| This thesis presents evidence for the decay mode B +/- → f K+/- in pp¯ collisions at s = 1.96 TeV using (120 +/- 7)pb-1 of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermlab (CDF). This signal is then used to measure the branching ratio relative to the decay mode B +/- → J/ y K+/-.; The measurement starts from reconstructing the two decay modes: B+/-→fK+/-, wheref→K+ K- and B+/-→J/yK+/-, whereJ/y→ m+m-.; The measurement yielded 23 +/- 7 B+/- → f K+/- events, and 406 +/- 26 B+/- → J/ y K+/- events. The fraction of B+/- → J/ y K+/- events where the J/ y subsequently decayed to two unions (as opposed to two electrons) was found to be fmm = 0.839 +/- 0.066. The relative branching ratio of the two decays is then calculated based on the equation: BRB+/-→f K+/-BR B+/-→J/yK+/- =NfKNy K˙fmmBR J/y→m+m- BRf→K+K- emm KeKKKRe iso The measurement finds BRB+/-→f K+/-BR B+/-→J/yK+/- =0.0068+/-0.0021 stat.+/-0.0007 syst. The B+/- → f K+/- branching ratio is then found to be BRB+/-→fK+/- =6.9+/-2.1 stat.+/-0.8syst. x10-6 This value is consistent with similar measurements reported by the e+e- collider experiments BaBar[l], Belle[2], and CLEO[3]. |
