Measurement of the branching fraction of Λ + c → p K 0 S π 0 at Belle

We report a precise measurement of the ratio of branching fractions ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾0 𝑆⁢𝜋0)/ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾−⁢𝜋+) using 980  fb−1 of 𝑒+⁢𝑒− data from the Belle experiment. We obtain a value of ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾0 𝑆⁢𝜋0)/ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾−⁢𝜋+) =0.339 ±0.002 ±0.009, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. This Belle result is consistent with the previous measurement from the CLEO experiment but has a fivefold improvement in precision. By combining our result with the world average ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾−⁢𝜋+), we obtain the absolute branching fraction ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾0 𝑆⁢𝜋0) =(2.12 ± 0.01 ±0.05 ±0.10)%, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and the uncertainty in the absolute branching fraction scale ℬ⁡(Λ+ 𝑐 →𝑝⁢𝐾−⁢𝜋+), respectively. This measurement can shed light on hadronic decay mechanisms in charmed baryon decays.