Study of B-->D(*)anti-D(*) decays with the BABAR detector

Abstract

Decays of the type B-->D(*)anti-D(*) can be used to provide a measurement of the parameter sin2beta of the Unitarity Triangle that is complementary to that derived from the mode \bpsiks. Here we report a measurement of the branching fraction and a study of the CP parity content for the decay B^0 --> D^{*+}D^{*-} with the BABAR detector. With data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.7 fb^{-1} collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance during 1999-2000, we determine the branching fraction to be BF(B^0-->D^{*+}D^{*-})=(8.0 +/- 1.6 (stat) +/- 1.2 (syst)) x 10^{-4}. The measured fraction of the component with odd CP parity is 0.22 +/- 0.18(stat) +/- 0.03(syst). Observation of a significant number of candidates in the decay modes B^0-->D^{*+}D^- and B^+ --> D^{*+}D^{*0} is reported. All results presented in this note are preliminary.