Observation of $η_{c} \to p\bar{p}η$ via $ψ(3686) \to γp\bar{p}η$

Abstract

The decay $η_c\to p\bar{p}η$ is observed for the first time with a significance of exceeding $10σ$. It is found by analyzing $(2712.4 \pm 14.3)\times10^{6}$ $ψ(3686)$ events accumulated at the BESIII detector. The measured branching fraction of $η_c\to p\bar{p}η$ via $ψ(3686) \to γp \bar{p} η$ is significantly influenced by the interference between the resonant $η_c$ decay and the non-resonant process $ψ(3686) \to γp \bar{p} η$ and is measured in both constructive- and destructive-interference scenarios. The joint branching fraction of $ψ(3686)\to γη_c$, $η_c\to p\bar{p}η$ 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 $η_c\to p\bar{p}η$ is determined to be $\mathcal{B}(η_c\to p\bar{p}η)=(0.90 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.21 \pm 0.13)\times10^{-3}$ 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 $ψ(3686)\to γη_c$.