 at the 90% C.L.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 8 tables; accepted by PRD; changes from previous version: minor rewording

Observation of B0 to p pbar K*0 with a large K*0 polarization

We observe the decay B0 to p pbar K*0 with a branching fraction of (1.18^{+0.29}_{-0.25} (stat.) \pm 0.11 (syst.)) \times 10^{-6}. The statistical significance is 7.2 sigma for the signal in the low ppbar mass region. We study the decay dynamics of B0 to p pbar K*0 and compare it with B+ to p pbar K*+. The K*0 meson is found to be almost 100% polarized (with a fraction of (101 \pm 13 \pm 3)% in the helicity zero state), while the K*+ meson has a (32 \pm 17 \pm 9)% fraction in the helicity zero state. The direct CP asymmetries for B0 to p pbar K*0 and B+ to p pbar K*+ are measured to be -0.08\pm 0.20\pm 0.02 and -0.01\pm 0.19\pm 0.02, respectively. We also study the characteristics of the low mass ppbar enhancements near threshold and the associated angular distributions. In addition, we report improved measurements of the branching fractions BF(B+ to p pbar K*+) = (3.38^{+0.73}_{-0.60} \pm 0.39) \times 10^{-6} and BF(B0 to p pbar K0) = (2.51^{+0.35}_{-0.29} \pm 0.21) \times 10^{-6}, which supersede our previous measurements. These results are obtained from a 492 fb^{-1} data sample collected near the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+ e^- collider.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures (8 figure files), submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Observation of a near-threshold omega-J/psi mass enhancement in exclusive B-->K omega J/psi decays

We report the observation of a near-threshold enhancement in the omega-J/psi invariant mass distribution for exclusive B-->K omega J/psi decays. The results are obtained from a 253 fb-1 data sample that contains 275 million BB-bar meson pairs that were collected near the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy e+e- collider. The statistical significance of the omega-J/psi mass enhancement is estimated to be greater than 8 sigma.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Search for B+ -> J/psi eta' K+ and B0 -> J/psi eta' Ks0 Decays

We report the results of searches for B+ -> J/psi eta' K+ and B0 -> J/psi eta' Ks0 decays, using a sample of 388 x 10^6 BBbar pairs collected with the Belle detector at the Upsilon(4S) resonance. No statistically significant signal is found for either of the two decay modes and upper limits for the branching fractions are determined to be B(B+ -> J/psi eta' K+) < 8.8 x 10^-5 and B(B0 -> J/psi eta' Ks0) < 2.5 x 10^-5 at 90% confidence level.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD Brief Repor

Improved Measurements of Partial Rate Asymmetry in B -> h h Decays

We report improved measurements of the partial rate asymmetry (Acp) in B -> h h decays with 140fb^-1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider. Here h stands for a charged or neutral pion or kaon and in total five decay modes are included: K-+ pi+-, K0s pi-+, K-+ pi0, pi-+ pi0 and K0s pi0. The flavor of the last decay mode is determined from the accompanying B meson. Using a data sample 4.7 times larger than that of our previous measurement, we find Acp(K-+ pi+-) -0.088+-0.035+-0.013, 2.4 sigma from zero. Results for other decay modes are also presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Moments of the Hadronic Invariant Mass Spectrum in B --> X_c l nu Decays at Belle

We present a measurement of the hadronic invariant mass squared (M^2_X) spectrum in charmed semileptonic B meson decays B --> X_c l nu based on 140 fb^-1 of Belle data collected near the Y(4S) resonance. We determine the first, the second central and the second non-central moments of this spectrum for lepton energy thresholds ranging between 0.7 and 1.9 GeV. Full correlations between these measurements are evaluated.Comment: published version of the paper (one figure added, minor changes in the text); 16 pages, 3 figures, 10 table