arXiv · 2607.11416
Observation of $\eta_{c} \to p\bar{p}\eta$ via $\psi(3686) \to \gamma p\bar{p}\eta$
Abstract
The decay $\eta_c\to p\bar{p}\eta$ is observed for the first time with a significance of exceeding $10\sigma$. It is found by analyzing $(2712.4 \pm 14.3)\times10^{6}$ $\psi(3686)$ events accumulated at the BESIII detector. The measured branching fraction of $\eta_c\to p\bar{p}\eta$ via $\psi(3686) \to \gamma p \bar{p} \eta$ is significantly influenced by the interference between the resonant $\eta_c$ decay and the non-resonant process $\psi(3686) \to \gamma p \bar{p} \eta$ and is measured in both constructive- and destructive-interference scenarios. The joint branching fraction of $\psi(3686)\to \gamma\eta_c$, $\eta_c\to p\bar{p}\eta$ is measured to be $(3.2 \pm 0.1 \pm 0.9)\times10^{-6}$ or $(8.7 \pm 0.3 \pm 2.1)\times10^{-6}$ for constructive- or destructive-interference solutions, respectively, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The branching fraction of $\eta_c\to p\bar{p}\eta$ is determined to be $\mathcal{B}(\eta_c\to p\bar{p}\eta)=(0.90 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.21 \pm 0.13)\times10^{-3}$ or $(2.42 \pm 0.07 \pm 0.48 \pm 0.34)\times10^{-3}$ for the two solutions, respectively, where the third uncertainties are due to the uncertainty in the branching fraction of $\psi(3686)\to \gamma \eta_c$.
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BESIII Collaboration, M. Ablikim, M. N. Achasov, P. Adlarson, X. C. Ai, C. S. Akondi, R. Aliberti, A. Amoroso, Q. An, Y. H. An, M. S. Anderson, Y. Bai, O. Bakina, H. R. Bao, X. L. Bao, M. Barbagiovanni, V. Batozskaya, K. Begzsuren, N. Berger, M. Berlowski, M. B. Bertani, D. Bettoni, F. Bianchi, E. Bianco, A. Bortone, I. Boyko, R. A. Briere, A. Brueggemann, D. Cabiati, H. Cai, M. H. Cai, X. Cai, A. Calcaterra, G. F. Cao, N. Cao, S. A. Cetin, X. Y. Chai, J. F. Chang, T. T. Chang, G. R. Che, Y. Z. Che, C. H. Chen, Chao Chen, G. Chen, H. S. Chen, H. Y. Chen, M. L. Chen, S. J. Chen, S. M. Chen, T. Chen, W. Chen, X. R. Chen, X. T. Chen, X. Y. Chen, Y. B. Chen, Y. Q. Chen, Z. K. Chen, J. Cheng, L. N. Cheng, S. K. Choi, X. Chu, G. Cibinetto, F. Cossio, J. Cottee-Meldrum, H. L. Dai, J. P. Dai, X. C. Dai, A. Dbeyssi, R. E. de Boer, D. Dedovich, C. Q. Deng, Z. Y. Deng, A. Denig, I. Denisenko, M. Destefanis, F. De Mori, E. Di Fiore, X. X. Ding, Y. Ding, Y. X. Ding, J. Dong, L. Y. Dong, M. Y. Dong, X. Dong, Z. J. Dong, M. C. Du, S. X. Du, Shaoxu Du, X. L. Du, Y. Q. Du, Y. Y. Duan, Z. H. Duan, P. Egorov, G. F. Fan, J. J. Fan, Y. H. Fan, J. Fang, Jin Fang, S. S. Fang, W. X. Fang. 2026-07-13. Observation of $\eta_{c} \to p\bar{p}\eta$ via $\psi(3686) \to \gamma p\bar{p}\eta$. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.11416
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