Observation of $D^0$ meson decays to $π^+π^-μ^+μ^-$ and $K^+K^-μ^+μ^-$ final states
The first observation of the $D^0 \to π^+π^-μ^+μ^-$ and $D^0 \to K^+K^-μ^+μ^-$ decays is reported using a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by LHCb at a center-of-mass energy of 8$\,$TeV, and corresponding to 2$\,$fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. The corresponding branching fractions are measured using as normalization the decay $D^0 \to K^- π^+[μ^+μ^-]_{ρ^0/ω}$, where the two muons are consistent with coming from the decay of a $ρ^0$ or $ω$ meson. The results are $\mathcal{B}(D^0 \to π^+π^-μ^+μ^-)=(9.64\pm0.48\pm0.51\pm0.97)\times10^{-7}$ and $\mathcal{B}(D^0 \to K^+K^-μ^+μ^-)=( 1.54\pm0.27\pm0.09\pm0.16)\times10^{-7}$, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the limited knowledge of the normalization branching fraction. The dependence of the branching fraction on the dimuon mass is also investigated.