Potential of discovering $\Xi_{cc}^+$ in $\Lambda_b $ decays

Abstract

We propose to search for $\Xi_{cc}^+$ in the decay $\Lambda_b \to \Xi_{cc}^+ D^-$, which serves as a tagged and reconstructible source of $\Xi_{cc}^+$, providing an experimentally clean environment for its discovery. A possible fully charged final state is $[(pK^- K^- \pi^+)_{\Xi^0_c} \pi^ + ]_{\Xi_{cc}^+} \,(K^+ \pi^- \pi^-)_{D^-}$, where the subscripts indicate the parent hadron in the decay chain. We estimate the branching fraction to be ${\cal B}(\Lambda_b \to \Xi_{cc}^+ D^-) = ( 5.1 \pm 3.9) \times 10^{-4}$, while the fully charged final state corresponds to an effective branching fraction of order $10^{-8}$. These results indicate that LHCb has the potential to discover the $\Xi_{cc}^+$. The prospects for observing $\Omega_{cc}^+$ are also briefly discussed.