A Study of Excited Charm-Strange Baryons with Evidence for new Baryons \Xi_c(3055)^+ and \Xi_c(3123)^+

Abstract

We present a study of excited charm-strange baryon states produced in $e^+e^-$ annihilations at or near a center-of-mass energy of $10.58\mathrm{Ge\kern -0.1em V}$, in a data sample with an integrated luminosity of $384 fb^{-1}$ recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II $e^+e^-$ storage rings at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. We study strong decays of charm-strange baryons to $\Lambda_c^+K^0_{\scriptscriptstyle S}$, $\Lambda_c^+K^-$, $\Lambda_c^+K^-\pi^+$, $\Lambda_c^+K^0_{\scriptscriptstyle S}\pi^-$, $\Lambda_c^+K^0_{\scriptscriptstyle S}\pi^-\pi^+$, and $\Lambda_c^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$. This study confirms the existence of the states $\Xi_c(2980)^+$, $\Xi_c(3077)^+$, and $\Xi_c(3077)^0$, with a more accurate determination of the $\Xi_c(2980)^+$ mass and width. We also present evidence for two new states, $\Xi_c(3055)^+$ and $\Xi_c(3123)^+$, decaying through the intermediate resonant modes $\Sigma_c(2455)^{++}K^-$ and $\Sigma_c(2520)^{++}K^-$, respectively. For each of these baryons, we measure the yield in each final state, determine the statistical significance, and calculate the product of the production cross-section and branching fractions. We also measure the masses and widths of these excited charm-strange baryons.