Measurement of charmed-particle lifetimes and decay branching ratios

1987

The lifetimes of charmed hadrons photoproduced in nuclear emulsion have been computed from a practically background-free sample of 44 neutral particle decays and 42 charged-particle decays including 27D±, 11Λc+, 1Ds+ and 3 ambiguous decays. The values obtained are τ(D0, bar D0) = (3.6-0.8+1.2 ± 0.7) 10-13 s, τ(D±) = (5.0-1.0+1.5 ± 1.9) 10-13 s, τ(Λc+) = = (2.3-0.6+0.9 ± 0.4) 10-13 s. Branching ratios of various decay topologies were also obtained.