Observation of the rare decay B^(+) → K^(+)π^(0)π^(0) and measurement of the quasi-two-body contributions B^(+) → K*(892)^(+)π^(0), B^(+) → f_(0)(980)K^(+), and B^(+) → χ_(c0)K^(+)

Abstract

We report an analysis of charmless hadronic decays of charged B mesons to the final state K^(+)π^(0)π^(0), using a data sample of (470.9±2.8)×10^(6) BB(overbar) events collected with the BABAR detector at the Υ(4S) resonance. We observe an excess of signal events, with a significance above 10 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties, and measure the branching fraction and CP asymmetry to be B(B^(+) → K^(+)π^(0)π^(0)=(16.2±1.2±1.5)×10^(-6) and ACP(B^(+) → K^(+)π^(0)π^(0))=-0.06±0.06±0.04, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. Additionally, we study the contributions of the B^(+) → K*(892)^(+)π^(0), B^(+) → f_(0)(980)K^(+), and B^(+) → χ_(c0)K^(+) quasi-two-body decays. We report the world's best measurements of the branching fraction and CP asymmetry of the B^(+) → K^(+)π^(0)π^(0) and B^(+) → K*(892)^(+)π^(0) channels.

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