Observation of Radiative Decay $D^0 \to \phi \gamma$

Abstract

We report the observation of the decay $D^{0} \to \phi \gamma$ with a statistical significance of $5.4\sigma$ in $78.1 \ifb$ of data collected by the Belle experiment at the KEKB $e^+ e^-$ collider. This is the first observation of a flavor-changing radiative decay of a charmed meson. The Cabibbo- and color-suppressed decays $D^0 \to \phi \pi^0$, $\phi \eta$ are also observed for the first time. We measure branching fractions $\br(D^{0} \to \phi \gamma) = [ 2.60^{+0.70}_{-0.61} \stat {}^{+0.15}_{-0.17} \syst ] \times 10^{-5}$, $\br(D^{0} \to \phi \pi^{0}) = [ 8.01 \pm 0.26 \stat \pm 0.47 \syst ] \times 10^{-4}$, and $\br(D^{0} \to \phi \eta) = [ 1.48 \pm 0.47 \stat \pm 0.09 \syst ] \times 10^{-4}$.