Measuring $D^0-\bar D^0$ mixing in $D^0(\bar D^0)\to f_0(980) K^{*}$ and more

Abstract

We investigate the $D^0-\bar D^0$ mixing through the doubly Cabibbo suppressed (DCS) channel $D^0\to f_0(980)K^{*0}$ and its charge conjugate channel, in which the $K^{*0}$ meson is reconstructed in both $K^+\pi^-$ and $K_S\pi^0$ final state. Although the decay $D^0\to f_0(980)K^{*}$ has a small branching ratio, the final state mesons are relatively easy to identify. The $f_0(980)$ meson can be replaced by $\pi^+\pi^-$ in which $\pi^+\pi^-$ form an $S$-wave state, or a longitudinally polarized vector meson $\rho^0,\omega$. All mixing parameters, including the mass difference and decay width difference, can be extracted by studying the time-dependent decay width of these channels. We show that the method is valid in all regions for mixing parameters and it does not depend on the strong phase difference.