Measurement of the branching fraction ratio RK at large dilepton invariant mass

Abstract

A test of lepton universality between muons and electrons is performed using B⁺ → K⁺ℓ⁺ℓ⁻ decays (where ℓ = e, μ), in the dilepton invariant-mass-squared region above 14.3 GeV²/c⁴. The data used for the measurement consists of beauty meson decays produced in proton-proton collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb⁻¹, collected by the LHCb experiment between 2011 and 2018. The ratio of branching fractions for B⁺→ K⁺μ⁺μ⁻ and B⁺→ K⁺e⁺e⁻ decays is measured to be $R_K=1.08_{-0.09}^{+0.11}{\left(\text{stat}\right)}_{-0.04}^{+0.04}\left(\text{syst}\right)$, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of unity. This constitutes the most precise test of lepton flavour universality using B⁺ → K⁺ℓ⁺ℓ⁻ decays with dilepton invariant-mass-squared above the ψ(2S) mass, whilst being the first of its kind at a hadron collider.