Search for a Narrow Baryonic Resonance Decaying to $K^0_s p$ or $K^0_s \bar{p}$ in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Abstract

A search for a narrow baryonic resonance decaying to $K^0_s p$ or $K^0_s \bar p$ is carried out in deep inelastic ep scattering with the H1 detector at HERA. Such a resonance could be a strange pentaquark \thplns, evidence for which has been reported by several experiments. The $K^0_s p$ and $K^0_s \bar p$ invariant mass distributions presented here do not show any significant peak in the mass range from threshold up to 1.7 GeV. Mass dependent upper limits on $σ(ep \to e \thplf X)\times BR(\thplf \to K^0 p)$ are obtained at the 95% confidence level.